L39 Info?? Anyone??

[Ill Mitch]

He told me that no civilian has ever survived an ejection from an L39 and his seats weren't hot.

'Sled

I wonder how many have tried. I would think that if, properly maintained, hot seats in the L-39 would be pretty good.
I don't think I would ever try to eject from an 1st generation jet like an F-86 or T-33.
As for where to go, Larry in Santa Fe is the place. You can also check out www.classicjets.org. They have some good info. Check out the picture of the civilian MiG-23. Way cool.

 

[A1FlyBoy]

thanks for the info, great stuff!

 

[Ill Mitch]

You can also ty www.l39.com

 

[corytx]

I wonder how many have tried. I would think that if, properly maintained, hot seats in the L-39 would be pretty good.
I don't think I would ever try to eject from an 1st generation jet like an F-86 or T-33.
As for where to go, Larry in Santa Fe is the place. You can also check out www.classicjets.org. They have some good info. Check out the picture of the civilian MiG-23. Way cool.

From what I'm told, you don't eject from the airplane unless it's on fire or it's breaking apart. Aside from those things, ride it in. Anyone know if the L39 that crashed in Washington back in October has been found yet?

http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20041028X01711&key=1

 

[A1FlyBoy]

Cool stuff... I didn't know there were so many places out that that specialize in this aircraft.

 

[Huggyu2]

Patmack,
I disagree. It's a great idea. The L-39 I flew (for a whopping 5 hours) had cold seats. Shortly thereafter, the engine coughed and got the owner's attention. Last I heard, he was installing hot seats.
Lutz is a former military jet pilot, and knows what he's getting into (and, yes, I know he landed an L-39 gear up years back).
As for it's record, if you eject in 90 degrees of bank while low and slow, you're going to have a tough day. About 4 years ago, an L-39 departed the surface at KIWA and one of the pilots ejected.... and lived. Plenty of eastern European pilots have jumped out too.
L-39 training: go to Pride Aviation. They specialize in the L-39. I know one of the IP's, and he's a great stick AND a great IP. They have the training aids you would want. There are other good firms to fly with, too. But, when I win the lottery, I'm using Pride.
In any case, it's a neat jet. I'd love to fly one on a regular basis.

 

[Ill Mitch]

From what I'm told, you don't eject from the airplane unless it's on fire or it's breaking apart. Aside from those things, ride it in. Anyone know if the L39 that crashed in Washington back in October has been found yet?

http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20041028X01711&key=1

The question that comes to my mind is the crashworthiness. Single engine jet, unless I have a long narrow stretch of pavement in front of me, I think I will chance punching out. High performance jets (even the seriously low end ones) aren't really made to land in some farmers field.
Anyone know best glide in the L-39? That would be a major factor in deciding to stay with it or not.

 

[Ill Mitch]

I did a brief search back to 1990 and found only one incident where someone ejected from an L-39 in the United States and he survived.

http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20001211X11106&key=1

 

[hawg2hawk]

There's a horrible idea...

Good thinkin'. Single seat fighters are a lot sportier with hard-mounted seats.

An any event, I think the rich doctors might prefer the option to jettison the aircraft, whether out of the envelope or not, as opposed to the alternative when the engine sh!ts.

The yellow striped handle ain't rocket science, however much you might like to think it is. And believe it or not, there are plenty of civilians out there that know how to maintain a seat.

 

[FN FAL]

I know Don Kirlin down at UIN, he's a fellow ex-Cessna 320 owner. He wouldn't remember me by name, but he would remember that I brought my Cessna 320 down to World Freefall Convention a couple of times. He's an airline pilot and a really nice guy...at least as far as I could tell. Here's a link to his operation and there are some buttons on the side of the page so that you can navigate the site. Note that a lot of phrases are underlined, those are hyperlinks to pictures...

http://www.air-usa.com/AboutUs.htm

One of our strengths is that we have the only factory trained ejection seat maintenance person in the United States. In addition, Air USA is the source for new pyrotechnics (pyro, rocket motor) for the L-39 ejection system and we are the sole source for the new parachute (front, side) designed specifically for the L-39.

Here is the link from the site with a picture of the L-39 ejections seats on a dolly...

http://www.air-usa.com/ejection_seat.htm