Thanks for the offer. My trip heading west starts in May via Wick/Scotland and my return is in August via Bergen so that will not fit with your schedule. I will ask Andrew at Wick on Monday about a raft but as already mentioned – I’m a bit concerned about the quality of their equipment.
Look at 2 Minutes. The heaviest raft always “swim” (this was 25kg)
And don´t forget the follow coast. A check for this raft would be more than 1.000€ every 5 Years!
When you have heavy see you don´t need a raft, you are dead before you can enter it :-(
I have my own raft and survival suit(s) as I then use it even for crossing the North Sea from the UK to mainland Europe. Would you rent one and go pick it up?
Hi folks,
It’s that time of year again… looking to buy some new lifejackets or similar for the x-water season. Any suggestions or thoughts on the matter? I must log into Aviation Consumer and see what they have to say also.
DMEarc
It really depends what kind of aircraft you are flying and what kind of over water flights you intend to do. On multi-engine aircraft or on short flights over water where you will be able to glide to the nearest shore the life vests are mainly a legal requirement. The cheapest ones will do, many pilots steal theirs from airliners they fly as passengers in 
When I last looked at this (10 years ago) just about all life jackets sold by pilot shops were made by the same company, called Remploy, which used to make them with different fabrics for the outside “jacket” according to how much the shop wanted to pay. The 50 quid ones were made in “plastic” (which was sweaty as hell) and the 80 quid ones were in some fabric and were much nicer to wear. Then there were some differences in the accessories.
However I would never fly without a life raft. I have the Survival products one (1000 quid or so) and get it overhauled every 2-3 years by SEMS. It weighs about 10kg which means I can lift it 
The “pilot” life jackets are very poor and overpriced. Also they are very uncomfortable to wear. Get a nice one from a sailing store but make sure they do not inflate automatically.
I also meant to say that Switlik make really nice ones, but they are loads more $$$ and last time I tried to buy some there were problems with getting them shipped out of the USA. More recently I heard this was solved. They also did ones with lots of pockets and designed to be worn for long periods.
On multi-engine aircraft or on short flights over water where you will be able to glide to the nearest shore the life vests are mainly a legal requirement.
And to add: On single engine aircraft out of gliding range of land, having just a lifejacket is false security. As a survival system, a lifejacket alone is grossly inadequate.
Assuming you survive the ditching itself, the biggest threat is not drowning. It’s hypothermia.
I can recommend this model for 50 € (manual version, not the automatic one!). Beats anything you find in the pilot scene. If you want a life vest, you should ask sailors, not pilots…
