Critique my Alaska/Canada survival kit

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Dan Thomas said:
Unless a pilot has plenty of mountain flying experience, I would follow the Alaska Highway. That planned route takes you over VERY remote, very rough country, and the weather can be suddenly nasty. Plenty of people have disappeared forever in places like that. Even with a 406 ELT (highly recommended), the chances of surviving and being found are small indeed.
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If you really want to be in trouble, tick off a mama moose with a calf. It’ll make the bear look downright tame.
 
James331 said:
Forgot to ask, do you have a mogas STC?
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No mogas STC available for the PPonk engine; but I'm reliably informed that all the required testing was done successfully, they just gave up on finalising the STC as the Feds were being deliberately obstructive and it wasn't worth the effort. So in a pinch...
 
- One forty-five caliber automatic
- Two boxes of ammunition
- Four days' concentrated emergency rations
- One drug issue containing antibiotics, morphine,
vitamin pills, pep pills, sleeping pills, tranquilizer pills
- One miniature combination Russian phrase book and Bible
- One hundred dollars in rubles
- One hundred dollars in gold
- Nine packs of chewing gum
- One issue of prophylactics
- Three lipsticks
- Three pair of nylon stockings.

I've found everything except I'm still looking for a combination Ryooshian phrase book and Bible (I do have a tiny bible).
 
Tom-D said:
And there is a way around.

Transporting and using prohibited firearms or restricted firearms
  • Criminal Code,
  • (iii) wishes to transport the firearm for repair, storage, sale, exportation or appraisal, or
  • (iv) wishes to transport the firearm to a gun show.
  • Marginal note:Target practice or competition
    (1.1) In the case of an authorization to transport issued for a reason referred to in paragraph (1)(a) within the province where the holder of the authorization resides, the specified places must include all shooting clubs and shooting ranges that are approved under section 29 and that are located in that province.
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You have to apply for a permit to move the gun. Every time. It's a pain, and not many folks here bother with handguns.
 
Seriously, bears are the least of my worries.

I have seen moose take on bears and watched the bear run off. And the other way around.

I was more worried about landing in a holler in West Virginia...... cue the banjo music.
 
Luckily I'll have my buddy from West Virginia, and his rifle, with me for the Tundra section.
 
Few years ago, a friend sent me a picture of his C185, A bear had tried to climb up on it.
Weren't pretty, aircraft never flew again. What the bear couldn't crush when it wouldn't open like a cooler, they chewed.
 
Tom-D said:
Few years ago, a friend sent me a picture of his C185, A bear had tried to climb up on it.
Weren't pretty, aircraft never flew again. What the bear couldn't crush when it wouldn't open like a cooler, they chewed.
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Animal or human, you just don't mess with a mans 185

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Moose are scarier to me then bears but bring something with 100% deet or else it will make you wish you brought a firearm to stop the suffering. People from the states will never understand how well they swarm, or how many you can swallow if you try to run from the little critters.
 
alaskan9974 said:
Moose are scarier to me then bears but bring something with 100% deet or else it will make you wish you brought a firearm to stop the suffering. People from the states will never understand how well they swarm, or how many you can swallow if you try to run from the little critters.
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Is 98.1% close enough? That is what we have, but I think I need to stock up on some more.

We went to Chincoteague Island a few years ago and ran into some of the worst mosquitoes we ever saw. They were big and vicious and as thick as smoke. They would bite right through our shirts and jeans. We found ourselves running away from them frequently, and we had to cup our hands over our mouth to breathe to reduce the number we swallowed. My wife had packed some of those "all natural" bug sprays. I think the mosquitoes thought it was a condiment. The second day I bought some pure deet and bathed in it. Leslie again used her natural stuff, for about a half hour. Then she threw it away and used my deet. It helped, but nothing stopped those critters. If mosquitoes in Alaska are worse than that, we may not survive. They worry me more than bears.
 
Deet eats into my skin worse that the skeeters.

I finally started using Cutter Skinsations Insect Repellent, which is 7% DEET. Much easier on my skin and worked fine for me against mosquitos. I would have to re-apply 4 or 5 times a day.

When I was flying tours in Denali National Park, people would pay 20 bucks for a 6 oz bottle that cost me $2.50 in Anchorage. Not that I was price gouging, that is what people would offer me.....:lol::lol:

Don't wear yellow clothing, that seems to attract bugs as well.
 
overdrive148 said:
WHAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU OVER THE MOSQUITOES IN TEXAS
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Maybe this one would be better.....:lol::lol:

I spent the first 35+ years of my life in Texas. The bugs in Alaska really didn't bother me that much, except for the one that bit me on the back of my head one night. A few days later I had to go to the clinic and get something yucky dug out of my skin....
 
Well, the GIANT Amazon order has been placed and the gear is on the way. I've spent enough on all this that I'll almost be a bit annoyed if I don't crash and get to use it.
 
Marine band radio. I have it on good authority that a good number of the villages up north use them to communicate with aircraft delivering/getting supplies and other villages.
 
Bobanna said:
A couple of things to consider. First, would be the proficiency of the shooter with the weapon. Shot placement is way, way up there in terms of effectiveness: a miss from a more powerful gun is certainly no better than a solid hit from a less potent round. For the less practiced shooter, the vote goes to the long gun. Second, as a survival weapon, versatility is important. Because we are not traveling with the entire gun cabinet in the plane, it's helpful to remember that slugs/buckshot can provide defense against larger animals, but by simply changing ammunition we have a gun with utility for harvesting birds or small game. By packing appropriate flares, we also have a useful signaling device. Seems to me that the vote goes to the long gun, again.

Handguns are wonderful, and certainly have their place, but the amount of disciplined practice required to use it effectively cannot be overstated. Anyone who has this skill is gifted in eye, hand, and mind --the average comer would best be served by something more intuitive and simple: the long gun. Just my nsho. Blessings.

PS: Don't get me started on what kind of flint makes the best spear tip.
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Not to speak for anyone else, but the most important property of a survival or self-defense weapon is that you have it when you need it.

I learned to fly in Alaska and flew over 2000 hours there, for hire and for personal transportation. A lot of off-airport, remote destinations, on wheels and floats. I originally carried a Remington 870, but found that I tended to set it down and walk away from it from time to time. One time, I found myself 200 yards from my 185(and shotgun) clam digging on a beach with my wife and 8 yr-old son with a young brown bear between me and the gun, acting aggressive, charging at us and then turning away, popping his teeth. The bear was probably not intending to attack and we eventually worked our way back to the aircraft without incident, but I felt very stupid for a while, with my wife and kid depending on me and a short clam shovel for a weapon. After that, I always carry a .457 Casull revolver in a shoulder rig. If your hiking, fishing or just loading/unloading the airplane, it is with you. I have practiced with it quite a bit and it is a very accurate handgun that will shoot all the way through an 8" spruce tree. Much more useful than a shotgun with slugs that is 100 yds away.

Bobanna said:
@Stewartb: Have you ever tangled with a Kodiac bear? Just curious.
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Kodiak bears are just coastal brown bears that live on Kodiak Island. Some of them get quite large but they get pretty large in other coastal areas too, if you have dealt with a coastal brown bear(like the one in my clam digging story) in Alaska, you are dealing with the same animal.
 
Or better yet Velcro a marine radio to the panel. Just a hunch but channel 68 would probably pick up a lot of chatter if you need someone to talk to in a pinch.
overdrive148 said:
Marine band radio. I have it on good authority that a good number of the villages up north use them to communicate with aircraft delivering/getting supplies and other villages.
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Can anyone suggest a decent barrel pump to take, for refueling out of drums?
 
I only skimmed the thread, so apologies if this has been covered, but I just wanted to make a couple of important points:

Katamarino said:
I'm British, no Green Card, you guys won't let me buy a gun.
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You don't necessarily need a green card. If you live in the US on a non-immigrant visa it can still be done (you just have to jump through a few hoops). If you're just visiting on the VWP it's probably not possible.

Clip4 said:
Then I would at least take a flair gun and a compress gas air horn to scare off bears.
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DON'T do this if you are not legally allowed to posses a firearm! Under US federal law a firearm is anything that fires a projectile from a barrel by means of a chemical reaction (or words to that effect). A flare gun is absolutely a firearm.

Lastly, just a general warning - don't assume that just because you can legally have a gun in the US and in Canada that you can automatically bring it with you from one country to the next. The US has really strict laws about exporting firearms and ammunition (ITAR). Maybe there's a special allowance made for temporary visits to Canada but it's not something you want to make assumptions about.
 
Katamarino said:
Well, the GIANT Amazon order has been placed and the gear is on the way. I've spent enough on all this that I'll almost be a bit annoyed if I don't crash and get to use it.
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I said the same thing to Leslie yesterday. I bought all this stuff that we will only have to use in an emergency that we hope doesn't happen, and when we get home we will have to figure out what to do with all of it. In my younger days I would have just kept it as camping equipment, and it would have gotten used. These days we camp out in Marriotts and Hiltons.
 
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