It's crazy to me that Americans feel like they can't afford socialized healthcare, but performing tricks in $70M jets is something that must proceed at all costs.
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Two EA-18 fighter jets collide at Mountain Home airshow, pilots ejected safely
251–260 of 278 posts
Re: Two EA-18 fighter jets collide at Mountain Home airshow, pilots ejected safely
#252Earlier quoted context omitted.
The ejection seat is going to do its thing regardless of orientation, but if that orientation is pointed at the ground you better hope you have enough altitude. There was one plane where the ejection seats ejected down and away from the plane that was known for low altitude missions. These seats were affectionately known as lawn darts.
I think that plane is the Lockheed Starfighter ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_F-104_Starfighter#Eje... ). Fortunately they were eventually replaced with upward-firing ejection seats. And the "lawn dart" moniker refers to the airplane itself - probably because of the absurdly short wings, which are also placed pretty far back.
"We need a plane for bombing, straffing, assault and battery, interception, ground support and reconnaissance. Not just a *fair weather fighter*!"
RIP Bob Calvert.
Re: Two EA-18 fighter jets collide at Mountain Home airshow, pilots ejected safely
#253I don’t know anything about anything but it feels kind of amazing that all four ejected with good looking parachutes given the orientation of the conglomerated plane.
Something that seems interesting to me is that they all ejected at nearly the identical time. I'm curious if those systems are automated in case of scenarios like an unconscious pilot. If so, there may be automated clearance/angle systems, but that's speculation on top of speculation.
Apart from the command ejection in two seaters like this one, where depending on the configuration when one person ejects it triggers the other seat, I can only think of one automatic ejection and that is on the F35B as used by the Royal Navy.
If it looses either the lift or main engine the resulting pitch change would be too rapid for a human to react to so the system triggers ejection.
Re: Two EA-18 fighter jets collide at Mountain Home airshow, pilots ejected safely
#254It's crazy to me that Americans feel like they can't afford socialized healthcare, but performing tricks in $70M jets is something that must proceed at all costs.
One of the things that honestly gets boring is this style of comment (typically European in origin but not always!). It does not constructively start any type discussion and just becomes a cheap shots style of argument. Every country and culture has its own pros/cons. I always think of the classic examples, Europe lacks a lot of innovation in business and that’s partly attributed to lack of free movement of labor (hi…
I admit the comment you’re responding to was low effort, but I don’t think the existence of cons in one’s own culture invalidates criticizing cons to some other culture. Problems don’t go away if everyone ignores them.
Also “every culture has pros/cons” may be true, but it’s absolutely not true that the ratio of pros/cons is the same for every culture.
Re: Two EA-18 fighter jets collide at Mountain Home airshow, pilots ejected safely
#255Earlier quoted context omitted.
It looks like there is a switch with "both"/solo"/"forward" option and the "both" option automates that tiny delay between both ejections. On the other hand ejections from both planes at same time is just pilots reaction speed.
That makes me wonder what happen if only the back seat eject, turns out there's a nice picture about that https://theaviationgeekclub.com/story-f-14-pilot-able-land-t...
Reminds me of this story that happened few years ago in France: https://www.laprovence.com/article/papier/5956505/le-passage...
Re: Two EA-18 fighter jets collide at Mountain Home airshow, pilots ejected safely
#256Earlier quoted context omitted.
One of the things that honestly gets boring is this style of comment (typically European in origin but not always!). It does not constructively start any type discussion and just becomes a cheap shots style of argument. Every country and culture has its own pros/cons. I always think of the classic examples, Europe lacks a lot of innovation in business and that’s partly attributed to lack of free movement of labor (hi…
I admit the comment you’re responding to was low effort, but I don’t think the existence of cons in one’s own culture invalidates criticizing cons to some other culture. Problems don’t go away if everyone ignores them. Also “every culture has pros/cons” may be true, but it’s absolutely not true that the ratio of pros/cons is the same for every culture.
I don’t think you should ignore them but two jets that collide at an air show has very little to do with the state of healthcare in America. As an American I completely dislike the state of the healthcare system but I also get tired of the cheap shot comments like this.
Re: Two EA-18 fighter jets collide at Mountain Home airshow, pilots ejected safely
#257Earlier quoted context omitted.
Also, air shows and flybys are awesome.
Flybys are awesome depending where you are. F-18s in Idaho? Pretty cool. F-18s in Pakistan? Probably stressful.
If combat zone flybys are anything like they are in the movie “warfare”, (excellent war movie, btw) stressful seems like an understatement.
Awe inspiring and absolutely terrifying
Re: Two EA-18 fighter jets collide at Mountain Home airshow, pilots ejected safely
#258I don’t know anything about anything but it feels kind of amazing that all four ejected with good looking parachutes given the orientation of the conglomerated plane.
Thanks to the great engineering at martin baker, if you check out the instagram page they have a running count of how many pilots have been saved by the seats. Was interesting to see a +4 today for a rolling total of 7820
Re: Two EA-18 fighter jets collide at Mountain Home airshow, pilots ejected safely
#259Earlier quoted context omitted.
> What is the purpose of the second person in such plane, at the air show? Pilot Flying, Pilot Monitoring (and dealing with radio and coordination). It's hard to see single-pilot operations outside of General Aviation aka people flying for fun or for dusting crops - and enough incidents happen in GA, especially in cropdusting, that it might make sense to mandate two-pilot operations there, but good luck trying to get…
Uh, that's not correct. The back-seat in the Growler is an Electronics Warfare Officer. He may be monitoring the radio, but he's not just a second pilot (as is the case with commercial passenger aviation); it's a completely distinct job with a distinct training program. And of course, most modern fighter jets are actually single seat. And they operate just fine that way.
What does Electronics Warfare Officer in the plane do, at the air show?
Re: Two EA-18 fighter jets collide at Mountain Home airshow, pilots ejected safely
#260It's crazy to me that Americans feel like they can't afford socialized healthcare, but performing tricks in $70M jets is something that must proceed at all costs.
One of the things that honestly gets boring is this style of comment (typically European in origin but not always!). It does not constructively start any type discussion and just becomes a cheap shots style of argument. Every country and culture has its own pros/cons. I always think of the classic examples, Europe lacks a lot of innovation in business and that’s partly attributed to lack of free movement of labor (hi…
It's not a cheap shot at all. OP is asking why the government is using tax payer money to finance air shows instead of healthcare, regardless of free markets and business regulations. In fact, there could be less air shows (and thus less aircraft losses) and lower taxes.