In the original Top Gun, Maverick says that he cannot reach the ejection handles because he is pinned forward, which forces Goose to eject them out of the plane. Would the outcome have been different if Maverick was able to punch them out instead of Goose having to? Or would Goose still have crashed into the canopy?
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Iirc the sequence is either both eject if any of them initiates, OR separate initiations are required – setting depending. If its the “both ejected on pull” sequence, its RIO always goes first, because you dont want him to fly into the pilot’s seat.
There’s also like half second or something about that of time separation between canopy, RIOs seat, and pilot seat, exactly because of what is seen in top gun – in a flat spin condition you are going straight down (and only in that direction. Its not a frisbee.) and the canopy could be hit by the seats otherwise. I THINK, by the book, they were supposed to drop the canopy first, wait then initiate, but its been some time since Ive read that procedure page. Goose just initiates the ejection – which drops the canopy – but has no canopy/seat separation, and then has a bad luck in the russian roulette, using ejection seat instead of a gun.
Also, its not like you are going to watch out not to hit it. You dont get to have any control over that seat’s flight path anyway, and the whole sequence (initiation to open and inflated parachute) is 2-3 seconds. Which is VIOLENT, considering you get slowed down from your flight speed to zero in that time…
And chances are good that you’ll black out from the g loads (unless you fuck up / get unlucky / eject outside of safety envelope – then you get maimed, or you die in one unpleasant way or another. That seat is no joke…)
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