Originally Posted by Josh Franke

The B1 Bomber is the only U.S. military plane that has a variable sweep wing.

F-111 & F-14 were until the 1990's

My squadron lost an EA-6B off the coast of Hawaii in 1985. The tension on the arresting cable was set incorrectly and the hook snagged the cable and dragged it to it's stops whereupon the hook sheared in half. The aircraft left the angle deck with insufficient flying speed and went into the water. The pilot initiated command ejection sequence which staggers the seats so they don't hit each other. In this scenario the pilot is the last guy out which meant he hit the water just before he got full chute deployment and ended up medically retired with back injuries. Really sad as he was one of the coolest officers in the squadron. Known for his stick skills he was often heard to state "Drop your c**ks and grab your socks boys, we're goin' in low!"

IIRC some of the aircrew used to wear Martin Baker Flight Test Team patches. Not sure if MB is even still around?

Another apropos comment I used to hear from a friend who taught in the simulator and is sadly no longer with us. The phonetic expression "Sierra Hotel' has long been used in military aviation circles to describe not only a S**T Hot move but also a Smoking Hole. When one of Val's students was screwing the pooch as it were he would gently coax them back into line with the following statement. "Just remember guys a Smokin' Hole is a small price to pay for a S**t Hot manuever"

Originally Posted by funboy

Thank God they crew is OK. It'a always sad to see a nice plane go down, but hey- it was almost 30 years old!

They are just babies. The B-52's are all 50+ yrs old (Born 60 and 61) and they are still kicking ass!

A friend of mine had to get out of the F-14 4 times, so there is no limit as far as I'm aware of.. In all 4 cases he had time to get his body in the correct position (which matters A LOT) and avoid spinal compression issues. As has been said, the older "BANG" seats were really rough on the pilot/crew because it used an explosion basically to punch them out. The newer seats use a rocket motor with progressive thrust increase. It still happens VERY quickly, but is much less violent an exit.

Last nite while posting a story of being on a site on the B1 bomb range and looking at a couple of other post. All of a sudden the ol lady yells she hears something outside. I ran out turning porch light on as i go. I see something run off between my shop and house, i thought damn cat, no paying any attention i shut walk in door to my shop and locked it. I took day off from work to do home work, went out and opened door and what the hell happened here. A raccoon come by and decided to rearange my shop, climb all over my harley and leave a couple piles. I got lucky that my big yak not hurt. The Extra was hanging on the wing tube, not by the wheel like he left it.

And the rest of this story, had shop almost back to gether and i looked up and holy cow. What is that furry thing up on the shelf. No wonder it looked like somebody spent the night in there. Called animal control, oh sorry we don't handle wild animals. Called Game and Fish, they say deal with yourself. Got wife to help, one point she had it pinned to the wall with a big stick. He finally made a break for the door. After her in there with that stick chasing that coon, i now have another mess. Glad it wasn't me she had pinned to the wall, im gonna hide that stick.

a well placed arrow. Quiet and quick!

The way the wife had him pinned with the stick, thought we gonna have coon kabob for supper.