Quote:
Originally Posted by Mistrale
I never dropped the pins.....
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Maybe not, but it was a daily occurrence having to pull the ejection seats out of every type I worked on looking for lost pens/keys/loose change/golf clubs.
Aeroplanes don't like random objects clattering around inside them, they tend to jam/short/unexpectedly initiate relatively important systems like flying controls, avionics and atom bombs.
During one ignoble incident a golf club blew a canopy to smithereens on a Red Arrows Hawk. The pilot was due to spend a weekend at Leuchars and wanted to play the course at St Andrews.
There isn't much baggage space in a military jet so he stuffed his clubs down the side of the rear ejection seat without telling the ground crew.
When he closed the canopy, the head of one of the clubs got in the way of the lever that initiates the MDC - an explosive cord that shatters the canopy on ejection - and detonated it, shattering the canopy, sending debris into the engine (which lunched itself) and leaving him with some quite bad face and neck injuries, not to mention a substantial quantity of egg-on-face.
Ahh, those were the days.