Don't worry Doc, it's happened to the best of us. :)

Wasnt it the case that being killed by gunfire in your fighter was the 3rd worst thing that could happen to you? The 2nd worst being burned to death and the absolute worst was being burned and then surviving. It was your face that copped it. IIRC, there were whole wards of hospitals set up for fighter pilots.

Wasn't being trapped inside the cockpit too common in the early railed-canopy fighters and isn't that why the crowbar was eventually put inside the Spit's 'pit? Anyway, I bet more than one pilot went down because of panic.