Try to recover or punch out?

Both.....unless already below the briefed ejection altitude and even then.......

Where does this question come from - - the movie? The famous [he is in a flat spin heading out to sea] scene

USMCFLYR

No, not from the movie. I know how that ended. This result of this flat spin has yet to be determined.

What are the characteristics of the aircraft entering into this flat spin?
Is it known to be an unrecoverable condition?
As I elluded to in my first response - at what altitude have you entered this flat spin? Even if you could recover, some aircraft might take thousands of feet to recover making an attempted recovery from an out-of-controlled flight situation at low altitude an impossible situation - leading to an immedaite ejection decision.

I'm assuming that we are talking about a military fighter aircraft since you used the words "punch out" as in ejection, but you could be talking about bailing out or even using a SRS such as on the Cirrus aircraft.

Could you provide more details to your scenario for a better response from the forum members or more accurate poll numbers?

USMCFLYR

Don't think about it too hard, USMCFLYR. Use whatever aircraft you feel like and assume it has an ejection seat.

No, I can't provide more details. It's a simple question. Try to recover or punch out?

Sorry if you feel like I'm pressing you.
I'm trying to tell you that it isn't an either/or answer.
There are variables if you want a real answer.

For instance - try to answer this question.

You have an aircraft problem......abort or not?
Think about how open ended that question is.

So...to answer your question I'll go back to my initial response.

It depends - both.

USMCFLYR

I'd have to side with USMCFLYR, both. There aren't enough details to make a firm decision yet.

I'm with all above, I don't think any of us would immediately think of bailing out unless it was the only option, but then again what were you doing at a low alt to put yourself into this situation in the first place that trying a recovery wouldn't be your first option?

I can't remember who said it, and I'm paraphrasing. But whoever said it was giving the difference between a fighter pilot and a test pilot;

When the crap is hitting the fan, the fighter pilot thinks "uh oh, this looks bad, I've only got a few seconds, I should get the hell out"

The test pilot thinks "uh oh, this looks bad, I've only got a few seconds, I'll bet I can save it"

It was said/written many years ago in a different era. And probably meant more in satire than anything else. So don't everybody get all serious and spooled up over it.

Training.

Our min ejection altitudes where initially 10,000' and then eventually lowered to 6,000'
We do alot of training below those altitudes.
Also - many air-to-ground strike delivery profiles have minimum altitudes as low as 500'. You can depart the aircraft pulling off target for instance


USMCFLYR