What is the limit of the ACES II for the F-16, in terms of altitude and airspeed for safe ejection?
The following video tells the story of an F-15 pilot who ejected at supersonic speed and barely survived.
In general, it also seems that ejection, even under controlled circumstances is not a trivial matter:
I'm curious what the safe ejection speed and altitude is for an F-16, with the ACES II ejection seat.
I've read about the ACES II here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACES_II and watched a documentary about ejection seats in general.
It seems to me that supersonic ejections should be done with some form of capsule to protect the pilot, and not allow the pilot to be exposed directly to the atmosphere.
I can imagine that the manual for the F-16/ACES II provides some kind of graph that describes the safety of ejection as a function of airspeed and altitude, assuming the same orientation of the plane (although the ACES II is known for being able to eject safely with the plane inverted, with a certain minimum altitude).
As a bonus question: What does the F-16 manual specify as a procedure, if ejection is not safe? Does the manual call for the pilot to eject anyway, at any speed, and pray for the best? Or does it call for trying to mitigate the situation without ejection, when this is not safe?