Rob, you may have missed my point. Sitting in a spinning / rolling / or both airplane may well be generating acceleration (g's) that tend to hold the pilot in the airplane. I believe that it would be helpful in such circumstances to have something outside of the cockpit to grab and pull on to help crawl out of the airplane. Then the whole idea is to fall off.Dear BJC,
Take it from an old skydiver - and jump-pilot - using struts to lever your way out of an airplane only works at low Gs and airspeeds slower than 100 knots. It also helps if you are young, light-weight and athletic.
Even if the pilot only jiggles the ailerons ... you are falling off!
If you try something stupid on the strut, an experienced jump-pilot will beat you with the wing until you fall off! ... maybe conscious?????
I know that I would be hard pressed to exit the Pitts without handholds outside the cockpit.
Yup, I have dismissed skydivers from the strut.
BJC