>It would not be surprising of course if a Survival Equipment firm thought
it a good idea for folk to buy survival kit.<
Yes, however they could have easily used the situation to advise the
purchase of a dinghy instead, making them even more money. Their advice was
that if you are only going to buy a dinghy or survival suits then the best
option is survival suits. You know they are going to work. They also point
out that in some ditching cases it was not possible to get the dinghy out of
the aircraft in time.
> I assume that your friend was flying something a bit less
seaworthy than a Europa, and find it difficult to imagine that a Europa
would sink in 2 mins unless you hit the water so hard that you knocked the
wings off, in which case you would probably be beyond worrying about
sinking.<
Quite right but having done sea survival training I can assure you that in
anything other than flat calm coping with the survival tasks is not as
straightforward as it seems. It is quite possible for a wing to dig into a
wave on touchdown and be ripped off. The fuselage could then easily fill
with water whilst tipped on its side. Escaping from a semi submerged
fuselage in a typical English Channel swell could be awkward enough let
alone removing the dinghy and inflating it. Although my Classic Europa has
foam wings the XS does not and there is no guarantee that it will remain
afloat once the wings have filled with water assuming they were still
attached.
>The figures for only 50% surviving the ditching are widely quoted, but do
you have the detail? How many of these were in mid Ocean, or polar waters
rather than the Channel? How many were in light aircraft equipped with a
dinghy? It would be nice to know what the figures are for the sort of
situation we are equipping ourselves for, rather than world figures that no
doubt include people flying in the vilest conditions (which may have
triggered the ditching) in totally inhospitable places. <
I have no further info on this but it is interesting that a fit adult
immersed in the English Channel for 35 minutes at the best time of year was
not far from expiring. This is bad enough without considering worse
scenarios.
Finally I did not raise this issue on the forum. If David wishes to just
use a liferaft then that is fine by me. I am happy with my decision. I am
sure others will make their own judgements on this topic.
Nigel Charles
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