Achilles

“There’s a hydraulic fuel leak: you’ll need to jettison,” Lou Chinal heard in his helmet radio. When you deploy your ejection kit, “Keep your elbows in,” Lou told me. “If you don’t keep them in, when you eject you’ll either lose ‘em or break ‘em.” “How far did you fall?” I asked. Lou paused, “About 13,500 feet.”