Radar Observer
......."In the Sea Vixen, the radar observer's hatch was flat with a tiny window in it. To leave the aircraft in an emergency, the hatch had to be jettisoned, and could not be ejected through. Around the same time improved ejector seats were fitted, the hatch cover was redesigned with a much larger perspex area and made frangible so the observer could eject through the hatch. These frangible hatches are bulged, and appear on most FAW.2s. Unfortunately if your seat failed to fire, this meant you had to try and escape through the clear part of the hatch, which was a very tight fit.
The observer had the tricky job of steering the radar and using his twin radar screens to figure out where the target was and direct the pilot to follow a course leading to interception. The radar's 'look down' performance was non-existent, so the aircraft had to be flying lower than the intended target - tricky if the target was coming in at low level, hugging the deck! The type's secondary task of ground attack swapped the crew's roles somewhat, with the pilot now handling much of the work and the observer reduced to calling out speed and altitude - particularly in dive attacks, when the pilot's attention was on the gunsight. The pilot's right thigh was within reach of the observer, and a jab with a suitably pointy object was a useful backup to ensure a dive was pulled out of in time"........
