Another reason for multiple rounds of sliders and autodog, for those
so-afflicted.

--
Mike Kanze

"We all know the modern American campus, or think we do: concentration
camps of the mind where students are tortured by baby-boom professors whose
speech codes, leftist politics and unseemly obsession with race, sex and
gender have distorted the ideal of higher education."

- Philip Terzian


"Thomas Schoene" wrote in message
k.net...
Ed Rasimus wrote:
On Sun, 30 Jan 2005 22:19:03 GMT, "Aardvark J. Bandersnatch, MP, LP,
BLT, ETC." wrote:


"José Herculano" wrote in message
...
I remember reading that one of VF-17s Corsair pilots was so small
he had to "get creative" to be able to use enough rudder on take
off. Sometimes you see a picture in which it looks like there is a
contortionist gorilla in the cockpit.

I know there are some size guideliness, and also know that there are
waivers signed here and there.

My topic proposal is:

Do you have some good stories to tell about guys that were really
too big or too small to be in that particular cockpit?

A long time ago, I knew an AF pilot at Tyndall who regularly flew
with about ten pounds of lead weights in his speed jeans. One day he
forgot to put the weights in, plane caught fire, he was too light to
eject, rode that flaming beast (delta dart) all the way back, landed
it, walked away smoking.


"Too light to eject"??? Never heard of such a thing during 23 years of
tactical aviation riding a whole variety of boom-seats. We had a
maintainer commit suicide at Korat in '73 by prying the banana links
off of the sear on a Martin-Baker in an F-4 while leaning over the
canopy rail. Seat didn't seem to mind that nobody was sitting in it.

There are limits for minimum ejection weight -- one of the things that had
to be done to accomodate female pilots was test seats at lighter weights.
AFAIK, it's not so much that the seat won't go with a lighter passenger,
but that it will accelerate too fast and increase the odds of injury.

This article from the Air Force Safety Center talks about the testing done
to expand the weight range of the ACES II seat. Looks more like a testing
and validation issue than a hardware modification, but I think later seats
may have a weight setting that can be adjusted to maintain a safe ejection
speed.

http://afsafety.af.mil/magazine/htdo...ag98/aces2.htm

Likewise, BUMED lists a minimum weight of 100 pounds for all aircrew
designated for ejection-seat aircraft, and notes that aircrew under 135
(IIRC) are to be cautioned that they are at increased risk of injury
during ejection. See Section 1.2:

http://www.nomi.med.navy.mil/Nami/Wa...pics/exams.htm

--
Tom Schoene Replace "invalid" with "net" to e-mail
"Our country, right or wrong. When right, to be kept right, when
wrong to be put right." - Senator Carl Schurz, 1872