Week 1 Period: Egress
The first period of the course teaches you to leave the aircraft, because that is the skill with the shortest deadline
22 February 2027
Before you arrive#
Nothing. This is the one period of the course with no preparation, and that is deliberate: everything you learn today is what you would need if the course went wrong on its first day.
In this period#
You sit in the seat on the ground, in the hangar, with the aircraft switched off, and practise leaving it until you can do it without looking down.
The seat fires under two conditions:
- at zero altitude and zero airspeed
- outside that envelope, in a descending turn, at low level, with results that depend on numbers you are about to memorise
The decision to use it is irreversible and has to be made faster than you can reason it through, so it is made in advance — in the brief, on the ground, as a specific altitude in feet.
In the second half, Ida walks you around the airframe: intakes, control surfaces, tyres, panels. You do not sign the release form in this period, because you are not yet qualified to.
Afterwards#
Write down your personal minimum ejection altitude and bring it to week 2. You will be asked to justify it, and you will revise it at least twice before week 10.
The spec
What you bring to the session. Written so a reader can tell whether it has been met without asking you.
- you can find and pull the ejection handle with your eyes closed
- you can state the seat's minimum safe envelope from memory
- you have walked the aircraft with the crew chief and signed nothing
Teaching team
- Wren Oyelaran — convenor
- Ida Bergström — other