China white paper highlights US military 'competition'

[KRonn]

I worked on P3 aircraft when I was in the Reserves. Trying to remember what doors and egress points are on the plane. It has one door in the rear of the fuselage, I forget but doubt if any others. The crew can probably bail out through the bomb bay, after open the floor hatches. I think that's about it; but I could be forgetting something. Not a great set up for bail outs, but I'd say the bomb bay would be the best. That's even tricky since it has bars lengthwise, as I remember, so with  a chute on it might be a tight fit going through on either side of the bay. I was never air crew (thought about it), so I don't know what the procedures for bail out are.

[Berkut]

I know what the first step is, at least for aircraft like these:

1. Bend over and kiss your ass goodye.

[MadBurgerMaker]

From what I recall, it goes kinda like this: you gotta try to put your gear on while everything is all broken and fucked up, then hope you can even get out the damn door (don't know about the bay), then if you can, hope you don't hit anything on the way out, then hope your chute opens and you don't just fall, then hope your shit works when you hit the water (and try to remember not to hit that button thing to drop out of the chute until a foot hits the water so you don't kill yourself by leaving it at 500 feet or something crazy: apparently the water can look a lot closer than it actually is if there aren't any reference points) and you don't get tangled up and drown, then hope you don't get eaten by something while you're trying to find/get into the raft (assuming you can even find it), then hope someone shows up to pick you up.

This is just what I remember from several years ago now.  A lot of this would be accompanied by some weirdo AW1 cackling about how we're totally fucked if this actually goes down (hey thanks buddy).  I ruined my knees before having to go much further than this in the training though.  Got through all the fun stuff, A school, etc, then cross rated (just took the test for a different rating) for the crow after hurting myself.  Welp.

You don't even get the option to bail out in a helo.  Just ride it down and hang on + pray, then try to get out of it while it rapidly rolls over and sinks.  The dunker was kind of a fun little exercise until you think about what it's for and why you have blackout goggles on.   All of Disney week was like that, really.

I should have stuck with ATC and never listened to the MEPS dude about Aircrew.    When I would hang out with the ATC guys while I was at Pensacola SAR, they all seemed pretty chill, would let me hang out in the tower and down where they...do their thing...some room with a bunch of radar screens...forget what it's called.  Nice comfortable chairs, air conditioned, nothing falling off or catching fire or blowing up around you, none of this parachute shit, etc.

I know what the first step is, at least for aircraft like these:

1. Bend over and kiss your ass goodye.

Or this, yeah.

[DGuller]

Ok, you guys convinced me, I'm going to try to avoid bailing out of a plane over water.

[grumbler]

I worked on P3 aircraft when I was in the Reserves. Trying to remember what doors and egress points are on the plane. It has one door in the rear of the fuselage, I forget but doubt if any others. The crew can probably bail out through the bomb bay, after open the floor hatches. I think that's about it; but I could be forgetting something. Not a great set up for bail outs, but I'd say the bomb bay would be the best. That's even tricky since it has bars lengthwise, as I remember, so with  a chute on it might be a tight fit going through on either side of the bay. I was never air crew (thought about it), so I don't know what the procedures for bail out are.

I've flown in the Orions (though not the EP-3s, which could be slightly different than the P-3Bs I flew in), and i recall an aft escape hatch in the floor, several in the ceilings, the door (which isn't that far aft and certainly no one mentioned to me any special risk of hitting the tail, which is raised and far aft of the door).  The forward crew had top and bottom egress as well - dunno if the bottom access was through the bomb bay or not.

There were also exits over the wings.

For bailouts, I think the floor hatch was the recommended way out.

[KRonn]

Thanks for the clarification Grumbler. Been too long since I was on those planes. So for bailing out, they have the rear floor hatch, the rear door, and an egress up front, probably not the bomb bay.

[MadBurgerMaker]

I don't remember an aft floor hatch or any "people" floor hatch for that matter. The ones I remember are the two up forward (overhead and side), the two over the wings, and the aft door, and I remember the aft door being the one to leave through, assuming there isn't fire/death there.  I may be losing it though.

Edit:  http://air.top81.cn/others/gfx/p3/p3c_cv.jpg

41, 46, 48, 127, and 128 are the ones I'm babbling about.

[Siege]

Can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars?

[Razgovory]

Fundamentally, China is trying to maintain the status quo, both domestically and internationally.  Ideally, it would like to see a reunification with Taiwan, and having full sovereignty over all disputed islands.  But it knows full well that those are nothing but dreams, and it won't make any substantial moves toward them.  China's foreign policy goal is to maintain the ambiguous status quo.  There is one catch though - it takes two to tango.  The counterparties need to maintain a similar position.  That involves Taiwan not declaring independence, and Japan not stationing troops on the disputed island, etc.  As long as those conditions hold true, China can stick to rhetoric for domestic consumption.

Such ambiguities aren't good for stable relations.  Legal ambiguities were a major cause for the 30 years war.  Just because the leadership of China believes something now, doesn't mean the leadership of China will believe it 50 years from now.

[grumbler]

I don't remember an aft floor hatch or any "people" floor hatch for that matter. The ones I remember are the two up forward (overhead and side), the two over the wings, and the aft door, and I remember the aft door being the one to leave through, assuming there isn't fire/death there.  I may be losing it though.

Edit:  http://air.top81.cn/others/gfx/p3/p3c_cv.jpg

41, 46, 48, 127, and 128 are the ones I'm babbling about.

My recollection (not having been a crew member, just an observer, and on the P-3B to boot) was that there was a floor hatch just behind the sonobouy launchers (about where the 32 is on that drawing).  It was a while ago, though.