Originally Posted by
crewdawg
Never flew the T-6, but if i'm above a taxi speed and about to depart the prepared surface, I'm punching. The Tweet was the only plane I would have stayed with it, on the count of seat sucking and it being a tank!
In most fighters, for sure, but I wouldn't go that far with something like the T-6. Aussies spec'd their PC-9 version to be able to land on grass. One of the USAF departures at high-speed (for a T-6) a few years back jumped a berm, nosed into the ground, and the crew walked. If you're going to flip or hit something big, maybe, but if we're talking a straight run into flat grass at something under highway speeds, it's a bit extreme. I'll bet the risk of riser burn, cuts from the canopy fracture, and messed up ankle/leg from a poor PLF outweighs the bumps you might get in a runway excursion.
But with a MB seat under you, when in doubt, get out. If you're in the envelope, you're going to live.
BTW, a solo student went off the end of the RWY at Vance earlier this year and punched also. Airplane rolled into the grass a couple hundred feet and stopped.
Pretty good seat, though - it's been ops tested at 0/0, or 0/slow quite a few times. The two times mentioned above, plus the RND guy in the EOR, and a SP in the chocks up at Moose Jaw. T-38s are finally getting MBs also... finally.