83 members and 1 visitor braved the freezing temperatures to venture to the Village Hall to listen to our speaker Kenneth Moore for his sequel to his talk earlier in the year.
Kenneth Moore is an Ex-R.A.F. pilot. He now amusingly talks about the technicalities of fighter planes, their crews and in general about the banter and antics of the various squadrons he has flown with. He showed slides and videos of the Phantom F4 (J) and of the Tornado F3.
He flew Phantoms in the Falkland’s and his squadron moto was I FEAR NO MAN, a rival squadron thought it was fun to modify the moto by adding one letter R between No and Man and to erase the teeth from the picture of the lion on the squadron badge.
On a serious note, he explained the squadron was on Quick Action Alert ready to leave base 24/7 every day in a fully armed plane. Kenneth explained the ejector seat process and showed a video of what happens as opposed to what we may imagine. The process needs 90 knots speed to operate, can be managed with a single or dual handle and is very sudden. 1) The canopy flies off. 2) The harness retracts. 3) The gas catapult is instigated in two stages. 4) The leg restraints apply 5) The seat disconnects 6) The emergency oxygen starts and lasts for 10 minutes 7) A beacon sends a signal to the base radio for site location. 8) The rocket motor starts, to throw the ejector seat clear of the plane. 9) a drogue chute opens. 10) the main chute hopefully opens. 11) the seat disconnects. This whole process takes 1.5 seconds! That is just the ejector seat set up, it’s little wonder the plane costs so much. As of 24/7/24 the use of ejector seats has saved 7720 lives.
Kenneth went on to explain Fast Jet Combat Suits these are the flying kits that each crew member would wear. The survival kit inflates with G Force so the body is compressed and the crewman looks like a Michelin man. There are 16 very technical elements to the flying kit but there are also chocolate bars and bags for aircrew toilet relief.
Kenneth ended his talk describing pick up processes after a plane goes down. He is very informative, speaks as fast as a jet fighter and is highly amusing.