In many cases when crossing waters, the water is simply too cold for survival. Jacket or not.
Speaking of which, does anyone here own a survival suit? Any recommendations?
the water is simply too cold for survival. Jacket or not
In cold water, you’ll likely drown quickly without a lifejacket – perhaps less than a minute to go under. Swimming in suitable winter clothing will be difficult – and will let cold water in. Floating in a lifejacket, the water nearest your body will heat up. Getting on land from a near-shore ditching, stripping and wringing out your clothes, and putting them on again is no worse than what I did after slipping into water 5 miles from my car, in winter ( without a lifejacket). Rescue within a reasonable survival time is likely in the sea – even if you’re unconscious by then. And, if you’re blessed with a suitable body, you can justify the fat layer to your AME for this situation.
If you want a life vest, you should ask sailors
To this non-expert, that sounds like super-sensible no-nonsense – and THAT is the approach I got taught as a (minor) pilot…
Speaking of which, does anyone here own a survival suit? Any recommendations?
I bought a second hand dinghy sailing drysuit. It fits me well, the seals are still good, and it’s got reinforcements on knees and behind. I wear some regular clothing underneath (jeans and a light sweater), but now that I’ve done a diving drysuit course I might change my underlayer from jeans to jogging pants or something like that.
If you’re going to use it more often you may want to get a “professional” one – perhaps even GoreTex or similar. With loads of pockets to store your stuff – remember that only the stuff that’s on your body is guaranteed to make it out of the plane with you, in case of a ditching.
Rescue within a reasonable survival time is likely in the sea – even if you’re unconscious by then.
Well, I don’t exactly agree. It’s pretty likely you will be able to alert the authorities and even give them a reasonable position fix before you actually ditch. But finding a head bobbing in the sea is a major feat and it may take several hours of frantic searching before you’ll be found. For this reason it’s very important to have something that increases your chances of being seen and found. I bought a RescueStreamer, and a PLB is still high on my wishlist.
I’m thinking of short water crossings, where I’m often in sight of small vessels. And approach/depart from coast airfields. I see few others wearing lifejackets,even where EFTO will be into water. It’s easy to always wear a lifejacket for these situations. Wearing a survival suit would be much more work. I agree with its value – and it being essential on long water crossings.
In Northern Norway we used to call the lifejacket a “body recovery device”.
……basically something that would give your family a grave to visit…. :(
Winter or summer did not really matter that much up there! Ironic really, since the “best” forced landing sites was often the sea, trying to ditch close to shore.
Apart from a few sang beaches, a few farmers fields and the odd straight bit of road, all flat-ish terrain is pretty much marshland which is really soggy in the summer. (Winter gave better survival aspects overland)
I suppose the best chance of a rapid rescue is by a small boat that sees you come down. If a life-jacket is all you have this could be quite relevant.
Following the logic of “ask sailors about life-jackets”, I suppose we should ask scuba-divers how they make themselve visible to dive boats after drift-diving.
In my (rather dated) experience they use the inflatable “safety sausage”, which projects vertically up out of the water, and is more easily seen from a small boat.
Any thoughts?
In my (rather dated) experience they use the inflatable “safety sausage”, which projects vertically up out of the water, and is more easily seen from a small boat.
The problem with the “sausage” is it’s size. By the time you have inflated it with your breath, you will either have been rescued or died… They are intended to be inflated with compressed air. For diving I have a little water- and pressure-tight strobe light like this one (http://www.amazon.com/Signal-Strobe-Light-Diving-Flashlight/dp/B003JPFSPA). In broad daylight it will be invisible, but under an overcast or at night one can see it from quite far away. The battery lasts for many hours. I had this with me on my two Atlantic crossings, but fortunately didn’t have to use it.
Rescue within a reasonable survival time is likely in the sea – even if you’re unconscious by then.
It can be. I know someone who’s ditched twice(!) once in the Irish Sea, and once – well it wasn’t really a ditching, it was a float plane and it collided with a submerged obstacle in the lake and flipped over.
In the first instance, she had a helicopter already following her before she ditched the plane. She was rescued before the plane sank.
In the second instance she spent an hour swimming with her husband (an inland lake in Florida, where hypothermia isn’t really a risk but alligators are)
Personally I bought my life jacket from a local marine store. It’s a manual pull-toggle inflate type and it’s not uncomfortable and has a crotch strap. I also carry a dinghy (4-6 person, although we’re only 2 seat!) and I’ve got a drysuit I can wear over my clothes for long crossings or crossings over colder water.
It’s pretty likely you will be able to alert the authorities and even give them a reasonable position fix before you actually ditch
I think that’s probably more true if you have an IR, preferably oxygen, and use it.
There was a ditching off the UK a few years ago, from something like FL150, and the helicopter was there as he hit the water, some 20 mins later. But that is very unusual and the response time – especially once you get into southern Europe – is likely to be an hour or more.
I have flown to the west of Italy, pre-IR, for something like 200nm, at 1000-2000ft, and much of the time outside radio contact. A life jacket will not be much good then. You must have a raft and you better hope you can get into it.
And that is just as true near the UK and the cold water there. When I do a passenger briefing on this, I repeat the life raft part twice.
