News

F-15 Egress Shop ensures pilots land safely

  • Published
  • By Wayne Crenshaw
  • 78th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
Before an F-15 Eagle flies following programmed depot maintenance here, every component is exhaustively tested except for one - the ejection system.

If it was tested, it would have to be rebuilt again, so testing it is simply not practical.

Pilots just have to put their faith in the seven people who work in the F-15 Egress Shop.

"They have to have a tremendous amount of integrity," said George Reid, F-15 flight chief. "I can't emphasize enough how important it is, how each and every one of these guys have to really pay attention to what they are doing. You can't have an off day here."

An F-15 comes to Robins for PDM approximately every six years, and the Egress Shop's job is to remove and completely refurbish the ejection system.

The system is a marvel of engineering called an Advanced Complex Ejection Seat, or ACES II. The system is designed to set off a complex sequence of events in a split second, and must work 100 percent of the time.

Its components include a rocket motor, a sensor to gauge the plane's altitude and speed at the time of the ejection, a gyro to stabilize the seat during ejection, and two parachutes.

The pilot and seat separate after ejection. One parachute is to save the pilot while the other is to slow the seat's fall.

Reid said no ejection seat has ever failed to operate as a result of work done at Robins. The last time a seat refurbished here had to be used was in 2007 when an F-15 broke apart in mid-air. The pilot safely ejected.

Phil Welch, the work leader in the shop, said if a seat failed to work and it was determined to be the result of a mistake by his team, they would be in serious trouble. But, that's not what motivates them to do it right.

"What it's about is saving a pilot's life. That's what we think about," he said.