Macchi Ejection - McAllister & Heideman

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[@GrumpyOldMan2]

Another great and informative interview. Thanks to all.

[@TheRealNeill]

I was a techo on Macchis at 76SQN in the late 90s (until we got the Hawk 127). I was always very careful when inspecting the seats for obvious reasons.

[@allandavis8201]

I was an RAF “Techo” or as we say in Blighty “Techie” on various types and spent 24 years of hard work and play, I have to say that I, unfortunately, never worked with the RAAF but would have loved to. In my service I was lucky that only one aircraft that I had worked on (not on the day it crashed) crashed, a Jet Provost 5A flying from the RAF College Cranwell No1 Basic Flying Training School, both pilots, Instructor and Student safely ejected, but it was memorable because it crashed on the 28th (maybe the 27th) of May, My Birthday 🎁 and it had the fleet number (tail number) “28”.
Given that this incident occurred in 1969 I think these two gentlemen have pretty good memories, nobody can recollect everything, even straight after the events, and I sure the Air Accident investigators would have coaxed as much information out of them so all in all I have great respect that they can still recall so much of an event that both of them, probably, would would care to forget.
I wasn’t a Armourer so don’t know the specifics about seats sequences but, if memory serves, doesn’t the drouge chute bullet fall away once the chute has done its job, or does it stay with the main chute, I’m not sure but whatever the case if it was flapping around it could’ve easily caused Mr Heideman some pretty serious injuries, very lucky men.
The striking thing for me is how much seemed to go wrong during the flight (just the aborted stall turn) and the ejection sequence, the canopy not going and the rear seat not going straight away, that obviously caused both gentlemen to be injured quite badly, the power outage at the control tower and the delay in the rescue helicopter getting on scene makes the whole thing a little bit worse than it should have been.
Really glad that both these gentlemen survived the ordeal and lived to fly another day. Really enjoyed this conversation, very informative, interesting and, tbh, entertaining. Subscribed.

[@daisybeagle6259]

Great stories chaps! Gday to you Stew from Doddsy

[@glennmcc64]

The Macchi's never had a rocket seat, they were heavier.
The PC9, that replaced the Macchi at least started out with the old charge seat due to weight.
When I was there(Late eighties), the pilots banged out through the canopy due to a subsequent incident near Gin-Gin. They installed a canopy breaker on the top of the seat.

[@allandavis8201]

Hi @glenmcc64, do you happen to know what manufacturer seats they were, I’m interested because my father was an Armourer in the RAF when this accident occurred, he was a great advocate for the Martin Baker seats and I don’t think that, apart from the Foland Gnat, the RAF have never used any other seats, obviously ejection seats were relatively new in 1969 and were developing in leaps and bounds, I feel that these two pilots were very very lucky to have survived considering the two issues they had, the canopy not going, and the rear seat not going instantly the seat pan handle was pulled. The other question I have is do or did the RAAF have the “caterpillar club” for pilots and crew members who successfully ejected??.

[@jamesreardon8585]

Brave men all, scary stuff.

[@chuckygobyebye]

Bonkers.