Forum: F-16 Procedures

Do you actually close the canopy all the way and lock the spider when you run?

This is a shaky jet to get out of in an emergency!!

Unless I'm doing burner, Canopy is closed all the way and spider is left unlatched, but damn, even if you shut her down in an emergency, going over the side if the motor is still spooled up high enough may be rough because of the intake? Going over the nose is weird as well because there are some probes to violate you?

Thoughts?

I love this Jet!!! I really do

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I always close and lock the canopy. Idle to AB runs makes no difference to me. Emergencies that require bailing over the side are rare and are far overshadowed by the quiet that comes from a canopy that is closed and locked (the lock handle closes the valve that will inflate the canopy seal).

I'm not run qualified anymore but I was at one time and I was also a run Instructor, I think even if you had the canopy coming up at the same time you chopped the throttle to off, the smell from crapping your pants would make you jump far enough away from the jet that you would be safe from going down the tube.
I agree with mark, that kind of emergency is far and few between, I'd like to hear the story from anyone who has actually had to do it, I'll bet there aren't many out there.

As long as you perform your EP's on time, by the time you get the canopy open the core would have lost the majority of suction power it would take to suck you in. If the turbine was to shell out, I would be more worried about stuff blowing through the airframe (if it happens to miss the fuel cell) through me. That's just my opinion. But the latch up while in burner?!? Impossible, you can't travel the throttle full ran without interuption with the latch up. Somebody is lying. Laughing

Very true Mushmouth, ya can't shove the throttle forward for burner with the spider not locked and yeah, the engine would be spooled down enough at that point, that was pretty much the point I was trying to make. I don't think anyone is lying though.

Happy I too was a run instructor and ran jets most of my career. I only had one time I needed to use my EP's and it wasn't engine related. We were TDY to Deci and ECS just finished a cabin pressure test. When they finished they left the valve in test position instead of safety wiring back to flight. No sooner then I had the jet started I knew something was wrong but just wasn't sure what, my ears started hurting real bad and the cabin pressure gage was moving which it never does. I went straight to cutoff and threw the spider handle up, as soon as I did the air rushed out so fast I could not see anything due to all the vapor leaving the cockpit. I was okay, the doc checked my ears and the best part was the ECS chick felt so bad about what she did she fed me drinks all night at the German cantina.

Damn Purple that must have been painful. Being the cabin (NORMALLY) won't pressurize below 8 grand your ears must have been AFU. Good to hear it was an ECS chick, that never hurts, just how bad did she feel for you after the free drinks brutha?

I ran jets for 10 years - had several emergencies, but none severe enough to bail over the side. Even with a fire, my ground had the ladder up as the canopy was opening. The engine spools down more than enough to keep someone from being injested.

My EP's never failed me once... I had an auto accel once - from the time I realized the throttle did not respond, hit the fuel master to flame out was so fast I could not remember it happening - and the jet only moved about 3 feet total. My heart was going 250 mph!

Run with the spider open - no way, I never did that. My personal opinion - if it ever got that bad - well, that is why it has a canopy ejector handle and then I'd take my chances with being violated by the probes.

Happy she didn't feel that bad..... Sad

I ran these puppies for twenty years collectively (was also an instructor), only had one problem (two seater, canopy actuator burned up, electrical short) had to use the handle to crank the canopy open....no big deal, a bit Smokey but I had O2 to suck on until I got the canopy open.

I always made sure I had O2 available before a run, follow the established procedures, they always worked for me, even when the aircraft auto excelled....it was handled and I shut off the aircraft fuel, all turned out well.

Canopy was always down and locked (as it should be).....training will pay off most times if and when a possible panic sets in...

Purplehaze wrote:

Happy I too was a run instructor and ran jets most of my career. I only had one time I needed to use my EP's and it wasn't engine related.

Hope no one minds a quick story about another 'quick exit' that I experienced while deployed during the Gulf War. I was running ground while PJ, our engine guy was in the cockpit doing a post phase leak & ops ck run.

"The Call" by Mike Kopack http://www.lucky-devils.net wrote:

“Boom, boom, boom, boom-boom, boom” Deep, heavy concussions roll across the flightline that I can easily hear over the jet’s inlet scream. I look around quickly and back to the aircraft. A second glance shows everyone else looking, and then running for the sandbag bunkers that surround the flightline and that the security police had raised their Mk 19 automatic grenade launcher to the firing position. I wave away the guys that had come out from under the jet and give PJ, who can see little of what is going on, the ‘fingers across the throat’ sign to shut down. Knowing that something was up, PJ camly hunches his shoulders and raises his hand and asks, “What’s up?”

With visions of F-4 Phantoms mortared in their revetments in Vietnam, and feeling very exposed - and by this time – alone, on the flightline, I was at a complete loss for what hand signal might express our current situation…

I made a gun with my fingers, pointed it at the cockpit, and ‘pulled the trigger’ a couple of times. That obviously did the trick because PJ now looked as anxious as I felt, the throttle pulled straight to cutoff and the canopy was coming up. We hadn’t brought an entry ladder with us and PJ wasn’t waiting. He was a pretty big guy and I did my best to at least slow him down as he went over the side.

Later that afternoon we heard that the concussions were sonic booms, probably caused by Canadian Hornets.

Mike

I always ran, down and locked. But some times I started with canopy cracked...Nevada is hot hot hot. I also have been locked in the canopy twice... I see why somone would not lock the canopy!. Now I work C-5's so I just walk out!!)

I always ran down, but never locked. call me paranoid, but if I needed out in a hurry I wanted "OUT IN A HURRY"
Just became habit after a few thousand runs, so I guess I never gave it a second thought. Doh

Tim wrote:

"I always ran down, but never locked. call me paranoid, but if I needed out in a hurry I wanted "OUT IN A HURRY"
Just became habit after a few thousand runs, so I guess I never gave it a second thought"

You must have some seriously skinny fingers and no knuckles or you never ran past mid range. There's like a half inch clearance between the throttle and the canopy handle(spider) when open

Tim wrote:

I always ran down, but never locked. call me paranoid, but if I needed out in a hurry I wanted "OUT IN A HURRY"
Just became habit after a few thousand runs, so I guess I never gave it a second thought. Doh

a few thousand runs? never got to light the candle? hmmm.....seriously, flipping the guard up is not a huge barrier if something goes wrong.

Forum: F-16 Procedures

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