Fighter pilot neck spasms

Factual Questions
1

I just finished watching the MST3K classic “The Starfighters” about leathery-faced F-104 pilots. Starring Bob Dornan!

Anyways, in one scene just before take-off, the pilots did this weird move. They tilted their head back, held it and jerked it forward, kind of like a massive sneeze. Is this a common thing to do before you take off in a fighter? What does it do?

2

I dunno they pull a lot a G’s maybe it loosens the vertebrae or somthin’. But check out this hazard. In the book Dumb, Dumber,Dumbest by John Kohut, there are two listings for crashes of fighters caused by the pilots using a ‘piddle bag’, a plastic bag with a sponge in it for calls of nature. In one the pilot undid his lapbelt which got caught between the seat and the control stick sending the plane into a 30,000 ft dive. He had to eject.
In the other the pilot had the bag all ready , he raised himself to ‘releave the pressure’, he pressed the rudder pedals and went into a diving roll. Another ejection.
Wonder if they remember to zip before ejecting?

" Pardon me while I have a strange interlude."-Marx (Melissa Gilbert is in the rest room right now or she would have a snappy comeback)

3

After a quick email to my brother whom is an S-3B viking pilot… He knows of something that might look like that, but it is from when the naval pilot is preping for the catshot, so it might not apply for starfighter pilots. When he is getting ready to be catshot, he will put his head back and salute the DO, then put his head down to prepare for the force of the catshot. This can easily look like what Alphagene is describing.

>>Being Chaotic Evil means never having to say your sorry…unless the other guy is bigger than you.<<

—The dragon observes