Survival gear..what do you carry?

RichardAlexon0210

Filing Flight Plan
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RichardAlexon0210
For those of you here who actually use your planes for extended XC travel, and not for some 100 mile $100 hamburger runs... what type of survival gear do you normally carry?
 
In 30 years of GA flying, I very rarely carried anything you'd consider survival gear. Water and snacks for the pax, but that was for normal consumption.

The exception was going to the Bahamas. Inflatable vests for every seat and a raft.

That said, the vast majority of my trips were around populated areas in the southeast and midwest.
 
Since I fly in the midwest and the midwest (actually almost everything east of the Rockies) isn't that sparsely populated I don't carry any survival gear because I'm rarely going to be more than a couple hours walk from civilization.

Now when I was going to be flying to Alaska and when I did my trip out west I basically had enough survival gear to make a camp and survive for a week before I had to worry about water or food.
 
Depends entirely the time of year, forecast weather, and where you are flying. Aint no one size fits all.
 
A have an awe crap bag......

Pants, shorts, drawers, hygiene kit, blanket, water, hearty packaged food, couple hundy cash in small bills, first aid kit, tool kit and a condom.
 
A have an awe crap bag......

Pants, shorts, drawers, hygiene kit, blanket, water, hearty packaged food, couple hundy cash in small bills, first aid kit, tool kit and a condom.

Add one 45 automatic pistol, a box of bullets, a combination bible/ruskie phrase book and a pair of nylons and you can have a great time in Dallas 'Vegas....
 
My brain, a cell phone, and a credit card. ;-)

I figure I'm a covered for anything I'm likely to come up against.
 
My brain, a cell phone, and a credit card. ;-)

I figure I'm a covered for anything I'm likely to come up against.

Bears...

BTW,,, A gift of wings,, Found at Pharisee,,, great book,, great story...
Their can be Only 1 Drake,, But we can All be Outlaws!
I am an Outlaw.
 
I fly IFR (I Follow Roads). I carry a flashlight and a brightly colored cloth for flagging down passing motorists.
 
My brain, a cell phone, and a credit card. ;-)

I figure I'm a covered for anything I'm likely to come up against.

I take it you also fly out of a full service FBO lol
 
Backpack, warm clothing, raincoat, water purification tablets, flashlight, lighter, multi purpose knife, first aid kit, rope, large USB battery
 
Since I fly in the midwest and the midwest (actually almost everything east of the Rockies) isn't that sparsely populated I don't carry any survival gear because I'm rarely going to be more than a couple hours walk from civilization.

Now when I was going to be flying to Alaska and when I did my trip out west I basically had enough survival gear to make a camp and survive for a week before I had to worry about water or food.
''East of the Rockies?" Google Earth Maine, PA, KY, WV, TN, VA, MD, NC, NY, etc. Take a snack, because it'll be a while before they find you. GA airplanes are lousy substitutes for chain saws - the trees win, and usually don't show much damage. Throw a dime into the rough at your favorite golf course. Finish the round, come back and find the dime.
 
''East of the Rockies?" Google Earth Maine, PA, KY, WV, TN, VA, MD, NC, NY, etc. Take a snack, because it'll be a while before they find you. GA airplanes are lousy substitutes for chain saws - the trees win, and usually don't show much damage. Throw a dime into the rough at your favorite golf course. Finish the round, come back and find the dime.

Flown in all of them. There's more civilization out there than you realize. The Upper Peninsula of Michigan is one of the least densely populated areas east of the Rockies and you still aren't that far from civilization.
 
Tent and sleeping bag, blue tarp.
First aid, signaler, knife, fire starting kit, hatchet.
Food, water-purifying tablets, fishing hooks and lines.
Bug spray, big fluffy jacket, rope.
Sometimes a firearm, sometimes not, depending on the season.

Probably other stuff, but hubby and I haven't done the "lay out the contents of the big orange bag on the living room floor so we know what's in there" ritual in a while.
 
I carry a personal locator beacon. It's probably overkill for someone like me but if it can take 3 years to find a crashed jet in New Hampshire anything is possible.
 
My "survival" gear in in a big REI backpack
that weighs about 40#. Tent and Wiggy's sleeping bags are separate items. Survival has changed with tracking and locating technology. I don't expect to be out there for weeks. A day or two is more likely. Voluntarily sitting on the ground is more likely yet. Been there, done that. My gear reflects it, too. Survival gear is minimalist. I added comfort items and communication to my list. Family knows where I am from Spidertracks. Why I'm there is communicated with a sat phone. I have a 406 ELT and an Inreach for 911 if I need them. Staying hydrated, nourished, and warm are what my pack is for. The more comfortable I am the less motivated I am to push into bad weather. I also have first aid in my pack as well as in my plane.
 
A credit card and a bit of cash.

Did anyone quote the Slim Pickens list yet?

Yep, it’s up there.

Same for me, cell phone, credit cards, cash and weather appropriate clothing.
 
Flown in all of them. There's more civilization out there than you realize. The Upper Peninsula of Michigan is one of the least densely populated areas east of the Rockies and you still aren't that far from civilization.
I've done searches in some of them (MD, WV, PA, VA) and "not that far" can be pretty far on foot - if you can walk; truly, most GA airplanes are very difficult to spot in forests, 'cause they don't look much like airplanes after the impact(s). In heavier forests, real common in the east, there often isn't much damage to the trees where the airplane initially hits. I remember it took a while, most of a day, to find a guy who went into the trees along the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, and he was relatively unhurt, yelling on the radio if I recall correctly, and the ELT actually worked (121.5, or 406, they often don't work). He was literally in the trees, quite a way up, airplane mostly intact.

And it took cell phone analysis, radar reconstruction, and a week of searching to find a 172 that was a few hundred yards from a state road in MD, and in sight of a town lower down a slope. It was Spring, with great weather for the entire time. If it had been winter, snowing or snow on the ground, walking out to the road would have been tough, down a steep slope, semi-wide stream intervening. And he was in the DC/baltimore Mode C veil most the flight.

Just like out west, most civilization (roads, towns) are down low, along the rivers and/or valleys and passes. Don't mean to preach, but I've read that "dense" civilization thing a few times, about back east; it's true to the point that the population density, and towns, are more numerous, but no one is gonna pay much attention to a low flying airplane that isn't in obvious distress (on fire, spinning down minus a wing, etc.).

One not-atypical event I was involved in - flying across the Eastern Shore, MD and Delaware - I got an ELT signal, and DF'ed it, found the airplane in a field (a lot of the Eastern Shore is farmland), about 200 yards from a house. No one in sight. I called it in, went about my business, followed up later: it was a engine failure, the pilot did a good enough forced landing, kept all his fingers and toes. He walked out, but didn't see the house, and the folks in the house hadn't seen him. The ground wasn't as level as it looked from the air. If he'd broken a leg, injured his back, whatever, he might have sat there for a long time.

Anyway, rant nearly complete - just making the point that your airplane is small, hard to see even if it's intact, and just because you can see "civilization", it doesn't mean "civilization" will notice you.
 
Following up on the "difficult, almost impossible to see on the ground" issue. Carry a bright orange tarp or a bunch of bright orange big garbage bags.
 
I've done searches in some of them (MD, WV, PA, VA) and "not that far" can be pretty far on foot - if you can walk; truly, most GA airplanes are very difficult to spot in forests, 'cause they don't look much like airplanes after the impact(s). In heavier forests, real common in the east, there often isn't much damage to the trees where the airplane initially hits. I remember it took a while, most of a day, to find a guy who went into the trees along the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, and he was relatively unhurt, yelling on the radio if I recall correctly, and the ELT actually worked (121.5, or 406, they often don't work). He was literally in the trees, quite a way up, airplane mostly intact.

And it took cell phone analysis, radar reconstruction, and a week of searching to find a 172 that was a few hundred yards from a state road in MD, and in sight of a town lower down a slope. It was Spring, with great weather for the entire time. If it had been winter, snowing or snow on the ground, walking out to the road would have been tough, down a steep slope, semi-wide stream intervening. And he was in the DC/baltimore Mode C veil most the flight.

Just like out west, most civilization (roads, towns) are down low, along the rivers and/or valleys and passes. Don't mean to preach, but I've read that "dense" civilization thing a few times, about back east; it's true to the point that the population density, and towns, are more numerous, but no one is gonna pay much attention to a low flying airplane that isn't in obvious distress (on fire, spinning down minus a wing, etc.).

One not-atypical event I was involved in - flying across the Eastern Shore, MD and Delaware - I got an ELT signal, and DF'ed it, found the airplane in a field (a lot of the Eastern Shore is farmland), about 200 yards from a house. No one in sight. I called it in, went about my business, followed up later: it was a engine failure, the pilot did a good enough forced landing, kept all his fingers and toes. He walked out, but didn't see the house, and the folks in the house hadn't seen him. The ground wasn't as level as it looked from the air. If he'd broken a leg, injured his back, whatever, he might have sat there for a long time.

Anyway, rant nearly complete - just making the point that your airplane is small, hard to see even if it's intact, and just because you can see "civilization", it doesn't mean "civilization" will notice you.

When I'm on my long cross-countries I'm generally around 10+ minutes worth of glide range if the engine dies. And at a hundred miles an hour that will pretty muc halways find me a road or something or I can put down near and I'm not a hundred miles from the nearest dwelling or town. When I'm at altitude I am always looking for places not only to put down but for places to put down where I'm easily going to find my way to rescue. And if I'm over the top of a cloud layer that prevents me from seeing the ground one of my GPS has all the roads on it so I've got that going as well.
 
My plane "survival kit" is the same as my hiking kit except I hook my handheld to it when I fly. The kit is a small Igloo backpack. I put a frozen bottle of water in with my favorite non-carbonated beverage when I leave the house. The pockets have all 7 "C's" a survival kit should have: Collection, Combustion, Communication, Container, Cordage, Cover, Cutting. Collection refers to the ability to get or gather food; and container is the ability to get and purify water. The rest seems self evident. I do have a PLB as part of my communication sub-kit. I don't know why anyone would be without one these days.
 
...and that's when I smack 'em with the pool cue!
...steal their car keys and leave their nosey butt out in the woods?

Right now I carry a knife, a cell phone, and credit card. Really need to add some water, one of those orange highway litter patrol trash bags that can serve as a space blanket/sleeping bag/signal flag, a first aid kit, and some matches.
 
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