Land On Water

[Tornado_Pilot]

There's an emergency release handle on the right hand side of the seat portion.

 

Just pull this, and the harness gets unlocked so you can jump out. But i don't know, if the survival kit is also effected by this... IIRC its not.

[Lonecrow66]

I don't know but I'll try it tonight.

 

You can definitely hear the wind when you lower flaps / speed brakes so I wouldn't doubt with no cockpit you would hear it really loud.

 

When you open / close the canopy there is definitely a sound difference.

[JaseGill]

Dynamo,

Gotta tell you, I spent a fair bit of time flying over water and jumping out when there's a chance of ditching is a difficult choice.

You can imagine that the thought of riding an ejector seat up a rail with all the possible injuries associated, the seat chute opening right, the main chute opening right, riding a chute down (that's got a decent chance of dragging you through the water or dragging you under and drowning you) then getting into a 1 man survival dinghy (assuming you're conscious after the ejection) and then waiting for SAR to get to you plays on ones mind.

That against ditching and jumping over the side (after hitting the quick release on your harness) could be a difficult choice especially if you think you're well enough trained to land the jet safely on water (hitting water in a jet is about as destructive as hitting something solid).

Its a difficult choice, would I bang out? I don't know. It would depend on the state of the aircraft. If I'd been hit and suspected airframe damage (likelihood of aircraft breaking up higher on landing than if not damaged) I think I'd bang out. If it was another failure and in one piece, Id expect my training and ditching drills to be up to speed and try land on the water.

That is just peacetime though. Where is the water? Behind enemy lines or the beach controlled by my side's Marines. It all makes a difference.

 

As far as Ejector Seat aircrew survival equipment is concerned if its anything like Martin Baker seats that I have sat on you sit on your survival kit (which includes the dinghy). When you strap into the seat the survival equipment is already in the seat. You strap yourself to that, which is in turn strapped to the seat. If you want to get out of the whole gig (without the weight of the survival gear) fast its a 90 degree turn and a hard hit on the harness release button on your chest to unlock the harness, you stand up and step out. If you want to leave with the survival gear you hit a seat release and stand up with the survival gear hanging around your ass. In the case of ejection you ride the seat to a safe height under the seat drogue chute then it automatically releases you from the seat, deploys your personal chute and the survival gear hangs round your ass until you hit the deck. So in either case depending how you leave depends on what you leave with.