B-1 down in Montana

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I guess it doubles as a Bose ad....
 
Jimmy_Norton said:
I doubt they are planning on flying that thing not wearing helmets...
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Maintenance would be my guess.

That former crew chief student of mine said headsets aren't even allowed in the aircraft for flight crew, so as to prevent any temptation to not wear a helmet. He said after 8'ish hours you'd do anything to get the helmet off.
 
rframe said:
Maintenance would be my guess.

That former crew chief student of mine said headsets aren't even allowed in the aircraft for flight crew, so as to prevent any temptation to not wear a helmet. He said after 8'ish hours you'd do anything to get the helmet off.
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Yeah, and I wore my flak vest and survival vest on every combat mission I flew, because the rules said I had to.

Either way, I'd bet they're doing preflight. No reason to wear a helmet at that particular base in SW Asia when it's 125 degrees and 100% humidity outside.
 
rframe said:
One of my flight students is a retired B52 crew chief. As I understand it (and I might have this wrong), everyone but the chief has ejection seats. He's supposed to be the last guy out and he's supposed to fall through an opening in the floor and do a tuck and roll maneuver, basically he said it's highly unlikely the chief will make it out alive.
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I had a professor that was a B-52 Nav.... He used to tell us about how safe he felt sitting in his downward ejection seat while doing low-level exercises.

He was a funny dude.
 
SeanD said:
Ive always liked this B-1 cockpit photo. Do they have ejection seats for the guys in back?
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Yes, all the crew positions have it. With an exception explained below........

rframe said:
One of my flight students is a retired B52 crew chief. As I understand it (and I might have this wrong), everyone but the chief has ejection seats. He's supposed to be the last guy out and he's supposed to fall through an opening in the floor and do a tuck and roll maneuver, basically he said it's highly unlikely the chief will make it out alive.
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The jumpseats, (there are two) dont have ejection seats. Instructors used to man these seats and just wore parachutes and I believe had to go out the entry hatch. Following an accident in La Junta, CO, where the two jumpseaters rode the plane in to a fatal ending; the jumpseats werent' used anymore.
 
rframe said:
Maintenance would be my guess.

That former crew chief student of mine said headsets aren't even allowed in the aircraft for flight crew, so as to prevent any temptation to not wear a helmet. He said after 8'ish hours you'd do anything to get the helmet off.
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As I understand it, they can wear the headsets for administrative cruise. The helmets are required for takeoff, landing, low level, air refueling, and combat runs.
 
NewYorkophile said:
Either way, I'd bet they're doing preflight. No reason to wear a helmet at that particular base in SW Asia when it's 125 degrees and 100% humidity outside.
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Yes there is a good reason. For the same reason to wear a reflective belt in a combat zone: USAF idiocy. :)

pete2800 said:
I had a professor that was a B-52 Nav.... He used to tell us about how safe he felt sitting in his downward ejection seat while doing low-level exercises.

He was a funny dude.
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Best reason to be an EWO, weird as they were: you retained the ability to eject upwards. Good pilot would at least try to, if possible, get a zoom climb going before ejection.
 
MikeD said:
Following an accident in La Junta, CO, where the two jumpseaters rode the plane in to a fatal ending; the jumpseats werent' used anymore.
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The way he described it to me, he said the different crew positions ejected in a staggered order, then the aircraft had to be in a specific pitch attitude and airspeed in order to make a successful jump out the hatch. He described it as a pretty narrow envelope, and why he never really believed it would be a realistic option.
 
Now we see what happens when you bust the 3nm "national welfare" request at Devil's Tower.
 
That's a really weird center description for the TFR. 120nm from RAP on the 310R? Even if the Black Hills weren't in the way, it's unlikely one could pick up RAP that far out. I'm a little rusty, but below 18K, doesn't a HVOR service volume extend only 100nm?
 
NewYorkophile said:
Yeah, and I wore my flak vest and survival vest on every combat mission I flew, because the rules said I had to.

...No reason to wear a helmet at that particular base in SW Asia when it's 125 degrees and 100% humidity outside.
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Exactly. We'd take our helmets off all the time (not all at once :-)). Sometimes the humidity was unbearable.
 
rframe said:
One of my flight students is a retired B52 crew chief. As I understand it (and I might have this wrong), everyone but the chief has ejection seats. He's supposed to be the last guy out and he's supposed to fall through an opening in the floor and do a tuck and roll maneuver, basically he said it's highly unlikely the chief will make it out alive.
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Uh, the "crew chief" is not an aircrew member (the BUFF does not have "flying crew chiefs" like some aircraft), and thus doesn't have a crew station with or without an ejection seat.

The B-52 crew is a Pilot, Copilot, and three Navs.

So not sure what your student is talking about, unless he went on an incentive ride and had to sit in a jumpseat. Maybe you can ask him some more details about how/why he has this B-52 flight time as someone in the maintenance team.
 
atracnitrix said:
Montana reporting in. Here's a link to my hometown paper that includes eyewitness accounts and some photos of the incident.

http://billingsgazette.com/news/sta...cle_ae05c864-4364-5b36-adb4-5dce07ffdd23.html
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All kinds of Montana awesomeness in this quote. Always liked the people in that part of the world....

“Them fellas were about as polite young guys as you could imagine,” he said. “I’m just damned thankful they all lived.”





Read more: http://billingsgazette.com/news/sta...364-5b36-adb4-5dce07ffdd23.html#ixzz2cVRkv1nH
 
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