The UWARS consists of two parachute harness sensing-release units (Figure 1-25), one fitted to each parachute riser. The UWARS unit is designed to operate within 2.5 seconds after being immersed in seawater. The UWARS unit will remain inactive when exposed to humidity, rain, and salt spray. The
UWARS consists of two independent self-contained activation devices that attach to the parachute risers and the left and right canopy releases. The UWARS is functionally independent from the manual release system. It does not affect the operation of the manual release, nor does it depend on the manual release for proper operation.
SURVIVAL KIT.
The ACES II ejection seat provides for stowage of a nonrigid equipment package in the seat bucket, covered by a rigid, con-toured seat pan.
The survival kit (Figure 1-26) consists of a fabric case that houses the life raft, a rucksack, and a small inner container for the stowage of survival equipment. A radio locator beacon is installed on the outside of the kit. Two adjustable straps secure the kit to the torso harness by means of quick-release connectors.
SURVIVAL KIT DEPLOYMENT SELECTOR.
A kit deployment selector, located in the right side forward edge of the seat pan, allows automatic or manual deployment of the rucksack and life raft to be preselected. When automatic deploy-ment is selected, the kit closures are released by a 4-second de-lay cutter that is armed at seat-pilot separation. This allows the rucksack and life raft to drop on a 25-foot lanyard. The rucksack and life raft can be manually deployed during descent by pulling the manual release ring. The inner container is secured to the kit case, and does not deploy.
RADIO LOCATOR BEACON.
The radio locator beacon is activated and its antenna is deployed automatically at seat/pilot separation. A control switch is pro-vided in the left side, forward edge of the seat pan, to permit overriding the automatic operation of this beacon.
EMERGENCY MANUAL CHUTE HANDLE.
The emergency manual chute handle (Figure 1-24) is placarded EMERGENCY MANUAL CHUTE. The handle cannot be acti-vated while the seat is in the aircraft. After ejection, if automatic recovery sequence is not completed, the handle may be pulled to ballistically deploy recovery chute and disconnect pilot from seat.
Figure 1-25. Universal Water Activated Release System (UWARS)
SEAT OPERATION - EJECTION SEQUENCE.
a. Escape begins by grasping and pulling either or both ejection handles in an up and aftward direction. Actua-tion fires a cartridge, generating gas pressure that acti-vates the haulback inertia reel and fires other cartridge actuated components for immediate jettisoning of the canopy and activation of an aircraft-mounted delay ini-tiator. When Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) is in pri-mary control mode, a signal will be sent from the Arma-ment Logic Module (ALM) to the CICU when ejecting.
When this signal is received, the IFF will be set into emergency mode. When the IFF is in backup control mode, the gas pressure also closes a switch activating the aircraft emergency IFF system.
Do not attempt to eject with the canopy open, since the canopy will not jettison and the bow structure will obstruct the escape clearance en-velope.
b. The forward structural bow of the canopy clears the ejection path in approximately 0.2 second.
NOTE
In the event the canopy fails to jettison, the canopy breaker at the top of the seat will shatter the canopy and an ejection can take place.
c. The delay initiator fires 0.3 second after activation, causing a cartridge in the rocket catapult to fire, pro-jecting the seat upward. During the upward travel, the pilot’s personal leads separate, the seat/airplane gas disconnect separates, and a lanyard actuates the emer-gency oxygen cylinder. Also, the acceleration forces cause the pilot’s legs to be held within the sides of the seat bucket due to the raised ejection controls. Catapult pressure activates two thermal batteries, providing electrical power for the recovery sequencer.
d. As the seat moves up the guide rails, the pitot tubes at each side of the headrest (parachute container) are ex-posed to the airstream. Speed and altitude transducers determine the airspeed and altitude of the seat. The re-covery sequencer selects the appropriate automatic se-quence.
e. As the seat approaches the top of the guide rails:
(2) Recovery sequencer is initiated by a switch that closes on contact with a striker plate on the right guide rail.
(3) An electrical signal from the sequencer fires a cartridge, generating pressure to spin up a pitch rate gyro.
(4) Upon reaching its operating speed, the gyro is uncaged and the pitch stabilization vernier rocket motor ignites.
(5) As the seat leaves the guide rails, the rocket mo-tor accelerates the seat away from the aircraft in a suitable trajectory.
(6) The gyro controlled vernier rocket motor stabi-lizes the seat in its trajectory. Leg flailing due to windblast is prevented by the high extended sides of the seat bucket with the raised ejection controls, which also aids in maintaining seat sta-bility.
(7) The remainder of the recovery sequences de-pends upon the recovery mode. The envelopes relating to each mode of operation are shown in Figure 3-7. The recovery sequence for each mode is as follows:
Mode 1 Operation.
(Figure 3-5) In mode 1, the recovery parachute mortar is fired 0.2 second after rocket catapult ignition. As the mortar propels the parachute assembly away from the seat, 1.15-second delay reefing line cutters are activated and the pilot chute is released.
The harness release thruster is actuated 0.25 second later and the deploying parachute separates the pilot from the seat. The parachute inflates to the reefed configuration until the reefing line cutters actuate to permit full inflation. The survival kit is au-tomatically deployed approximately 4.0 seconds after seat/man separation (if automatic survival kit deployment is selected). In addition, if the locator beacon rocker switch is in the automatic position, the beacon will be activated at this time.
Mode 2 Operation.
(Figure 3-5) In Mode 2, the drogue gun is initiated as the seat approaches the top of the guide rails. Projection of the drogue gun slug deploys the extraction chute which in turn deploys the drogue chute. The drogue chute provides seat retardation and additional stabilization for high-speed ejections. The recovery parachute mortar is fired 0.82 second after rocket catapult igni-tion, and 0.15 second later the drogue chute is severed from the
Mode 3 Operation.
In Mode 3, the operation and sequence of events is identical to that for Mode 2 (Figure 3-5), except that after the drogue chute is deployed, the sequence is interrupted until the altitude and speed decrease to Mode 2 conditions (Figure 3-7).
BACK-UP RECOVERY MODE OPERATION.
The EMERGENCY MANUAL CHUTE handle (Figure 1-24) cannot be activated while the seat is in the aircraft. After ejec-tion, pulling the handle will ballistically deploy chute and dis-connect pilot from seat.