Originally Posted by
The Old Fat One
Pilot DAR - excellent post.
Most especially DAR’s comment that:
Surviving the crash is only the first step,
Having in a former life done sea survival courses and the subsequent 6 monthly refreshers, and then having had the misfortune to put the training into practice in U.K. coastal waters one December evening I’d also like to second pilot DARs post. I can’t comment on the difficulty of egressing a light aircraft post ditching, but I would offer the opinion that if you are not wearing adequate protective clothing, (properly fitted and maintained) when you enter the water, and are not completely familiar with drills and procedures (by virtue of regular hands on training, not just reading the books and videos) then you are really really up against it. Even with the correct training getting into a single seat life raft can be a non trivial event, especially in the dark with a decent sea running....
Never under estimate how hostile the sea is, even coastal waters, even those around the U.K...