Airline pilot swimming pool drills!

[jedw0015]

Hello all, I`m new to this site and i`m an aspiring airline pilot, I was just wondering if pilots have to do swimming pool drills with their airline employer. If so what is involved in these drills. Also I heard that to pass this you must be able to pull yourself into a life raft unaided. Does the life raft have a ladder of any sort to make this easier? Thanks in advance.

[+TSRA]

Half our fleet does and half our fleet does not. It's typically only those pilots who actually carry a life raft on board and who will be crossing large bodies of water who need to go through this drill.

Here in Canada there is no specific regulation that says the life raft training needs to be done in water. The student simply has to demonstrate the ability to inflate it and know the safety features of the raft. They highly suggest you do it in water and the one time I've done it, it was in water.

Our training consisted of being in a simulated cockpit which was sitting upright while floating on water. It was then turned over and we had to exit the "cockpit" from under water, inflate our life vest and life raft and get into the raft. We did it a couple of times so that everyone had a chance to do the raft inflation. It is VERY disorientating to start with, but I walked away with a very healthy respect for ditching.

So, I hope that answers your questions of what is the training and do you have to get into the raft unassisted (yes). I'm sure other people have had different experiences with the training too.

Now. There are thousands of types of rafts. The ones we use do not have ladders but it does not take much to get into the raft. Of course, that's in a swimming pool, not the middle of the Atlantic during a storm. Finally, in the real world you'll probably have help getting in, so don't sweat it too much.

[safelife]

Sea survival training in larger airlines usually involves a slide raft, and a public swimming pool, usually after their closure time.
Features include inflating your lift vest, drifting around with it in the water, and pulling one another away with them on.
Special features would include swimming with your street clothes on (works fine), darkness, rain or waves. Or a combination of those.
Don't worry about getting into the raft yourself. Do worry about getting pulled by others! The marks will remind me for life...
Have fun...

[wiggy]

Sea survival training in larger airlines usually involves a slide raft, and a public swimming pool, usually after their closure time.

+1 for us, and in our case that is/was only done once, on initial entry training ( IMHO I don't think that's adequate, but that's beside the point).

So in terms of hurdles to becoming a airline pilot there are much more important things to think about. Routine and frequent sea survival training is probably only a big factor for the military or possibly helicopter flying.