KC10Chief
Filing Flight Plan
I recently did a write up over on the RV forum on survival gear for flying. It might seem a bit RV specific, but this is good stuff to have to any pilot that flies away from civilization.
I started flying GA aircraft in 1996 in Oklahoma. I joined the Air Force and did some flying in Texas and New Jersey. These days, I live in Alaska and fly here. I also fly for the Air Force. I have been to several different survival courses. I have been to a water survival course in Florida, a combat / outdoor survival course in Washington state, and an arctic survival course near Fairbanks, Alaska. I'm by no means an expert but I did learn a lot. I found them a lot more useful for flying GA, than for flying a big Air Force jet where I likely wouldn't survive any kind of crash. HA! The course I learned the most from, was probably the arctic survival course in Fairbanks. It was a truly miserable experience. It was -40 degrees when I was out there and we stayed out there for three days, building shelters and fires, catching rabbits and other not fun stuff. None of these courses were fun at all. But I suppose that being stranded out in the wilderness wouldn't be either. I'm confident that I could survive out in the woods for a few days, even though it would totally suck.
Some of the things I took away from those courses that are good for GA flying, are some of the gear you need to survive. When I was flying in Oklahoma and New Jersey, this stuff wasn't too big of a deal. If you go down in one of those places and survive, you aren't far from help. Here in Alaska and other areas in the western US, that's not the case. When I fly, I bring quite a bit of survival gear with me. Especially in the winter. Some of them are common sense things. Others, are things most people don't think about. If you find yourself on the ground out in the middle of nowhere unexpectedly, your first priority is to be warm and dry. If you're wet, you need to get dry as fast as possible. If you start getting hypothermic, you're going to be in serious trouble. You'll start making bad decisions that will only worsen your situation. Get dry! You need shelter and water as well. You can live for weeks without food. You need to be warm, dry and hydrated. With these few items, you can do all of that.
In the back of the plane in a duffel bag, I carry a two man tent, wool blankets, Mountain House food, camping stove with a small propane canister, towel, water filter, water bottle, plastic tarp, etc. Mostly, it's the same stuff that I take with me when I go hiking plus a few extra items for passengers if I have them. I'd be pretty comfortable if I went down and had all of that stuff. However, there are a few items that I keep on my person at all times. They are the things that I'd absolutely want to have on me if I had to get out of the plane in a hurry and couldn't get the rest of my gear. For example, if the plane were on fire or it were sinking in a body of water. I'll cover those items.
In my opinion, the most important piece of survival gear that I have, is my combat survival knife. Forget the combat part. Just think of it as a survival knife. If you're looking for one on the internet, most of them will be called combat survival knives or bolt knives. These things are extremely useful. You can chop a tree down with one if you need to. They are excellent for splitting wood. If you have a log, put the knife on the end of it and hit it with another log to split it. These are tough knives and built for the abuse. The knife I have, is a Cold Steel SRK. It is a 6" fixed blade knife. I think I paid about $60 for it. It's a simple yet very tough knife. You can clean an animal with it, make a spear with it, and do anything else a knife is good for. If I had to get dropped off out in the middle of nowhere and could only have one piece of gear, this would be it.
The next few items are all of equal importance I feel. The first is a magnesium fire starter. If I crashed down somewhere and found myself all wet, my immediate priority would be to get a fire going. I'll start a forest fire if I have to! Forest fires are good for helping somebody find you too!
If I had ALL of my gear, I'd simply use my camp stove to get a fire going. It's a piece of cake. But it's a little bulky to carry all of that stuff on my person. So, I have a magnesium fire starter. It's super simple to use. Basically, you scrape the steel blade down the magnesium shaft. It makes a lot of hot sparks that you can use to light some kindling on fire with. Birch bark, witches beard, dry leaves, etc. Matches and a lighter will get a fire going too, but they are not as reliable. Using this thing, isn't much more difficult than using a lighter anyways. It will work when it's soaking wet. I also carry a film canister with cotton balls soaked in Vaseline inside. They are very easy to light on fire and make a good kindling starter. The starter that I have, is this one sold at REI. You can find them just about anywhere. Even Wal-Mart sells one.
Another very handy item is a folding saw. Gerber makes one that most people are familiar with. It's a bit over priced in my opinion. I use a Corona 10" folding saw. They cost about $10 and can be found in the gardening section at Lowe's. I like the curved blade on it. It's easy to use and is very light weight. Obviously, it's for sawing up logs. You can eventually hack them up with your survival knife, but this works a lot better. I would find a 3 to 4" dead tree out in the woods. Something that's still standing, but obviously dead. Birch, Pine or Aspen. These trees are common in the areas where you might find yourself far from help. You don't want one that's laying down as it is absorbing more water. Find one that's still standing, but dead. You can stab your knife into it and see if it's wet under the bark or if it's splintering up when you pry a chunk out. If it's dry, saw it down and saw it into logs. Then, use your survival knife to split it. Just hit the knife with another log. This saw is excellent and cuts logs very quickly.
The next item I keep on my person, is a good pocket knife. Personally, I carry a CRKT (Columbia River) M-16-13T. I think it was about $60 as well. It's all metal and has a 3.5" blade that is partially serrated. I use this knife for all sorts of things. Any good quality pocket knife will do. I'd get a 3 to 4" blade. A pocket knife like this has a much sharper angle on the blade than your combat knife has. If you've sawed up and split some logs, you can use this to cut little shavings off of the log if you don't have any other kindling. If it's wet outside where you are, your kindling might all be soaking wet. Your best bet might be to cut some shavings off of the dried wood you chopped up. It's also a lot easier to handle when cutting smaller things.
Another extremely useful item, is some 550 cord. You might hear it called parachute cord or paracord as well. You can find all different types. It can be ordered on Amazon, from REI or found at an Army surplus store. You can use it to tie up tarps for a shelter, to collect water, use it to tie logs together for a shelter, etc. You can make snares out of it to catch a rabbit or something too. I carry 100 feet on my person and another 300 feet in my bag in the back. There are all sorts of uses for this stuff and there's a ton of videos on YouTube about making shelters and what not.
I started flying GA aircraft in 1996 in Oklahoma. I joined the Air Force and did some flying in Texas and New Jersey. These days, I live in Alaska and fly here. I also fly for the Air Force. I have been to several different survival courses. I have been to a water survival course in Florida, a combat / outdoor survival course in Washington state, and an arctic survival course near Fairbanks, Alaska. I'm by no means an expert but I did learn a lot. I found them a lot more useful for flying GA, than for flying a big Air Force jet where I likely wouldn't survive any kind of crash. HA! The course I learned the most from, was probably the arctic survival course in Fairbanks. It was a truly miserable experience. It was -40 degrees when I was out there and we stayed out there for three days, building shelters and fires, catching rabbits and other not fun stuff. None of these courses were fun at all. But I suppose that being stranded out in the wilderness wouldn't be either. I'm confident that I could survive out in the woods for a few days, even though it would totally suck.
Some of the things I took away from those courses that are good for GA flying, are some of the gear you need to survive. When I was flying in Oklahoma and New Jersey, this stuff wasn't too big of a deal. If you go down in one of those places and survive, you aren't far from help. Here in Alaska and other areas in the western US, that's not the case. When I fly, I bring quite a bit of survival gear with me. Especially in the winter. Some of them are common sense things. Others, are things most people don't think about. If you find yourself on the ground out in the middle of nowhere unexpectedly, your first priority is to be warm and dry. If you're wet, you need to get dry as fast as possible. If you start getting hypothermic, you're going to be in serious trouble. You'll start making bad decisions that will only worsen your situation. Get dry! You need shelter and water as well. You can live for weeks without food. You need to be warm, dry and hydrated. With these few items, you can do all of that.
In the back of the plane in a duffel bag, I carry a two man tent, wool blankets, Mountain House food, camping stove with a small propane canister, towel, water filter, water bottle, plastic tarp, etc. Mostly, it's the same stuff that I take with me when I go hiking plus a few extra items for passengers if I have them. I'd be pretty comfortable if I went down and had all of that stuff. However, there are a few items that I keep on my person at all times. They are the things that I'd absolutely want to have on me if I had to get out of the plane in a hurry and couldn't get the rest of my gear. For example, if the plane were on fire or it were sinking in a body of water. I'll cover those items.
In my opinion, the most important piece of survival gear that I have, is my combat survival knife. Forget the combat part. Just think of it as a survival knife. If you're looking for one on the internet, most of them will be called combat survival knives or bolt knives. These things are extremely useful. You can chop a tree down with one if you need to. They are excellent for splitting wood. If you have a log, put the knife on the end of it and hit it with another log to split it. These are tough knives and built for the abuse. The knife I have, is a Cold Steel SRK. It is a 6" fixed blade knife. I think I paid about $60 for it. It's a simple yet very tough knife. You can clean an animal with it, make a spear with it, and do anything else a knife is good for. If I had to get dropped off out in the middle of nowhere and could only have one piece of gear, this would be it.
The next few items are all of equal importance I feel. The first is a magnesium fire starter. If I crashed down somewhere and found myself all wet, my immediate priority would be to get a fire going. I'll start a forest fire if I have to! Forest fires are good for helping somebody find you too!
If I had ALL of my gear, I'd simply use my camp stove to get a fire going. It's a piece of cake. But it's a little bulky to carry all of that stuff on my person. So, I have a magnesium fire starter. It's super simple to use. Basically, you scrape the steel blade down the magnesium shaft. It makes a lot of hot sparks that you can use to light some kindling on fire with. Birch bark, witches beard, dry leaves, etc. Matches and a lighter will get a fire going too, but they are not as reliable. Using this thing, isn't much more difficult than using a lighter anyways. It will work when it's soaking wet. I also carry a film canister with cotton balls soaked in Vaseline inside. They are very easy to light on fire and make a good kindling starter. The starter that I have, is this one sold at REI. You can find them just about anywhere. Even Wal-Mart sells one.
Another very handy item is a folding saw. Gerber makes one that most people are familiar with. It's a bit over priced in my opinion. I use a Corona 10" folding saw. They cost about $10 and can be found in the gardening section at Lowe's. I like the curved blade on it. It's easy to use and is very light weight. Obviously, it's for sawing up logs. You can eventually hack them up with your survival knife, but this works a lot better. I would find a 3 to 4" dead tree out in the woods. Something that's still standing, but obviously dead. Birch, Pine or Aspen. These trees are common in the areas where you might find yourself far from help. You don't want one that's laying down as it is absorbing more water. Find one that's still standing, but dead. You can stab your knife into it and see if it's wet under the bark or if it's splintering up when you pry a chunk out. If it's dry, saw it down and saw it into logs. Then, use your survival knife to split it. Just hit the knife with another log. This saw is excellent and cuts logs very quickly.
The next item I keep on my person, is a good pocket knife. Personally, I carry a CRKT (Columbia River) M-16-13T. I think it was about $60 as well. It's all metal and has a 3.5" blade that is partially serrated. I use this knife for all sorts of things. Any good quality pocket knife will do. I'd get a 3 to 4" blade. A pocket knife like this has a much sharper angle on the blade than your combat knife has. If you've sawed up and split some logs, you can use this to cut little shavings off of the log if you don't have any other kindling. If it's wet outside where you are, your kindling might all be soaking wet. Your best bet might be to cut some shavings off of the dried wood you chopped up. It's also a lot easier to handle when cutting smaller things.
Another extremely useful item, is some 550 cord. You might hear it called parachute cord or paracord as well. You can find all different types. It can be ordered on Amazon, from REI or found at an Army surplus store. You can use it to tie up tarps for a shelter, to collect water, use it to tie logs together for a shelter, etc. You can make snares out of it to catch a rabbit or something too. I carry 100 feet on my person and another 300 feet in my bag in the back. There are all sorts of uses for this stuff and there's a ton of videos on YouTube about making shelters and what not.
