Hi Outwest,
so am I - even my dog is called Murphy.....
But in this case - the risk of ******* up an emergency, cause you are just to busy flying / ditching the bird - and forgetting thereby to arm the floats - by just donīt having enough spare capacity is much higher than the risk of inadvertent flotation of the flotation gear.
Iīm lucky, that my employer offers me the chance of visiting Helisim once a year for a couple of hours.
Iīve learned a lot there about capacity and spare capacity, target fixation, flying the bird, cheklists and so on - as pilot and as copilot.
Inadvertent lotation wouldnīt be fun - and if itīs not your day, they will rip of and go through the tail rotor.
Still, with 140 or more knots the bird might still be somewhat flyable - hopefully...
Imagine the other side, gearbox captions coming on rapidly on you, grinding noises as well, you start feeling extrem uneasy and you looking for the wind and swell, where to put down the bird. Passengers getting uneasy too, as well as the co.
And then you are a few feet from the water - everything right for ditching and you press the inflation button and nothing happens.....
I personaly would arm the flotation gear!!!
Greetings Flying Bull