Spark:

I had no such reservations taking my flight. The crazy comment is meant in jest-sort of. [Linked Image] To be able to do what they do and stay alive takes a lot of skill and dicipline, more so than the average Joe. As much as I wanted to become a fighter pilot myself, I knew deep down that I wasn't good enough. But it felt great, even for a short time, to take control of that beast which I worked on for so many long hours. (I was a bomb loader.) Ironically, I had loaded the same ordinance we expended on that flight.

What really scared me, though, was the ejection seat. As a maintenance troop, we're constantly reminded how lethal it can be. Yet there I was, strapped in a fully armed seat with only a 8" pull between my legs (no wisecracks here, if you please) or an 18" pull of the loops above my head to get the cheap show. It didn't really impact until right before takeoff, when I was told to "drop the lower guard" (it's a sheet metal plate on a single pivot bolt which in theory keeps you from getting your boot caught in the lower handle while climbing in or out. It does NOT in any way prevent the handle from being pulled) that I felt a pang of panic. The pilot got a good laugh as he heard my breathing speed up when he said it.

Fast factoid:

Pilots and backseaters NEVER say "eject" once they're in the cockpit. I was warned repeatedly to not say it unless I meant it at any time or I could find myself getting the cheap ride and explaining to a lot of brass why I caused so much expensive damage to a perfectly good aircraft. Other than the lower guard, one other step in the preflight was for me to set the "Ejection Command Option Handle" {in the plane referred to only as The "Command Handle"} to "Single". Meaning, that if I pulled my handle the pilot would stay with the jet. If the pilot pulled, I would go first, then he would follow. In "Dual" mode (the normal mode with rated aircrew in both seats) if either seat pulls, both crew eject, back seat first by a few hundred milliseconds.

My safety briefing on egress proceedures (how to get out of a dying jet) was rather lively. The pilot who accompanied me (not the same one I flew with) kept snorting as optional bail-outs were discussed. I.E., if both eject handles fail, you do this and this and this and this and this and if all that fails, you take the survival knife pinned to the canopy rail, bust a hole thru, unhook your flight harness from the seat [oh, and don't unhook your parachute in the process], wiggle your butt out through the hole, and jump away from the jet and hope you don't get hit by its tail, etc....the Tech Sgt. got royally ticked and wanted to know what was so funny. The pilot responded that we were doing bomb runs at low level and that if I weren't out by the time the pilot has said "Ej.." I was goin down with the plane! I said no way, you'd see how fast I could learn to bulldog a jet. [Linked Image]

If I had the chance I'd do it again in a heartbeat!!

Stupid should be painful.