Originally Posted by
IO540
DaveW
The lifejacket won't affect getting into the raft. If you are in the water, and the raft isn't tied to the aircraft, you probably aren't going to make it into the raft, especially if you are wearing a life jacket.
I completely agree with having a painter line to attach the raft to the aircraft until you've got into it. However, I must take issue with some of the rest of your post.
A lifejacket certainly can increase your chances of getting into the raft. If you have to enter the water first before boarding the raft - rather than stepping into it from the wing, which is the ideal but not always possible - then you want a lifejacket.
Maybe you will decide not to inflate it until you have caught the raft, but you really want the jacket in case things don't go to plan.
1. It's amazing how quickly you can get exhausted in the water. Throw in the cold and some shock, and it'll happen that much quicker.
2. What if the liferaft doesn't inflate? Or only partially?
3. What if the liferaft is the other side of the aircraft to you? (e.g. your pax took it out with him)
4. What if your pax needs some help?
5. What if the aircraft was inverted on ditching? Getting the raft out will be even more of a challenge, and you certainly won't be stepping into it from the wing then.
6 etc. - other scenarios are available!
You (and your pax) want a lifejacket and a raft.
Now, I am not claiming to be an expert on this, but I have been fortunate to have done several aviation sea survival courses and renewals, both wet and dry, which have absolutely convinced me of the above.
On one of them, from Calshot, the raft only partially inflated due to a faulty valve. If I hadn't had a jacket (and it had been for real, of course!) I'd have been dead. As it was, the exercise crew left me be whilst I clambered into the floppy raft and inflated it manually to a sufficient extent to have some bouyancy itself. I was shattered by the end, and that was in late summer, whilst wearing an immersion suit, in the Solent.
Speaking of immersion suits - whilst it is the case as mentioned earlier that you will cool down 20+ times faster in water than in air, don't forget that you may well be soaked through if you don't have an immersion suit and therefore that 20+ 'advantage' will actually be a lot lower once you are sat sodden in your raft.
An immersion suit doesn't keep you warm; the layers of clothing under it are what keeps you warm - the suit keeps them dry.
The choice of whether to wear a suit or not is less clear cut on a short Channel crossing, and really comes down to your attitude to risk - but as ever, one needs to undertand those risks in order to make an informed judgement. You may consider that a 406MHz ELT will bring SAR to you quickly enough that you will not
need a suit, but without one I bet you'll be c-c-c-cold, whatever the time of year.
If I was wearing a suit, it wouldn't be with the intention of using it
instead of a raft for the reasons Peter gives earlier. Of the two, a raft would always be the first thing I went for.
Final comments on rafts - get one with a canopy. You want the wind off you if you are wet (and even if you aren't). Also, stream the sea anchor as soon as you get in; you wouldn't want the wind to invert the raft with you in it...