"Jim Macklin" wrote in message
...
Most fighters and bombers also have arming safety pins too.

That is correct. I was an Aviation Ordnance man.. Worked on A4b Skyhalks..
Guess that is showing my age.

You could play little tricks with the pins.. None of us ever wanted to be on
recovery for night ops.. If any ordnance came back, it could not be brought
back to the mags at night. We would have to post a watch on the trailer.

Pull the pin on the bomb rack when arming and gauranteed no bombs coming
back.

Probably the most inportant pin was in the pilots ejection seat. It was an
added safety feature. The landing gear alone should have disabled ejection.
but.... At NAS Jacksonville.. A guy playing around in the cockpit pulled the
ejection curtain with plane in the hangar, without the pin in. He made quite
a splash on a 50 foot high hangar ceiling. So saftey features always don't
work. All aviation rules are written in blood they say.. So if a pin should
be in. put it in.