BANSHEE / WISELY / Etc. - Requests to the Forum Members - A REPONSE

[mike bennett]

Dear Forum Members

It seems that I have ruffled a few feathers among some forum members.

The following comments are mainly intended for the critics who have openly written about me.

For the past 25 years I have been researching the history and development of assisted aircrew escape systems.
I have tried to contact the actual people, or their relatives and colleagues, who have ejected to ensure that several elements are covered.

I have made what I consider "polite" requests to this forum and am grateful to the many positive responses I have received.

Why make the requests (Yes 14 of them)

1. I get the actual story - not the sanitized story.

2. I can then correspond with the ejectee and clarify information with them - something I have done with several hundred, amicably and with respect.

3. Where ejectees have declined I have abided by theior wishes and not recontacted them.

4. I hopefully eliminate "wannabes" - of which there seems to be an increasing amount.

Why the request posts to this Forum - For your information I was invited to join and ask my questions..

It was seen as way of direct contact with those who where / are there.

The posting of the "BANSHEE" request was a genuine request - YES REQUEST (No. 13) - to help add to the history of the aircraft and the people that flew them.

The response to suggest a "wannabe" I accepted with good grace, BUT, then to have the Thread closed - so that I could not even issue a response to the comment on "why not post some stories" - which I will be glad to do - seems amazingly heavy handed.
I'm not sure who closed the THREAD - I'm hoping it was to stop the "sniping that had begun" without awaiting for my response


Concerning trying to locate individuals -
To tell me that you know of someone and that you're not prepared to contact them seems remarkably strange - and - a waste of your time - and the forums'. If you're not prepared to contact them fine - but why make an issue of it.
Surely it is up to the person to make the decision not to contact me -
I do not see the harm in asking someone who knows someone to make them aware that I am looking for them.

I am also quite capable, like any other person, of making a typo error - if these appear in postings the majority of readers understand and accept this.

You point out that I insinuated that the person in question was "retarded" due to my abbreviation retd for "retired" instead of ""ret."
I TAKE ISSUE HERE - that IS YOUR slant on things - I doubt many others would have seen it as that.
In fact you have actually slurred my integrity by making such a suggestion.
Then perhaps I do not understand your sense, or lack of humour (English (UK)) or should I put "humor" in case that gets "deliberately" misinterpretted

Another "notch on my website" - not sure what you mean by this - please explain.

This information, the result of "GENUINE HISTORIC RESEARCH" is then made available to other interested people.

Returning to the Banshee page - this took nearly 14 years to accumulate the information - and there is still more to find - hence the request.


OVER TO YOU


Mike Bennett
Project Get Out and Walk

 

[Schnugg]

Mike, it's great you have a hobby collecting ejection information. But for our purposes (wrt Naval aviators and NFOs) the data you seek on ejections is already collated and used by our Naval Safety Center to improve our ejection survivability and to ammend our NATOPS manuals. Our Safety Center has access to all of our priveleged MIRs.

So while what you seek to create is nice to have, it's not something we need to have or neccessarily want.

I've known many fine men who ejected and did not make it...rehashing how they died on the internet, in my mind does not "honor them."

Asking you to contribute with a story or two from your aviation adventures is not too much to ask.

 

[mike bennett]

Dear Old Guy,
Thank you for the response.

I understand and appreciate your points of view and believe that open exchanges are important on any forum and can answer relevant questions and clarify any misunderstandings.

I have always made it very clear to everyone that I have not been, nor have ever been in the military, aeromed, mechanical or any other related role. I am not a representative for any ejection seat company.

I am a very interested and enthusiastic historian with a great interest in assisted aircrew escape systems and the people who developed, tested and unltimately used them. The lack of material in the public domain was what set me on the research trail.

There are many people interested in the activities of those who we rely on to defend our freedoms.

I understand that the Naval Safety Center, also that of the Air Force and similar safety establishments around the world put into practice the lessons learned for the benefit people such as yourself and not the general public, apart from where it also ensures their safety.

Quote - "So while what you seek to create is nice to have, it's not something we need to have or neccessarily want."

I have no problem with your comment, and what I have done may be of no use to you, nor something that you would perhaps choose to have had done.

There are however a lot of people who do want this kind of information.

Quote - "I've known many fine men who ejected and did not make it...rehashing how they died on the internet, in my mind does not "honor them."

Again opinions differ between people and I feel that the inclusion of those who died, provided that it is done so in in a respectful manner does not denegate their memory.

In the initial early years of the project I did not intend to include details of aviators and crew who ejected and did not survive. What changed my mind was that I received a lot of letters (in the days before emails and the internet) from widows and relatives requesting that their "loved ones" were not forgotten and that they would like to see them included in any future publication or listing.

I hope that I have made my position clear and that while I respect your opinions I also hope that you will respect mine.

Yours failthfully

Mike Bennett
England

Concerning aviation stories being put on this Forum - my reasons for not doing so until now was that I thought, erroneously, that if I kept repeating what was on the website I would be criticised for duplicating material and "clogging up" Forum webspace.

To help rectify this matter I am adding to this response a letter I received from a pilot who was one of the first Naval Aviators to use a McDonnell ejection seat from an F2H-2 Banshee over 50 years ago.

----------------------------------------------------------------------


I read your ad in the July 2006 MOAA magazine and thought I would send you
the following:

I was a newly designated U.S. Naval Aviator and green Ensign assigned to
Attack Squadron 76 stationed at Oceana, VA in May of 1955. We had been
assigned Reserve Force McDonnel Douglas F2H2 Banshee aircraft while waiting
for our Grumman F9F8 Cougars. On Dec 7, 1955 (as auspicious date) I was
flying an instrument training flight in VFR conditions over Richmond, VA at
20,000 feet. My leader was in the chase position acting as FAA control
providing me with flight clearance instructions. I had just entered a
holding pattern at about 200 knots awaiting further clearance from my flight
leader. As I rolled out of a turn I felt a significant "bump" and the
aircraft started a right climbing turn I had not commanded. I attempted to
lower the nose and level the wings but the aircraft did not respond and kept
climbing to the right. I realized I did not have control and elected to
eject. When I released my grip on the control stick the control stick
smashed into the instrument panel breaking the glass on the directional gyro
instrument. Convinced that I was no longer in control I raised the leg
restraints and reached for the face curtain. I pulled the face curtain and
was ejected successfully from the aircraft. )It wasn't until I was on the
ground and had called back to the squadron that I learned that my flight
leader had run into my vertical stabilizer with his starboard wing tank,
ripping the fuselage just forward of the empennage. The wind stream then
tore the entire empennage, which was intact except for a bent vertical
stabilizer, from the aircraft. It was the departure of the empennage that
pulled the control cables causing the right climbing turn).

I succesfully separated myself manually from the ejection seat, located the
parachute D ring and popped the chute. I was still about 20000 feet so it
took almost 20 minutes to reach the ground. I was uninjured and I only lost
the kneepad cards from my kneeboard which stayed on my thigh. The aircraft
and associated parts (empennage, seat, canopy, and tailless aircraft) hit
the ground in a high class residential area causing a house fire. By the
time I reached the ground news of the aircraft impact was already on the TV.

Regards,

Robert Ammann
CAPT, USN, Retired

 

[Schnugg]

Thanks for the reply and story.

 

[brownshoe]

Thanks Mike, that reads like an old "Approach" story. Very nice.

Steve

 

[mike bennett]

Bob Amman has written to me with a lot more details of the ejection and provided a

photo.

Brilliant photo of the tail of the Banshee.

Pure vintage automobile

As soon as I've written up the details I'll send them to the forum.

Bob Ammann who ejected from the Banshee


Regards

Mike Bennett