Jon,

Aircraft with ejection seats have an "ejection envelope" that is
defined by speed, altitude, rate of descent and attitude of the
aircraft. The very first ejection seats had to be fired at something
on the order of 5,000 feet AGL, with no descent rate and a pretty much
level attitude. Some were really odd, such as the initial design of
the F-104, which fired the pilot downward and killed the greatest test
pilot in U.S. history, Ivan Kinchloe (the Society of Experimental Test
Pilots named its top award after him), when he had to eject shortly
after takeoff...he tried to roll inverted before doing so but did not
have the time. The zero/zero seats will allow ejection from an
airplane sitting on the ground (there is a film of an early Martin
Baker seat sitting in an English meadow, a man dressed in top hat and
tails sits down, straps in and pulls the handles...pow...the chute
opens, he lands, rolls, stands up and walks off, minus top hat). The
Russians developed a seat that would turn and go up even if the
aircraft were in an attitude in which the pilot was fired on a
downward trajectory initially, and proved its worth in a stunning
ejection at the Paris Air Show several years back. Even with the best
seat, if the aircraft is low and still descending rapidly, the
ejection may not be a success.

All the best,
Rick

Jon Kraus wrote in message ...
He was really close to the ground when he bailed out. Is there a minimum
altitude to eject? Doesn't look like it. I guess it is better to nurse
some broken bones then die in the wreckage. Thanks.

Jon Kraus
PP-ASEL
Student-IA

Dean Wilkinson wrote:

Thunderbird F-16 cockpit video of ejection at Mountain Home AFB crash.

http://www.razorsedgesoft.com/eject.mpg