Ditching accidents, life rafts, jackets and equipment, training and related discussion

Life jacket recommendation?

Hi Everyone,

I’m planning a trip to Læsö island in Denmark. Although I plan my navigation to limit the time over water to a minimum i.e. 10-15 nm (sissy me! ), I think it makes sense to have lifejackets in any case.

Any recommendation for a good model?

I am living pretty much in the middle of the continent, therefore I do not plan to do many trips over water in the near future – perhaps 2-3 in the coming years, not more. Given this, would you recommend renting (e.g. from Friebe) or buying?

Thanks,
Etienne

I would not buy from an aviation shop.
Nautical life vests have become pretty cheap, some even selling 2 for the price of 1… check that they carry your weights, or more, and don’t take a self-inflating (or deactivate the device) one. Buying ones with crutch straps is also a big plus.

I recommend one that is comfortable to wear, something like

not something like

You are going to put it on before entering the plane, and wear it for the whole flight, so comfort is important, and they are not more expensive. The package may say “inspect/service every year” instead of “10 years”, but frankly:

• I don’t bother with annually, I do it every several years.
• You can also do the inspection yourself, the manual says how, basically you inflate the vest and check for leaks, deflate, and replace the cheap CO2 canister (pay attention to get a manual activation one).

Other safety features to look for:

• Crotch strap to ensure you don’t sink while the live vest stays on the surface (especially before it is inflated).
• Spray hood (I had one added for little money to mine when I had the once-every-several-years service done)

Reminder, for aeronautical use, do not take a model with automatic inflation (inflation on contact with water), only manual inflation (inflation on pulling the string). That is to avoid being trapped inside the airplane because of the bulk of the inflated jacket.

Given the hassle of renting (unless you really have the rental shop at your base, and even then I would buy), I would definitely buy, Friebe sells them for about 100 EUR and rents them for about 20 EUR for the first week (and their picture of the rental service is of the not-comfortable model).

I agree with Lionel, but would save a few £€$ and get one of these

lionel wrote:

You are going to put it on before entering the plane, and wear it for the whole flight,

This is an important point! Some places rent lifevests in a sealed plastic bag and will charge extra for inspection if the seal is broken. That is useless.

Airborne_Again wrote:

This is an important point! Some places rent lifevests in a sealed plastic bag and will charge extra for inspection if the seal is broken. That is useless.

Those are one-time use, like the yellow one pictured in Lionel’s post above, correct?
Is my understanding correct that those are meant to be put on only during an emergency? This might make sense in an airliner but in a single-engine GA aircraft, you have neither the time nor the place to strap on your life vest after the emergency happens.

Does anybody wear the exposure/immersion suits and are they worth buying?
Would you for instance wear an immersion suit plus life vest plus carrying a life raft which is roughly what you have when going out to the North Sea oil platforms in a Puma?

gallois wrote:

Does anybody wear the exposure/immersion suits and are they worth buying?

I’ve heard/read that people doing transatlantic flights via the North Route (Groenland, etc) do that. I don’t for a channel (la Manche) crossing nor flying over the Adriatic, Aegan or Mediterranean.

Comfort-wise… people wear them on their lower body parts and kinda “hope” they can pull them up to their whole body in time. <shrug>