Project Get Out and WalK

Lew Meyer

Lt. (jg) Lew Meyer
photo from 1958
                                                        Lew Meyer

 At approximately 1000' or less and at 150 kts in a level glide Meyer initiated his ejection sequence and ejected through the canopy. He ejected using his Grumman produced ejection seat over farm land with a power line and and an adjacent steeply banked drainage ditch in the area of Hollister, California

Lew remembers,  "I saw the seat separate and was descending facing the sky. I manually pulled the ripcord. It seemed I was fairly low and drifting directly toward power lines. I attempted to dump the chute, so as to stop my trajectory toward the power lines. After some dumping, I realized I was going to be unsuccessful.  I stopped dumping the chute. My drift barely carried me across the lines."

 "Although we were trained to roll when we landed, I drifted so as to land against a steep drainage bank,  thus I impacted an irrigation embankment, preventing any rolling upon landing. It was almost like being a dart. As a consequence, I was quite stiff for three days following my ejection"

Lew Meyer
(January 2004)

 
Lew Meyer

Lew Meyer at his retirement as CDR 1978