WHY NAVY PILOTS GET FLIGHT PAY

 

Check these sequences, with a landing speed of about 125Kts (140MPH) from touch down to ejection is about 3 seconds, traveling at over 200 ft/sec.  All the pilot had to do in those 3 seconds was see the fire, realize he had flamed out (no power), let go of the controls, reach for the face curtain, and pull it 18" to fire the seat.  No telling what he did in his spare time.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

This occurred on the aircraft carrier, FDR south of the Dominican Republic. The aircraft was an F8U-1 assigned to VF-11, and piloted by Ltjg. Terry Kryway.

Ripper Jim Roberts:

I recall it clearly, having flown that same day. The state of the sea was really crappy, and when Terry made his landing, I was in the ready room watching his landing on the PLAT (Pilot Landing Aid Television).  It could have happened to any of us flying the Crusader aboard the Roosevelt that day. The deck was moving all over the place, and with only a 12-foot hook-to-ramp clearance, there was NO room for error coming aboard. Thus, but for the grace of God, any of us could have taken the same ride. ........ I think it should also be pointed out that Terry was and is an outstanding pilot.  He was a member of the flight demo team, and that single event should not detract from our view of his piloting ability.


The aircraft hit hard on the starboardd main mount and broke off the wheel. The wheel bounced up into the wheel well and ruptured the main fuel line, which is the cloud of fuel you see in the first picture. Take a look.

 

The scraping of the bare main strut pulled the nose to the right, imposing an asymmetrical load on the tailhook, ripping it out (movies from the starboard quarter showed this). The fuel caught fire, and the rest is as you see it.








 

The movies show a 5-foot diameter vapor donut for an instant just in front of the intake at the moment the engine flamed out. Terry cobbed the throttle and felt nothing so he "read the instructions"* as the nose passed over the end of the angle.

*"Reading the instructions" is a euphemism for pulling the face curtain to fire the ejection seat. There are no instructions printed there, but if there were, one could read them.... if you read really fast.

You can see him reaching for the curtain.







Look Maw, no chute!  We didn't have 0/0 (Zero altitude, Zero speed) ejection seats in those days and his chute did not have time to fully deploy. He got a small abrasion on his neck from his harness -- and was wet, but that was all.  Whew.

=