I was wondering. . . .

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PPC1052

Final Approach
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So, the other day, I was riding in a truck across the airport, and as we approached the intersection with one of the taxi ways, we had to stop to let traffic pass--an F18. Pretty cool to see one up close. But, all I could think of was whether if we accidentally hit it, would there be enough insurance coverage to cover the damage??
 
They won’t go after your insurance.
They’ll just court martial you, charge you with damage to government property and then throw you into the brig. :)
 
Velocity173 said:
They won’t go after your insurance.
They’ll just court martial you, charge you with damage to government property and then throw you into the brig. :)
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Whew, glad I wasn't the driver.
 
your flivver would probably bounce off it like a smart car hitting a one of those Texas off road pickup.
 
I had an airfield license when I was at Miramar. I’d take the new controllers out for airfield orientation. Always fun to get out of the office and drive around the ramp. Never hit an F-18 but almost drove across the runway without authorization once.
 
Velocity173 said:
Was this you (10+00)? :D

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No, we just drove straight across the two main runways and the taxiways. We didn’t do all that roaming around. The driver knew where he was heading to.
 
Doug Reid said:
I hate to hijack the thread, but I have to tell this. About 20 years ago, I drove to KGSO to get a part for my Bonanza at the FBO. When I drove up, I saw several really big military helicopters and a fighter jet on the ramp. I proceeded to the parts counter and asked the salesman what was going on. The jet fighter pilot was here to visit a family member while enroute to another military base. A new employee of the FBO watched the pilot get out of the plane and later decided he wanted to take a look in the cockpit. In the process of climbing up the side of the jet, he accidentally pulled the rescue handle and blew the canopy off the jet. The control tower is located beside the ramp where the jet was parked and the jettison rockets scared the heck out of the tower operators. The canopy came back down and landed on the jet. All I remember is seeing a whole bunch of really pi$$ed off military brass walking around the FBO.
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I remember back in the early 90s they started taping over the emergency canopy ejection panels at air shows for that exact reason. Not sure if anyone ever blew one at a show or not. A 7 year old boy ejected himself from an S-3 at an air show once though.
 
Doug Reid said:
I hate to hijack the thread, but I have to tell this. About 20 years ago, I drove to KGSO to get a part for my Bonanza at the FBO. When I drove up, I saw several really big military helicopters and a fighter jet on the ramp. I proceeded to the parts counter and asked the salesman what was going on. The jet fighter pilot was here to visit a family member while enroute to another military base. A new employee of the FBO watched the pilot get out of the plane and later decided he wanted to take a look in the cockpit. In the process of climbing up the side of the jet, he accidentally pulled the rescue handle and blew the canopy off the jet. The control tower is located beside the ramp where the jet was parked and the jettison rockets scared the heck out of the tower operators. The canopy came back down and landed on the jet. All I remember is seeing a whole bunch of really pi$$ed off military brass walking around the FBO.
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Velocity173 said:
I remember back in the early 90s they started taping over the emergency canopy ejection panels at air shows for that exact reason. Not sure if anyone ever blew one at a show or not. A 7 year old boy ejected himself from an S-3 at an air show once though.
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Surely they have a way to disable those. I would think there's some disconnect mechanism when a military plane is in a public setting.
 
Fallsrider said:
Surely they have a way to disable those. I would think there's some disconnect mechanism when a military plane is in a public setting.
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Not sure if some have a locking system these days or not. You can clearly see the duck tape in these photos though.

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If the pilot is watching the aircraft closely, it shouldn’t become an issue. A civilian would have to rip the tape off, open the panel and walk the jettison cable out quite a distance from the aircraft. As you can see in this vid.

 
Dibs on the ejection seat! Would look good in the RV-9A.
 
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