Big John, if the seat is the F18 is the ACES II Style that I used in the
B-1, then it is not a "back pack" style chute, the parachute is packed in
the head rest and ballistically deployed as part of the ejection sequence,
when it goes.. and inflates.. you get man seat separation.

Actually the ACESII seat works in 3 modes depending on where you are in the
ejection envelope.

BT

"Big John" wrote in message
...
Nathon

One news report you listed said that pilot did not separate from seat
and landed in it and ended up with a few scrapes and bruises. Wrong.
Wrong. Wrong. Chute won't open until after you separate from seat as
you are sitting against it in a back pack and you are strapped in the
seat with shoulder and lap belts. Until you separate from seat the
chute won't/can't open.

One picture showed the left rudder and up along the port side of the
fuselage and most of the port wing. There was no obvious damage to the
wing or rudder from a ground impact if bird had rolled as summarized
by reporter????

Again, as Casey said. Lots of Monday morning quarterbacks and report
will never be released so we will never know unless someone in the Sq
talks to his bed mate or a friend )

Big John


On Sun, 28 Mar 2004 21:11:46 GMT, Nathan Gilliatt
wrote:

In article ,
Big John wrote:

They don't normally report the cause of an accident unless it causes
some civilian damage which this one didn't.

No damage, but a close call. The plane ended up about 250 feet from a
passenger terminal, having passed near passenger jets on the ramp along
the way. The newspaper had a diagram that showed the airplane beginning
along runway 23L, the pilot ejecting as he passed taxiway charlie, and
the plane skidding across taxiway alpha and a corner of the terminal A
ramp before ending up past the end of the ramp. Kind of a busy area.
Most GA traffic uses that side of the airport, too.

It's a little higher profile than the typical military mishap. Not too
many airline passengers get to watch unmanned tactical jets
roll/bounce/tumble (whatever it in fact did) by as they wait for
departure. I guess we'll see if that leads the Navy to release any
information from the investigation.

Here are a couple more local media links:

Jet crashes at RDU (Saturday 3/27)
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/sto...-3071734c.html

Cause of crash at RDU unclear (Sunday 3/28)
http://www.newsandobserver.com/front...-3073838c.html

- Nathan