OK chaps, I'll try again. It is kind of long - sorry about that.
Starfighter Crash (Sorta Mustang Related)
I should point out that I am Canadian and retired from the Royal Canadian Air Force after a 32 year career, much of it spent flying the CF-104 Starfighter in Europe and Canada. The Starfighter was a single engine Mach 2 fighter that was more fun to fly than one should be allowed to have.
The incident in question occurred while serving at our largest fighter base located in northern Alberta. Our squadron had the task of training pilots to serve in Europe with NATO. We also conducted Fighter Weapons training similar to the USAF Fighter Weapons Instructor Course or the USN Top Gun School. On this particular date we were scheduled to run a huge attack training mission with fighter aircraft from our Air Force as well as aircraft from the U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force. Half of the aircraft were to simulate attack on a target in northern Alberta and the other half were to defend against an attack. My wingman and I were part of the attack force. Lots of fun! Oh yes, most of our Starfighters were single seat but we did have a few 2 seaters. On this day I had one of the 2 seaters and a good friend (our German Air Force exchange pilot) decided to hop into my rear seat – a decision I am sure he came to regret.
Our attack tactics at the time were pretty simple – low and fast. We got airborne as planned and the enroute portion was uneventful (we were not detected by the defenders). The approach to the target was planned for 540 knots (about 600 mph) at about 250 feet above ground. Things looked pretty good for a while. I had just had a quick check of my map and when I looked up there were a few large white herons right on the nose, too late to do anything. Two of them passed just to the left of the canopy and another just to the right and one or more impacted probably in the engine intake area. I pulled up and the engine compressor stalled. I tried to clear the stall but there was so much damage that I could not even move the throttle. In the meantime we had gained a bit of altitude but lost a lot of speed which is not a good thing in an aircraft with the gliding characteristics of a rock. The outcome was predictable so I called for my friend to EJECT and shortly after I followed. I was told that he went out at about 480 feet and I left at about 275 feet – much too late considering the sink rate.
There are a lot of things that happen in the ejection sequence in a very short period of time and it is of course quite violent. The canopy goes, a rocket blasts the seat out of the cockpit, when the seat is clear of the aircraft the harness opens and the pilot is dumped out of the seat and then the parachute opens. There is a lot of “G” involved when the rocket fires and it is normal to black out. I recall the hearing the incredibly loud blast and then the absolute silence when the rocket stopped. When the ‘chute opened I sort of came to. Because of the low altitude and the high sink rate there was not a lot of time in the ‘chute before I landed, maybe one or two swings, which was fine with me because I have this problem with heights.
A U.S. Navy E-2C Hawkeye aircraft was part of the exercise and orbited the area which was nice because I had someone to talk to – it took a couple of hours for the rescue chopper to arrive and my friend and I were quite far apart.
Other than minor cuts and bruises both of us fared pretty well. My wife sometimes claims that there was brain damage involved but I think she’s just trying to be funny – maybe.
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