What are the items seen in this ejection picture?

kmceject · by **kmceject** » 29 Sep 2006, 15:34

Jerombo wrote:
dont't know if thats all "storm of paper" Kevin

Jerombo,

Not sure what you mean by that.

Thanks for the link to the additional photos. They are great! They clearly show the parachute containers in the air, and one small pic at the bottom of the page links to a photo of one on the ground after the mishap. Crash2.jpg clearly shows the front seater's parachute taking a hit from its dragged air mass forming a circular dimple, while the other chute is taking the hit on one side. I see nothing unusual in any of the photos and certainly hope the crew is in as good shape as I expect they are.

As to the 'afterburner' I'd let engine experts answer that one, but my two cents are that either the pilot had the aircraft in burner to make up for lost engine thrust due to damage (not that I am sure that is possible...) or the damage to the engine was leaking fuel into the burner rings and they were staying lit for some unknown reason.

Kevin
The Ejection Site

Pumpkin · by **Pumpkin** » 29 Sep 2006, 15:57

kmceject wrote:
Jerombo wrote:
dont't know if thats all "storm of paper" Kevin

Jerombo,

Not sure what you mean by that.

kmceject, I believe Jerombo was asking about the "paper" looking stuff (small pieces of fragment) . Refer to this picture.

cheers,

PS: welcome back and congratulation on the new member to the family.

Destro · by **Destro** » 29 Sep 2006, 19:35

Great pics, thanks for posting and congrats on the new family member kmceject!

RoAF · by **RoAF** » 29 Sep 2006, 19:53

Here's a pic from another angle:
http://myaviation.net/?pid=00851942

sulfer732 · by **sulfer732** » 30 Sep 2006, 03:02

the paper looking stuff is probably flight Publications, maps, and Checklists. just a guess.

IDCrewDawg · by **IDCrewDawg** » 30 Sep 2006, 11:17

I believe the things I have lines drawn to are the two things he was refering to in his original post

renatohm · by **renatohm** » 30 Sep 2006, 13:44

Kevin, welcome back! How about being daddy? Still foolish? I acted foolish (more than my normal, I mean) for quite some time after my princess was born. She's 3 years and 4 months today. I remember you corrected me sometime ago.

Impressive pics. I guess the fire on the engine is AB. My :2c:

is that the last liters of fuel were burning irregularly. Whoever got out of gas in the car knows what I'm saying... :doh:

The engine gets repeatedly and alternatingly on and off 'till it keeps off. In a car that would be more a nuisance than a trouble, but in the air... :shock:

kmceject · by **kmceject** » 30 Sep 2006, 22:34

IDCrewDawg Yup, those are the same items, which are the parachute boxes. It might be easier if I added some more visual aids here. The following pictures are from a test of Weber F-15 ACES IIs. This test was to demonstrate to the USAF that Weber could second source the ACES II. The photos are in my collection having been given to me by one of the senior project engineers. Sorry for the quality of the images, I had to photograph them as all three of my scanners are buried at the moment.

(forgot how short the captions have to be...)

The first shot caption was meant to end with by noting that the shape of the parachute container is more visible on the lower occupant's container.

The second photo caption should end- The seat will continue on slowed by drag and gravity until it reaches apogee and begins its descent in a nearly parabolic arc. The second seat is fractions of a second away from separation as well. Both parachute boxes are clearly visible and the uppermost one is already beginning to rotate around the drag axis of the pilot chute as its upwards inertia is being overcome by the pilot chute drag.

These photos should make it pretty clear what the parts in the F-16 ejection are. The yellow-brown smoke from the CKU-5 ROCAT is quite recognizable in the first photo too. Note the lack of the 'paper storm' that is visible in the live shots. Seat tests are typically not done with checklists, maps etc.

I am also adding a photo of my ACES II, which was ejected back in 1990. The hose-like piece at the junction between the seat back and bucket is part of the drogue bridles. The drogues burst out of the seat back on impact, but some of the lines are still stowed so I shoved the drogues into the seat pan to keep them as clean as possible until I decide how much restoration I am going to do on the seat. The gas hose on the seat side was apparently severed to 'safe' the seat by the recovery teams. The one on the other side was severed as well, and the quick disconnect fitting on that side was smashed on ground impact. The headrest is crushed back several degrees, and the base of the bucket is rather deformed as well. Shows well the damage dropping 1600ft will do to a seat... From the front the seat actually looks pretty good, surprisingly.

Kevin
The Ejection Site

Thanks to all for the welcome back, and for asking about my family. All is pretty good here, we have a wonderful, smart, friendly NASCAR obsessed 3.5 yr old little boy. Took him to see a Tony Stewart/Home Depot show car about a week ago and he insisted that Tony told him to drive it in a championship race. So, my son's imaginary friend is Tony Stewart. Weird...

IDCrewDawg · by **IDCrewDawg** » 01 Oct 2006, 22:37

Thanks for the clarification kevin

kmceject · by **kmceject** » 02 Oct 2006, 06:02

NP, Glad to help. Hope it answers any questions... I'll try to get one of my scanners online soon so I can scan better photos. Since I have been off-line I have finally received an inheritance of several thousand pounds of documents, photos, and slides of ejection seat related materials from a good friend's estate. The story of the move, and particularly of the bill for it is epic, and outside the scope of this forum, luckily for you!

In any case, once I get the time to sort that stuff out and organize it I'll be able to answer many more questions... I also have to integrate into it all the materials I already had, and now the collection of my Weber Aircraft friend also. Then I can start converting all the 16mm films and videos to digital formats...

Kevin
The Ejection Site