[quote=denhamflyer;2984003]
For aircraft weight is very very important so we tend to use very simple liferafts - what in your opinion is the minimum liferaft items you think we should have to survive in the channel. ( also at what distance(time) from SAR do you think a survival suit should be worn if at all)
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First question is relatively easy - flares, torch, 1st aid, water, energy food, seasickness tablets, TPAs for each on board, bailer, sponge, sick bag (each), radar reflector, maybe repair kit, sea anchor. That is my recommendation, but more is better. I guess you don't need fishing kits, etc.
Second one is harder, as SAR is not a point in geography, though, of course it has to start somewhere. You could say you need survival gear the minute you cross the coast, though that is a bit extreme. As you might have gathered, I think a liferaft with TPAs is the ideal solution.
If, for whatever reason, you prefer to equip yourself with a survival suit, your life expectancy is a direct function of the water temperature, and how long you take to get found. We die of lack of water before lack of food.
I think the issue is this... you are making contingency plans for an eventuality that is unlikely, but possible. If your mitigation of that risk is a survival suit, then wear it when you think your survival time is less than the time it might take the SAR assets to get to you. If we say, for example, that you will survive (and keep afloat, remember) for three hours in the Channel in late summer without protection, then when we get to you you may not be very well, but you'll be alive.
Five hours might be different. You might have a heart attack. You might die of cold water shock.
Between Devon and Brittany there is an awful lot more water, so our likehood of finding you will run into days, maybe. Depends on our fix, what the viz and sea is like etc etc. It is unlikely that 48 hours will pass before you are Found
Not sure about the type of survival suit you mean. If it is convenient to wear when flying, then wear it. If you have the notion that, on ditching, you'll amble out onto the wing and put it on, then get a life raft.
There are no hard and fast rules on this, and it has given me plenty to think about, but sadly a lot has to be left to the individual in the absence of definitive research.
Does that help?