Hawkeyes!

It has six, 4 go up and 2 go down. That's right, two seats actually eject downward. B-52's have two decks with the top deck having 4 seats, the two pilots facing forwards and the EWO and tail-gunner seats facing aft on the upper deck (no more tail gunner, so they leave it empty or for relief crewmen). Right below the upper-deck are the two Navigators, sitting in what is basically a windowless box with their instruments and two ejection seats that go the wrong way, down. I think they need be at 1000AGL for them to survive.

If you pay close enough attention in Dr Strangelove James Earl Jones is one of the Navigators and sticks his head through the hatch in the floor to listen to Slim Pickens give his rousing final speech to his crew.

B-52's were not the only aircraft with downward-firing ejection seats, early models of the F-104 had them too.

The Navigators in that second pic-link don't even look strapped in.....do they just have to throw it all on at the last minute?

E-2D rollout was today at LP-27. I avoided that place like the plauge. (I tend to avoid parties that involve the CNO)

You'll never make rank using common sense like that! :icon_wink Welcome back MB.

How many vapor cycle cooling boxes is that thing gonna grow?

I dunno.. I don't even know what scoop is for what on the C model I fly. It's all NFO black magic shit.

If you really wanna know:
- There's an extra, smaller scoop on top of the V/C scoop - that's the big one on top, for non-window lickers - for the RPCS system (extra radar cooling and pressurizes/dries out the transmit lines...APY-9 puts out a metric shit-ton of power)
- Small one on the nacelle for OBOGS
- The LCS scoop - the one on the side - is about double the size. More o' them majik boxes means more cooling.

I've been elbow-deep in the D NATOPS for about 5 months - it's a neato airplane. N-G is working on getting all the computers to talk to each other and play nicely, but in all, seems to be ticking along.

I hope I can be there for the show the first time a fleet squadron takes one to Fallon. What this thing can do is gonna melt some brains. Literally, if you get too close...as I said, new radar, shitbox of power.

Yeah, and I only have gold-film (that will be scratched and trashed within a year) to protect my nuts.. I was not that great when I took Fields as a EE class, but I know that scratched film make the shielding no workie as well.

(no, I'm not looking forward to going back to the RAG as a squadron)

It can't be worse than your current sentence, I mean squadron...

Oh, like you were planning on having any sons, anyway.

If you were a P-3 bubba you'd know....:icon_tong

I SHOULD probably know.. Just after dealing with the HSL "how many microns is this" "how many teeth are on that gear you can't see" "what pressure does that light come on at, and is it 16-18 psi or 17+/- 1 psi" sort of stuff, I just don't care to know it.

If it ain't asked on the NATOPS check, and won't help me diagnose something, I no longer care. I don't know if the AC bus tie is the k7, k9 or k69 relay. I just know that if it don't work, it affects shit.

I used to laugh at this...as I prep for my impending 2P board, I realize this is not a joke at all.

Aughhhh!!!!!! Epiphany of common sense --> confusion, shock --> simultaneous choking on kool-aid, heart arrhythmia, head explosion... <thud>

I have common sense. Hence why I am JOPA for life, and you are not.

Well, there's two types of system geeks: those who are just really into knowing the bleeps and squeaks, and those who use it as a defense mechanism for being a shitty controller. I've known some of the former, more of the latter, unfortunately.

Not that anyone asked me, but I would love to see your thoughts on the matter as be required reading at every FRS (helo, f/w). That'll never happen but at least it would ruffle the feathers of

The collective harumphing would be entertaining, and

would take it in stride anyway.

We did it when 113 switched over to the HE2000. It sucked. Fleet guys priorities are different than a RAG instructor's. I say this from an NFO perspective, though. The pilots had it a little easier.

I almost got in a fist fight in the back with the guy doing my pre-stan. A buddy of mine DID get in a fight with the same guy on his STANX. Neither of us was system geeks and the instructor was. He was treating us like RAG students and we kept telling him that, "this shit doesn't matter!"

I won't name the instructor here, but everybody was glad to see him leave the RAG. The guy was a prick. He'll end up being an Admiral someday, though. Guys like that always do.

Yeah.. Now they essentially want pilots to be NFOs on top of driving the bus. I've not seen a syllabus (syllabi? Silly-Bus??) yet, but if I essentially have to do NFO advanced, on top of the pilot shit, I'm gonna be a bit pissed. If they treat me like a SNFO.. I may just throw down and see what happens.

What kills me, is due to timing, I will probably never actually fly an E-2D. But I won't be so close to the end that I will be able to avoid the suckfest.

Nobody really knows yet how having a scope up front will work. CRM is the big sticky point in the discussion...sometimes there's just no substitute for leaning over and doing the lookee-pointee at the other guy's scope. "No, idiot, not that guy, that guy! That guy is the lead group!"

There's a conference coming up in Mugu; it's one of the things on the agenda.

If I know the Hummer Pilots Union, though, any attempt to make them become controllers will not end well.

The three NFOs sit side by side for a REASON (vice all three facing forward with individual scopes/panels) or at least I've been told that.

As the "buletproof" Terminal LT/2P of the HPU, I do not like this plan of making me control anything. Being able to see a watered down scope to gain SA I like.