A lesson on pressing buttons...

[Platapus]

Reminds me of when we lost an ROTC cadet at Hill AFB in 81/82.

She was on an incentive ride on a T-38. As part of the orientation she was told not to leave the aircraft until the pilot-in-command tells her to.

After the successful incentive ride, the Talon was on the flight line, chocked, engines off and canopies raised. The PIC told the cadet "ok, egress the aircraft"

She reached to the calf protectors and initiated the ejection seat. Fortunately, the ground crew only suffered minor burns but probably had to change his fatigues!

The original ejection seat on the T-38 did not have a zero/zero capability.

There was now a vacancy in her ROTC class.

Unlike the guy in the referenced article, this T-38 was not flying but sitting on the ground. No stresses, no movement that could justify her initiating the seat.

In her defense, the initiating action for the Northrup seat was not well designed and was vulnerable for inadvertent initiation if you were not very familiar and careful with the seat.

Like many aspects of military aircraft, you only get to make one mistake with an ejection seat.

[GoldenRivet]

my preflight briefing for passengers who have never been in small aircraft includes

1. How to operate the door for closing and opening
2. how to operate the safety restraints for buckling and unbuckling
3. how to operate any emergency equipment which might be onboard (fire extinguisher chiefly)

and one very important final addition

"...put your feet flat on the floor, put your hands on your knees, and dont move your hands or feet from that position without first asking me... are you comfortable? good... enjoy the ride!"

the most benign looking buttons and switches and levers can be the most critical in an airplane.

[SteamWake]

Originally Posted by GoldenRivet

my preflight briefing for passengers who have never been in small aircraft includes

1. How to operate the door for closing and opening
2. how to operate the safety restraints for buckling and unbuckling
3. how to operate any emergency equipment which might be onboard (fire extinguisher chiefly)

and one very important final addition

"...put your feet flat on the floor, put your hands on your knees, and dont move your hands or feet from that position without first asking me... are you comfortable? good... enjoy the ride!"

the most benign looking buttons and switches and levers can be the most critical in an airplane.

Ohhh ohhhh whats this button do... it says 'gen' that must be general.... we can call the general !!!!

Originally Posted by GoldenRivet

my preflight briefing for passengers who have never been in small aircraft includes

1. How to operate the door for closing and opening
2. how to operate the safety restraints for buckling and unbuckling
3. how to operate any emergency equipment which might be onboard (fire extinguisher chiefly)

and one very important final addition

"...put your feet flat on the floor, put your hands on your knees, and dont move your hands or feet from that position without first asking me... are you comfortable? good... enjoy the ride!"

the most benign looking buttons and switches and levers can be the most critical in an airplane.

The first time I went up the pilot sat me in the co-pilot seat offered me the wheel.

[GoldenRivet]

Originally Posted by Rilder

The first time I went up the pilot sat me in the co-pilot seat offered me the wheel.

Thats my daily job

of course there are no eject levers or self destruct buttons in a Cessna 150

so pretty much no matter what you pushed or pulled or felt the desire to tinker with... the situation would pretty much be recoverable

[Platapus]

Ahh the 150. Brings back good memories. That is one good aircraft for learnin

[SteamWake]

Originally Posted by Platapus

Ahh the 150. Brings back good memories. That is one good aircraft for learnin

About all its good for really damn thing is so slow

[Platapus]

Yeah but it is a good predictable and forgiving aircraft.

[GoldenRivet]

Originally Posted by SteamWake

About all its good for really damn thing is so slow

which is a good thing considering it was purpose built for training and as a student you need to build flight time.

with the Cessna 150 you only have to go about 60 miles out and back to get a good hour and a half of flight time on a cross country.

With a Warrior or a Cessna 172 you would have to fly about 100 miles out and back for the same amount of flight time.

put this 150 up against a cross country with 4 or 5 stops with 2 touch and goes at each... takeoff at 7:30am you could EASILY meet all of your solo cross country flight time requirements before lunch time the same day covering half the distance of another student in a faster airplane.

every airplane has to be purpose built, and the Cessna 150 was built with the flight school operation in mind.

The Cessna 150:

1. Has an hourly fuel cost of about $19
2. it is half the insurance cost of a 172
3. They have an extremely low acquisition price ($17-$25K)
4. They are very easy to maintain
5. Parts availability is excellent
6. they are always in demand so resale value holds very well
7. It takes up very little hangar space, so you could cram 8 or 10 of them in a single fairly medium sized hangar.

the list goes on and on