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Re: Europa-List: Sea Survival Equipment

Subject: Re: Europa-List: Sea Survival Equipment
From: Carl Pattinson <carl@flyers.freeserve.co.uk>
Date: Sun, 22 Apr 2007 13:47:46

Jos Okhuijsen - said

> I've been on SAR training missions searching for an elt, and it's not as 
> easy as it's supposed to be.

Thats why I raised the point about using smoke or sea dye. I know nothing 
whatsoever about ELT technology but I figured it would only give a general 
location as to where the ELT is located - ie it isnt direction sensitive. My 
guess an ELT will only guide the search helicopter or vessel to within a 
mile or two of the target and then its down to the Mk1 eyeball.

Assuming there is time to make a mayday call that alone should be sufficient 
to guide search and rescue to within a couple of miles but there is no 
guarantee you could make that call in an emergency or accurately give your 
location - I must see if there is a button on my Garmin which will display 
the GPS coordinates.

Smoke or dye makes it much quicker to locate a downed craft as there may 
well be other small vessels in the search area and the SAR would need to 
elimnate these as possible targets.

As to immersion suits I am not sure these are any lighter than carrying a 
raft (Transair sells a raft which is 12kg) - maybe someone makes a 
lightweight version. I personally feel that a bulky survival suit would be 
somewhat impractical for flying. Purely from a weight point of view a diving 
wet suit would afford a considerable improvement in survivability.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "josok" <josok-e@ukolo.fi>
Sent: Sunday, April 22, 2007 12:54 PM
Subject: Re: Europa-List: Sea Survival Equipment


>
> Why not use survival suites, as carried by oil platform personnel on 
> helicopter rides? These will keep you alive in any water for more then 24 
> hrs. I've seen those in Norway, in a shop supplying material for 
> fisherman. The price, weight and bulkiness were way lower then i expected 
> them to be. Maybe our Norwegian friends can supply some more details? And 
> instead of an elt, i would go for a combination of elt and gps equipped 
> PLB. I've been on SAR training missions searching for an elt, and it's not 
> as easy as it's supposed to be. As for the legal requirements: My first 
> objective would be to increase the chance of survival. Second comes the 
> legality :-)
>
> Regards,
>
> Jos Okhuijsen
>
>
> Visit -  www.EuropaOwners.org
>
>
> 



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