What’s the most dangerous thing you’ve done lately?
Talk about a dramatic photo;
Here’s the cockpit video;
Now (as Paul Harvey would say) … the rest of the story:
As most of you know, the USAF Thunderbirds fly the F-16. This particular pilot came from the F-15, which I flew. The ACES II ejection seat is common to both fighters, but the ejection handle configuration is different. In the F-15 there are two handles, one on each side of the seat just outboard of the pilot’s upper legs. You can pull either one, or both. In the F-16 there’s a single D-ring handle between the pilot’s legs, but no side handles.
If you watch the video closely, you’ll see the pilot’s left shoulder move about a second before he ejects. He had a lot of time in the F-15 and comparatively little in the F-16 — he was reaching for the side handle, which of course wasn’t there. He quickly corrected his mistake and pulled the center handle. If he’d remained confused a quarter of a second longer he wouldn’t have made it.
Initially, the pilot didn’t remember much about the ejection. Someone on the mishap investigation board noticed the shoulder movement on the cockpit video and wondered if the pilot had gone for the wrong handle. After the shoulder motion was pointed out to him the pilot remembered going for the side handle first, confirming the board’s suspicions.
Tell you what, I spent almost 2,000 hours of my life sitting on that seat, and I know it’s a damn good one, but I’m sure glad I never had to use it!