The ultimate ride?

[hejo]

Okay as a few of you know my father is a retired USAF pilot and the biggest BMW lover there is in the Republic of Texas. Anyway I was getting into it with him on the pure rush the NSX is to drive. He finally told me if I wanted a rush then check out the ejection pod of a plane he use to fly.... so I did.

for the full story go here http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/research/bombers/b5/b5-31.htm

All I could say to him was "holly shit and I thought I was f*&^kin crazy!".

He told me that everyone had to do this to be qualified to fly the plane. BTW I don't let him drive my NSX.

[This message has been edited by hejo (edited 19 October 2001).]

 

[Lud]

Yikes! I can't decide if that would be really frightening or if it happens so fast it's over before you know what is going on! Either way, I bet you are really sore the next day.

 

[DocL]

Originally posted by Lud:
Yikes! I can't decide if that would be really frightening or if it happens so fast it's over before you know what is going on! Either way, I bet you are really sore the next day.

Sort of like having sex for the first time. You never forget it, and it's an awesome experience. The only difference imho, is that I wouldn't want to be catapulted from a plane everyday!

 

[hejo]

I spoke to my father again this weekend and mentioned that I thought he was nuts. He told me that actually there were some problems with this thing and that a few folks lost their lives. Sometimes the parachute wouldn't open so they put in a manual release for it.

Then he mentioned there were only 86 active planes when it was fully deployed with only 4 left in the world today. So not a lot of these planes around anymore to see.

Some of the pilots went on to fly the SR71. I ask him why he didn't move to it and he said because he smoked cigars. The SR-71 used pure oxygen and therefore couldn't smoke on long flights and said he'd go nuts without a smoke. Actually that's where his call sign came from "Smokey".

[This message has been edited by hejo (edited 22 October 2001).]