Lucky escape...

Sadly there's a lot of misinformation and very little actual knowledge here. I mean I get it, we've seen a 30 sec video and now folks will post whatever they want, but some of the stuff (not just in here TBH) regarding the F-35 is just wrong and in my current role I should know. Regarding the crash no-one will say publicly what caused it yet BTW irrespective of whether they know or not, it'll take a few weeks to maybe months to get the reports out.

Terminal_Boy said:
And the US Army is planning to replace their Blackhawk fleet with a version of the Osprey, that tilt wing mess which has killed more US Marines than the Iraqis did.
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For example, this is wrong.

48 Marines have died in MV-22 crashes whilst 853 were killed in Iraq between 2003 and 2016 - I know it may sound like a cool factoid to drop on the Osprey but it's badly wrong.
 
I wrote this on another forum but hopefully it adds some info to the thread -

Auto-Eject - As the F-35B has two sources of thrust, each producing 20KN of thrust, whilst in the hover (the engine via the nozzle at the rear and the lift fan just behind the cockpit) if the lift fan fails during a hover the 20KN thrust from the engine nozzle at the rear would "flip" the F-35 nose down (like a cart wheel) faster than a human could react to eject safely hence the auto-eject function.

It works by comparing the three FCS channels together with each channel being fed 3-axis rotational rates, linear accelerations etc from two separate Inertial Measurement Units, making six units in total. Should two channels (or 4 measurement units) all agree that the nose down pitch rate has exceeded a minimum of 20°/sec, a figure higher than a pilot in a "serviceable" F-35 could ever manage, the the Auto-Eject sequence is initiated and there is no delay between the decision to eject (by the FCS comparison) and the initiation signal so, should a lift fan fail, the seat will not "wait until the aircraft is level" etc before ejecting, within milliseconds of the decision being made the seat is already leaving the aircraft so the crash footage does not show an auto-ejection sequence taking place.
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tom_e said:
Surely at that point it was probably more dangerous to eject and not have the chute open properly than just wait it out
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Uther said:
Got to be a difficult decision because you know there's a good chance you'll hurt yourself ejecting on the ground.
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The ejection seat is a zero/zero seat, meaning that it's designed to 'safely' get the pilot 400ft away from the a/c in about 0.5 secs and on the chute in 1.25 secs.
 
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Chuk_Chuk said:
Are the pilots not strapped into the seats?
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The pilots are strapped to the seat. After about 0.5 seconds a drogue gun fires to yank the drogue chutes from the headbox. If the ejection parameters are within limits (altitude/ G-forces) the automatic release system will release the main chute and the harness to allow the seat occupant to come down on the chute, and the seat just falls away.
 
tom_e said:
Surely at that point it was probably more dangerous to eject and not have the chute open properly than just wait it out
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Why do you think the chute wouldn't open? They have zero-zero ejection seats. I'd rather eject than wait to see if the fuel is going to ignite and burn me to death.
 
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Something to consider, as soon as that nose slammed down the pilots hands would've "probably" been on the ejection handle as they rode that bucking bronco of an aircraft, and it's only with 20/20 hindsight that the pilot may think afterwards "I probably didn't need too eject" but at the time, with the aircraft wildly out of control, I'd be amazed if any other pilot would've stayed onboard and not ejected.

The opinions of non fast-jet pilot internet experts may differ though :)
 
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