Out of curiosity, was the pilot following some sort of procedures (shutdown, etc.) or is that just how long it typically takes to get the canopy open and out of the aircraft without pulling the yellow handles?
I probably wouldn't be trying to egress with the jet still moving and the fire/AFFF hose blowing right into my face. Brings up a good question for the more experienced Hornet guys in AW.....if you were emergency egressing, would you pull the emerg release handle or just manually unstrap?
One question: why did the AFFF tractor stop where it did and attack the flames from the front of the jet instead of driving around toward the rear to get a better angle?
Manually unstrap.
Go to flight E and strap on a real seat pan when you're in full gear. Now walk around a little. Think you could egress much faster that way?
We (AV-8B guys) had to do some "locate the raft release" drill a few years ago like that. I decided there was no sense in bringing the seat pan out with me. I'm 90% certain it would be slower.
Ran through this in my head a few times. I'm thinking pull the manual handle to cut loose the leg straps, but still undo the lower kochs. It definitely sucks to try to do anything with the seatpan hanging on. Of course my dumb ass would go to stand up and get snatched back into the seat because my O2 is still plugged in.
One question: why did the AFFF tractor stop where it did and attack the flames from the front of the jet instead of driving around toward the rear to get a better angle?
Or maybe because you have Mr Z standing next to you, screaming about which fingers you should be using to open the koch fittings![]()