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Remainders - Things We Didn't Post
F-18 Crashes In San Diego, Kills Two
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Remainders - Things We Didn't Post |
F-18 Crashes In San Diego, Kills Two |
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10/20/09
"Hey I just bought at new Samsung Instinct. Now everyone at school will think I'm totally cool." #gizmodoremainders
10/20/09
@dallasmay: I guess people just like stuff like this: #gizmodoremainders
10/20/09
The ironic thing about such "nice" weather all the time is that we start to crave "shitty" weather. I just want it to rain so badly sometimes. Sunshine can get so boring sometimes. #gizmodoremainders
10/20/09
I agree completely. I'm craving for some rain! #gizmodoremainders
10/20/09
but I can see where you're coming from. #gizmodoremainders
10/20/09
10/20/09
The Devil's Summer and Summer. and 3-8 days of Summer showers #gizmodoremainders
10/21/09
But I did spend some time in Toronto and they had this crazy thing over there. It was called "winter." Never heard of that before. #gizmodoremainders
10/20/09
and Sony is the brand I avoid for the same pieces above
so I'm not surprised. #gizmodoremainders
10/20/09
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12/08/08
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12/09/08
Reports were that the pilot was making his approach with the right engine dead when the left engine went out as well, so unless these cracks caused fuel leaks, I doubt that was the problem.
12/08/08
Considering he was injured in his fall, he must have waited until fairly late to eject.
12/09/08
Modern ejection systems are designed such that you can safely eject from a stationary fighter, so it shouldn't matter how late he ejected as long as he wasn't too close to the impact site. Used to be you'd have to manually open the canopy and actually climb out of the cockpit before diving overboard, but now the ejection seat will lift you to a safe height before deploying the parachute. Now, that doesn't gaurantee you an injury-free touchdown by any means. There's still the matter of locating a safe area to land in, fighting crosswinds, and the fact that even during an ideal landing you'll still hit pretty hard. And that's assuming you're conscious at that point. And that you weren't injured during the ejection.
I once read about a fighter pilot (either Navy or Marines) who blacked out over open water. He sorta regained consciousness just in time to eject (all he could see was water everywhere), but he was flying at supersonic speed at the time. He shattered all four limbs immediately after lifting free of the cockpit. He'd been moving so fast that hitting the air was like slamming into a brick wall.
12/09/08
Keep in mind that the altitude of ejection does matter depending on the attitude of the airplane. If you eject too low and your path of ejection is too close to parallel to the ground - or pointed towards the ground - you'll end up impacting. It happens more often than you'd like to know.
However, the Russians have the best ejection seat technology (material for a Gizmodo story?) that will, depending on altitude, automatically right the seat so that even ejecting at overtly odd angles will still send the seat up after a quick course adjustment.
12/09/08
True, but there are only two instances when that should be an issue. Either you're in a spin and timed your ejection wrong, or you weren't flying level when you ejected. In the former case, well, timing literally is everything. If you can't correct the spin (which I understand can be tough job), it's all a matter of if you can gauge exactly when in the rotation to pull the handle so you'll eject in an upward direction. In the latter case...well, I haven't really heard of an instance where a pilot was unable to right a non-spinning aircraft (if it's flying true, that means your attitude control _should_ be working properly, so...).
However, if you eject when the plane is upside-down, I'd think death would be more likely than an injury. And in this specific case, it sounds like whatever injuries the pilot received were due to him catching a tree with his parachute, resulting in him being suspended above the ground.
And the cause of the crash itself appears to have been failure of both engines. The pilot was attempting to land with just the left engine running, when that also died during his approach. I wonder if something happened to his fuel supply, like a leak or a stuck valve.
12/08/08
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12/09/08
Geez, I remember flying in to San Diego when my brother was about to graduate from Marine Corps. boot camp. I remember seeing a big, huge, swath of black pavement...and then we landed at the tiny little international airport right next to it. And then when we went to the MCRD to watch the graduation, I found out that what I'd seen was the parade grounds, and cars parked at the far end look like pocket lint. Er, that is, _large_ cars look like pocket lint. A Mini Cooper would probably be too small to make out at that distance. And then I found out that new recruits become intimately familiar with every square inch of those parade grounds. I also saw at least a dozen recruits crutching their way around with casts on their legs. Yeah, I pretty much not-enlisted right then and there.