Originally Posted by
BackPacker
When you're out of gliding distance of land, and the engine quits, the sea is the same everywhere - wet and cold. If there are no ships nearby which might be able to rescue you, you'd better try to maximize your time in the air (minimum sink) so you can get the mayday out, with a position report as accurately as possible, so that the SAR helicopter is on its way before you splash.
No darned way am I making an ocean crossing low enough that I don't have a good several minutes available to make that call and position fix, whatever happens. From 2000ft, I should always have at-least 3 minutes, and most times I'll be higher than that. And I carry an ELT, or at-least a PLB.
Realistically, if I can't get it out in 2 minutes, another 2 is not going to make any real difference.
I take your point of-course - although a couple of minutes less in the sea is probably more useful, and I can also use the VSI to fine tune min-sink, which will be around Vy.
G