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Scariest Day/Night Flying

Brett327 said:
Seems like something one would want to know, although 45 degree AOB is fairly insignificant. The Prowler seat can fire inverted at ~600 AGL and still be in envelope at normal approach speeds.

Brett
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Agree w/Brett, the Viking was a 0/0 seat too. But someone in the plane was out of the envelope @ 30 deg AOB at 60' coming off the cat. That was why the NATOPS had the envelope charts in it, so the first time you thought about it wasn't as you went off the front end and needed the knowledge!
 
The one thing that always struck me about the envelope charts is that they held all variables constant, though. The Goshawk could do the same on paper (don't have a Prowler NATOPS so I defer to Brett there and pray that that includes my 1.2 second delay:D), but it was my impression that AOB/sink rate/pitch attitude/etc. could pile up fast and leave you up the proverbial creek.
 
nittany03 said:
The one thing that always struck me about the envelope charts is that they held all variables constant, though. The Goshawk could do the same on paper (don't have a Prowler NATOPS so I defer to Brett there and pray that that includes my 1.2 second delay:D), but it was my impression that AOB/sink rate/pitch attitude/etc. could pile up fast and leave you up the proverbial creek.
Click to expand...

Prowler (and I suspect other) charts are for a variety of attitude, airspeed and sink rate scenarios. They include your precious 1.2 seconds ;) as well as a 1.5 second crew reaction time factored in.

Brett
 
NACES can eject inverted at 0 FPM at about 200 feet.

@EvilGN: Time to open your NATOPS and look it up :)
 
Mefesto said:
Hornet NATOPS says I can eject at 120 feet inverted and live, am I gonna try it? Fvck no. "It may be a 0-0 seat, but I have a 1000' ass."
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That's pretty impressive. Does the NACES seat self-right before the rocket motor fires?

Brett
 
Mefesto said:
Hornet NATOPS says I can eject at 120 feet inverted and live, am I gonna try it? Fvck no. "It may be a 0-0 seat, but I have a 1000' ass."
Click to expand...

170 feet for us. Different seats I guess.
 
NACES vs ACES

Is there a particular reason why the airforce tends to use the ACES II seats and the Navy the Martin Baker seats? Are the Martin Baker seats designed specifically for the Naval environment?

Thanks
Obi
 
P3 Fun

As a 2P co-piloting in the left seat with the PPC at the controls. We are at 300ft over the water actively tracking a contact(sub). Its ifr and pitch black (no visable water, no horizon, 100% inst) and we are bouncing in the turbulence. The tacco sets a bouy drop hard left. The ppc wraps into a 60 AOB turn, perfectly normal, except for some reason he decides not to hold back pressure on the yoke. As you P3 guys know once the nose starts to fall in a P3 it starts to go really fast. Flight Engineer calls decending, I pause waiting for the PPC to correct, FE calls 'DECENDING', I wait again, FE calls 'DECENDING!!!'

I feel the nose fall fast and think 'well we might live if we hit the water wings level' I focus on the attitude indicator and level the wings, haven't hit yet so pull back on the yoke and add power, finally have time to look at the radar alt and see it climbing past 100'. The scary part is that I had no idea how close we came to splashing...

The funny part is that the crew was oblivious to what had just happened and the first call on the ics was:
TACCO: Sensor One what do you have?
Sensor One: TACCO, don't know Sensor 2 just puked on the screen.

Then the PPC says 'You have the airplane'. The FE Chief made big deal about it when we got back. I got a pat on the back by the skipper. He still gave me a bad fitrep, but thats a different story.
 
Civilian Fun

Crosswind landing in a 1956 Luscombe (old-timers call it a conventional gear plane, everyone else its calls a tail dragger) Normal touchdown, plane starts to weather vane left into the wind, I add right rudder...nothing happens...the plane is heading off the runway, I look ahead thinking that is ok to stop in the grass, but I see a large ditch (20' wide, 10' deep). Knowing that would be bad news for this tin can I raise the tail to initiate a goaround. The airplane does a hard right and ground loops. It stays up right and it stops in the middle of the runway facing the wrong direction.

I shut down and get out, nerves and the what the F* just happened feeling hits. Call unicom and get some help to move the airplane off the runway. Then I after looking at the marks on the runway and the airplane I piece what had happened together.

On landing the tail wheel had snapped off. I was dragging a stub of metal down the runway that was acting as a sea anchor. Once I lifted the tail, my right rudder inputs took affect and caused the right ground loop. I consider myself lucky to walk away from it.

Fixed the plane an flew it again. the moral of the story is that
1) Anytime something like this happens you will play it over and over again in your mind thousands of time.
2) I could have neutralized the rudder , lifted the tail, moved to centerline, and then put the tail back down...next time that's what I'll do....
 
Not trying to play "catch up" or .... "have you heard the one about" .... but one of my "near-death" experiences involved a takeoff in the A-4.

IMMEDIATELY after becoming airborne ... a smoke/fire in the cockpit situation started ... I was rapidly losing sight of EVERYTHING in the cockpit .... mere seconds .... electrical smoke/fire in the cockpit progresses REALLY FAST ..... I COULD NOT BELIEVE IT WAS HAPPENING TO ME ... I thought about punching .... didn't want to .... I thought about hitting the ground ... didn't want to ... sooooooooooooooooooooooooo:

I locked my right arm into my LPA and didn't move it left of right ... I knew I was headed "up" and "out" (having just rotated) and I thought about blowing the canopy. I thought "why do that if I can find the source (very quickly :)). By now ... I couldn't see ANYTHING out of the cockpit ... almost losing my instruments visually due to smoke .... called once on the radio and said "Cockpit fire on takeoff" .... and I started turning things OFF.

By now I was "blind" and was doing it by feel .... I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS IS HAPPENING TO ME .... turn this off .... still smoke ... eyes starting to water .... that off .... still smoke ... I was running out of time before I knew I would have to get out ... next hunt & peck item: turned the Transponder off .... is the smoke receeding ??? ... is that it ??? .... is the smoke receeding ??? .... YES !!! YES !!! .... it goes away as fast as it comes "in" ....

"Tower ... this XYZ on the straight-out with the cockpit fire ... it seems to be under control now ... DECLARING AN EMERGENCY .... turning downwind for a full stop."

Big smiles in the cockpit.

End of story. :)
 
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