Chilling tale by Dick Rutan

"W. D. Allen" wrote:

A really compelling story! Could it have been that with fire under the front
cockpit deck when the rear seater ejected the airflow around the aft cockpit
caused the flames to be sucked up through the front cockpit?

WDA

That's what it sounds like to me too.

This is an interesting story but there's something which I don't
follow, perhaps some of you who are more familiar with fighters
could comment.

This following quote doesn't make sense to me:
My God ! " I screamed. " What doesn't he eject ? How can he just sit
there? What in the hell is wrong? Then I figured it out. It became
obvious that we were too far away ( route formation ) and he couldn't
hear me.

So I drove the Hun right up next to the burning cockpit and continue
calling, " Strobe 01 ! Bail out ! BAIL OUT ! " this time with more
desperation in my screams. Harland calls, " Oh my God ! Look at it
burn ! "

In desperation, I drive closer, so close that the air pressure between
the two aircraft causes the fiery ball to roll into a 30 degree bank,
turning toward the right. As I pulled away, he rolled back wings
level, now pointed directly at the beach in a slightly steeper
descent.


While I know very little about fighter a/c I know a lot about
VHF/UHF radios used in aircraft and I cannot imagine how this
could happen...

--

-Gord.
(use gordon in email)

In article ,
Gord Beaman wrote:

"W. D. Allen" wrote:

A really compelling story! Could it have been that with fire under the front
cockpit deck when the rear seater ejected the airflow around the aft cockpit
caused the flames to be sucked up through the front cockpit?

WDA

That's what it sounds like to me too.

This is an interesting story but there's something which I don't
follow, perhaps some of you who are more familiar with fighters
could comment.

This following quote doesn't make sense to me:
My God ! " I screamed. " What doesn't he eject ? How can he just sit
there? What in the hell is wrong? Then I figured it out. It became
obvious that we were too far away ( route formation ) and he couldn't
hear me.

So I drove the Hun right up next to the burning cockpit and continue
calling, " Strobe 01 ! Bail out ! BAIL OUT ! " this time with more
desperation in my screams. Harland calls, " Oh my God ! Look at it
burn ! "

In desperation, I drive closer, so close that the air pressure between
the two aircraft causes the fiery ball to roll into a 30 degree bank,
turning toward the right. As I pulled away, he rolled back wings
level, now pointed directly at the beach in a slightly steeper
descent.


While I know very little about fighter a/c I know a lot about
VHF/UHF radios used in aircraft and I cannot imagine how this
could happen...

If you mean the statement: "were too far away (route formation) and he
couldn't hear me." I understood that as just what he was thinking at
the time under the pressure of the incident.

I was once responding to an aircraft that had spun in and was burning.
The ground controller kept saying to the responding crash unit, "Hurry
Ramp Captain, hurry!" even though all of us were going as fast as we
reasonably could. It was probably very frustrating to watch what you
know is someones death and be powerless to do anything about it.

Dale wrote:

In article ,
Gord Beaman wrote:

"W. D. Allen" wrote:

A really compelling story! Could it have been that with fire under the front
cockpit deck when the rear seater ejected the airflow around the aft cockpit
caused the flames to be sucked up through the front cockpit?

WDA

That's what it sounds like to me too.

This is an interesting story but there's something which I don't
follow, perhaps some of you who are more familiar with fighters
could comment.

This following quote doesn't make sense to me:
My God ! " I screamed. " What doesn't he eject ? How can he just sit
there? What in the hell is wrong? Then I figured it out. It became
obvious that we were too far away ( route formation ) and he couldn't
hear me.

So I drove the Hun right up next to the burning cockpit and continue
calling, " Strobe 01 ! Bail out ! BAIL OUT ! " this time with more
desperation in my screams. Harland calls, " Oh my God ! Look at it
burn ! "

In desperation, I drive closer, so close that the air pressure between
the two aircraft causes the fiery ball to roll into a 30 degree bank,
turning toward the right. As I pulled away, he rolled back wings
level, now pointed directly at the beach in a slightly steeper
descent.


While I know very little about fighter a/c I know a lot about
VHF/UHF radios used in aircraft and I cannot imagine how this
could happen...

If you mean the statement: "were too far away (route formation) and he
couldn't hear me." I understood that as just what he was thinking at
the time under the pressure of the incident.

I was once responding to an aircraft that had spun in and was burning.
The ground controller kept saying to the responding crash unit, "Hurry
Ramp Captain, hurry!" even though all of us were going as fast as we
reasonably could. It was probably very frustrating to watch what you
know is someones death and be powerless to do anything about it.

Yes, I guess stress can do strange things to a person's common
sense.
--

-Gord.
(use gordon in email)

Gord Beaman wrote in
:

"W. D. Allen" wrote:

A really compelling story! Could it have been that with fire under the
front cockpit deck when the rear seater ejected the airflow around the
aft cockpit caused the flames to be sucked up through the front cockpit?

WDA

That's what it sounds like to me too.

This is an interesting story but there's something which I don't
follow, perhaps some of you who are more familiar with fighters
could comment.

This following quote doesn't make sense to me:
My God ! " I screamed. " What doesn't he eject ? How can he just sit
there? What in the hell is wrong? Then I figured it out. It became
obvious that we were too far away ( route formation ) and he couldn't
hear me.

So I drove the Hun right up next to the burning cockpit and continue
calling, " Strobe 01 ! Bail out ! BAIL OUT ! " this time with more
desperation in my screams. Harland calls, " Oh my God ! Look at it
burn ! "

In desperation, I drive closer, so close that the air pressure between
the two aircraft causes the fiery ball to roll into a 30 degree bank,
turning toward the right. As I pulled away, he rolled back wings
level, now pointed directly at the beach in a slightly steeper
descent.


While I know very little about fighter a/c I know a lot about
VHF/UHF radios used in aircraft and I cannot imagine how this
could happen...

Distance means little when there is no radio to receive what is being
transmitted. The UHF radio in the F-4 resided under the back seat,
requiring removal of the seat bucket (and included rocket motor) for
maintenance, making it a huge PITA for the tweets and AMEs. Ejection
essentially kills the radio.

Dave in San Diego
AT1 USN (Ret)
Got to help change a radio one day

Dave in San Diego wrote:
cut

Distance means little when there is no radio to receive what is being
transmitted. The UHF radio in the F-4 resided under the back seat,
requiring removal of the seat bucket (and included rocket motor) for
maintenance, making it a huge PITA for the tweets and AMEs. Ejection
essentially kills the radio.

Dave in San Diego

Of course but that wasn't the point, he seemed to think that he
'was too far away' at, what a couple hundred feet at most? and
that getting closer would help when of course it wouldn't make
the slightest difference at all...but, as someone said, stress
does odd things to one's common sense.
--

-Gord.
(use gordon in email)