rickair7777

You learn most of the cool stuff after BUDS, so a guy who washed out (especially early) might be pretty clueless. Also there are a lot of guys who wash out for injuries...probably 2-3 for every guy who makes it, so a guy who claims to have attended buds but not graduated is probably telling the truth.

Any ex-seal who's not really old would have a class number 180-230 -ish. If he washed out really early I suppose it's possible he might not remember his number.

Usually the posers claim to have graduated...and earned an MH or two

N9373M

There was a private operation that flew 3 T-34's out of Fulton County in Atlanta, called SkyWarriors in the early 90's. They had the planes outfitted with lasers and if you "hit" the opponent, he would smoke. Joe pilot in the front, ex-military guy in back. Entire flight was taped. It was quite a kick. It was a multi phase aerial combat syllabus. I was lucky enough to get the first phase for a Christmas present. We flew formation out the the practice area, then set up for 3 merges and hi yo-yos and/or a reversal. We took a break and did our own acro for a bit as well. Debrief had both plane's video's sync'd so you could see the kill or your own demise.

Anyway, several months later one of the T-34s lost a wing resulting in an AD and some other restrictions. Don't know if this was the cause or not. Part of the ground school prior to the flight was bail out procedures.

Are you saying bailing out of a T-34 would be "difficult"?

FlyBoyd

I have never bailed out of a T-34 but I was a T-34 IP for 5 years. One of my IPs and my neighbor did it when I was a student circa 1995. See below...

Long answer: You are OCF and the plane won't fly passing 5K..you decide to get out.

1- After you notify the other dude you pull the emergency handle for the pneumatically actuated canopy
2- you unplug your ICS and/or O2 mask so when you jump it doesn't yank your neck
3- unbuckle your harness
4- crouch on your seat keeping your head out of the airstream (think OCF G's here)
5- dive (roll) toward the trailing edge of the wing hoping the other dude went opposite you..what was the brief? Which seat am I in today?
6- pull the D-ring as a backup to the lanyard attached to the plane

7- for the rest go to swim/phys training but keep in mind you probably will be in the water shortly. The IP that ended up in a chute in 1995 messed up his water entry prep and fell from his chute and died...the student bailed out at a high airspeed (slow down is an optional item) and broke his hip on the horizontal stab.

The T-34 crash in 2009 was an OCF event. One pilot was still in the plane and the other guy got out too late and died as well.

An older IP (retired) here bailed out and almost didn't make it as his gear hung up on the canopy.

Short answer: Yes, it can be difficult.

USMCFLYR

I never wanted to try and test the procedures and was happy to hit the "I believe button" when it came to bailing out

USMCFLYR

Dougdrvr

Of all the things that have been redesigned for safety reasons, unbuckling your parachute harness has remained the same since WWII (at least in this country).

USMCFLYR

I was more alluding to the crouching on the seat part, separate bailout directions with a student confused as heck, or rolling out of the cockpit and hoping not to strike the stabs (since it was said that this was a pretty good possibility).
I felt much better when the aircrew egress got as easy as pulling the ejection handle

USMCFLYR

Dougdrvr

I was talking about the water entry prep.

AZFlyer

Possible? Yes. But like i said, based on what I learned from reading a few books about BUDS, I still find it hard to believe. You would just have to have known this guy. Plus he was fat.

More Bacon

Is this guy still flying people around?

Fishfreighter

Q200s for CommutAir?