One thing I've never really understood is why people get injured by the tailplane of planes. When you look at parachutist jumping from a plane, they allways fall with the same forward speed as the plane, and they fall clear of the tail by several meters. I realise this has something to do with the speed the plane moves, as the distance to the tailsection will decrease with increasing speed. Some pilots even chose to step out on the wing if the plane was stable enough.
This is a quite dramatic allmost-bailout-story from an american Avenger-pilot operating from USS Ranger in Norway, 1943:

"The tracers that flashed by made a complete circle of the cockpit. Then, just before I pushed the bomb release over the ship, my engine took a direct hit. There was a small explosion with a brief flash of fire and smoke over the cockpit as I pushed the pickle releasing the two remaining bombs. One 500-pounder landed on the deck of the tanker. The ship exploded and ran aground as it burned.

Garner, my turret gunner, shouted, "We're on fire!" I hauled back on the stick to gain altitude, then picked up the mike and shouted over the intercom, "Bail Out!"

At about 800 feet, I opened the hatch, sprung my safety belt, and started to climb out of the cockpit. I had never bailed out of a plane before and in the confusion forgot to pull the radio cord from my helmet. Consequently, I heard a call from Garner. "Don't jump, don't jump. Jackson's popped his chute in the plane and he can't get out!" It seems that Jackson, in his excitement, had accidentally pulled his ripcord inside the belly of the TBF. The spring-loaded silk had let loose all over the place. He tried several times to bundle the slippery silk in his arms and work his way through the narrow door, but no such luck--he was trapped.

As I settled back into the cockpit, I picked up the mike and gave instructions to Jackson and Garner to fasten their safety belts and prepare for a crash landing. Our plane was still over the shipping lanes--not far from the burning tanker.

There was no way I could land on that rough, rocky shore of Norway, so I chose to make a water landing. I started letting down toward one of the small islands to make a wheels-up, full-stall water landing.

About then I realized that I was the lone target of concentrated AA fire. It got hotter as I lost altitude. I began to think I would never make it all the way down, so I shoved the throttle forward and headed toward the open sea, taking some violent evasive action to shake the gunners off my tail. It was a miracle that I wasn't hit again--or maybe I was.

At about two miles out I started climbing to gain altitude. The plane was still laying down a stream of smoke. I checked the cockpit instruments expecting to see several red warning lights, but there were none. Oil pressure, OK; cylinder head temperature, OK; tachometer and throttle, working. I was carrying about 30 inches of mercury--what a relief!"

The whole story is here: http://www.airgroup4.com/book/indx/index1.htm

Skarphol

This would be true only in a vacuum....
But the plane and the pilot move in the air, and the CX of both is completelly different.
So as soon the pilot gets out of the plane, the air friction will slow him down considerably.... it's the same as if you drive a car 100mph, open a window and put your hand out of the window, you will feel the friction forces pulling your hand toward the back of your car.
Then, with a WWII warplane, you can add to this effect that the propeller push the air toward the tailplane, and you will understand "why people get injured by the tailplane of planes"

You are of course right about that, you point out a very good example by the way.
But what I am thinking about is; when you see parashooters jump out of the side door of a plane, they never seem to be anywhere near the tailplane. I guess planes used for parashooters fly as slow as possible in order to reduse the risk of hitting the stabilizer.

Skarphol

Yep, and they don't exit the plane by the top of it.
A usual procedure for a "safe bailout" out of a WWII fighter was to:
- jettison canopy
- get free of belt, safeties, inhalator, hearings, etc...
- push quick and hard on the stick with a leg to gex "expulsated" from the pit.

When canopy can't be jettisonned, it becomes harder...

I haven't gotten into a serious flatspin in a long time.. but I remember in IL2 one of the "Ohhhhh woooooow" things for me was that if you were in too great a spin the centrifugal force prevented you from bailing out... I would like to see the view changed for a bail out... in addition to the closeup of the pilot that we now see I think it would be great to have a first person view also... sort of like the view that happens when you explode in the air.... but moving and with a chute above and legs below...

Without making things too extensive (or complicated) I suppose it would be cool if the game had a run, jump, lay down feature for the pilot once he landed on the ground (parachute or crash landing)...that way the game could have a feature where the pilot trys to make his way back to friendly territory. The exsisiting tanks, artillery, and vehicles could act as enemy obstacles the pilots needs to avoid (line of sight shooting)...as long as the pilot "lives" he can keep going...I would not see the pilot having a gun. In most "real life" situations downed pilots just tryed to get home (or they got caught) they didn't spend a lot of time playing "Rambo"...

It would be nice to have all of the bailing out be in first person though (even if there had to be a short fade out for the transition).

excellent idea !!

I wonder if pilots bailing out ever smacked into another plane yikes!