I find the decision to inflate the vests before ditching highly questionable, along with the decision to carry a raft from a defunct company that hadn’t been serviced for years. The Survival Products raft I carry has a 12 month service period for example.
Jan_Olieslagers wrote:
More than ever I will think twice before crossing a serious amount of water. This was after all a professional job carrying more emergency equipment than my bird can carry, and they came close to dying.
Well, that’s why you get the training. You can have all the equipment in the world and still die. And they weren’t really that well equipped. I read just the account for now, I will read the analysis later, but some thoughts. I found Ray’s idea of getting in the raft without getting his feet wet somewhat amusing, in a dark way, given the conditions – you’ll be thoroughly wet, no doubt about it, unless you’re lucky and have a good raft (which I don’t believe they had). Raft deployment is critical because some mess ups don’t leave second chances. And people sometimes make trivial errors even in training when they’re not under the pressure of a real emergency. Really, survival is not something you want to learn “on the job”. Treading water is a big no to me – you just exert yourself and probably accelerate loss of heat. That’s what a flotation device is for, so you can play dead, conserve energy, ideally sort of curled up to conserve heat.
I also didn’t see suits mentioned which leads me to the old debate: suit vs. raft. I personally favor a suit if I have to choose. It will extend your survival time considerably (unless you make an unfortunate mistake like forgetting to zip it up; yes, it has happened) which is especially important in cold water. Without a suit, you might not even be able to get in your raft (the cold is really debilitating and can finish you quickly) while a good suit can buy you enough time to wait for an air drop. Which leads me to the second very important piece of equipment – locator. You don’t want them to take ten hours looking for you if you’re in the water/ in a crappy raft. And you certainly don’t let go of it, it’s your lifeline. You can get even two and/ or a waterproof radio so you can call them up at 121.5. Beauty of this is that both those things can be worn. I know that wearing a suit and a proper jacket filled with some survival gear isn’t exactly pleasant but it will probably make it out with you and offer you a decent chance even in cold water. And a single person raft from Switlik weights under three kilograms (not very luxurious, but still another layer of protection and a civilian version of a raft designed for military aviators; I’m told single-seaters are actually preferable to fully manned, without overloading, bigger rafts, you just have to contend with being alone).
Point being you don’t need that much equipment to secure decent odds although you might not be as comfortable. Just know what you’re doing. Essentially the only thing that worked for them of all the equipment were the vests and those were IMHO rather poorly chosen as well and not best utilized. This lesson in my view really isn’t about the equipment needed.
A foreign pilot flying to Greece asking for information on planning stage queried if there is any source for rules regarding obligation of carriage of Life Vests on board in single engine fixed wing aircraft.
Well I am one of those who take it for granted and have never searched for such information in AIP etc. and always carry a life raft as well but, does someone know the obligation for Life Vests i.e. distance/time from land etc. ?
Yes, i don’t know where to look but you have to wear vests outside the gliding range to the coast. (Like you i always wear them in this case and i carry a raft aswell).
does someone know the obligation for Life Vests i.e. distance/time from land etc. ?
Yes, you have to wear vests outside the gliding range to land.
The answer to that lies in Part-NCO.IDE.A.175
Aviathor wrote:
The answer to that lies in Part-NCO.IDE.A.175
To make things short, I quote directly from there: “… landplanes operated over water at a distance of more than 50 NM from the shore or taking off or landing at an aerodrome where the take-off or approach path is so disposed over water that there would be a likelihood of a ditching …”
The second half of this sentence certainly applies to every Greek island even if it is less than 50NM away from the mainland.
@Aviathor @what_next thank you that is what I was looking for.
So when are rafts required in addition to vests?
Doesn’t Part-NCO.IDE.A.175 say?
