Simviation Forums

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Shawn D. Tuckers plane had some mechanical troubles and he ended up bailing out from 8,000 without any trouble.

I was just courious to see who all had heard of this..

What, again? Oh wait; it's old news...  ;D

About two or three weeks old!

Quote from the site;

Sean D. Tucker, safely ejected at 8,000 feet from the Oracle Challenger

Do they actually have ejection seats?

Certainly lightweight ejection seats have been developed for aerobatic aircraft (only seen them on Su-29/31 - don't really follow the aerobatics scene). Whether this aircraft was equipped as such or whether he simply opened the canopy and jumped over the side is another question (I expect it was the latter but will happily be corrected)...

I thought I saw a video of ejection seats being tested in some light Sukhois, but I didn't expect it to be more than just testing.
However I guess it could save the life of a lot of those crazy low flying pilots, unless they're low and inverted of course... YIKES!!

I thought I saw a video of ejection seats being tested in some light Sukhois, but I didn't expect it to be more than just testing.
However I guess it could save the life of a lot of those crazy low flying pilots, unless they're low and inverted of course... YIKES!!

I think the purpose of ejection seats in aerobatic aircraft would be to give the pilot a (small) chance of survival in the event of structural failure at low level, or another emergency which does not allow a safe forced landing...

Video of Sukhoi demo...

http://www.airandspacemagazine.com/ASM/Web/Site/QT/SukoiEject.html

Sukhoi has the Zvezda SKS-94M as an option on the Su-29 and Su-31. Is only 5kg heavier than a normal seat but costs $50.000 a piece... but even for that price it's worth taking one with you i think.

It can work safely as low as 30 meters when inverted.

The way these things work is interesting, as the seat itself stays in the plane... The pilot is literally kicked out of his seat, and after that the parachute opens.

Read more here