What’s in your “emergency go bag”?

woodchucker

woodchucker

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woodchucker
Not a flight bag, but your emergency “oops” bag. Attended a CAP presentation on cold weather survival. Three things the presenter suggested having in your pocket are a whistle, pocket knife (with saw blade) and flashlight.

That’s just in your cargo pocket. I might also add a glass-breaking tool.

But in addition to that, you can fit a bunch of stuff in a backpack to help survive a night or two. The presentation covered this. Including a source of fire and an old school pencil sharpener to help create kindling for fire. Dryer lint as well. Butane lighter. Signal mirror.

Tourniquets for loss of blood. Water (6 bottled water)/water purification tools. Zip ties. Paracord. Bungee cords. Food. Sleeping stuff (pads, wraps, etc). Hand sanitizer to help stay healthy. Bottled water and snack food. I added down booties and an extra pair of socks and sunscreen as well. It all fits in a backpack.

Additions or subtractions? Thoughts?
 
woodchucker said:
Not a flight bag, but your emergency “oops” bag. Attended a CAP presentation on cold weather survival. Three things the presenter suggested having in your pocket are a whistle, pocket knife (with saw blade) and flashlight.

That’s just in your cargo pocket. I might also add a glass-breaking tool.

But in addition to that, you can fit a bunch of stuff in a backpack to help survive a night or two. The presentation covered this. Including a source of fire and an old school pencil sharpener to help create kindling for fire. Dryer lint as well. Butane lighter. Signal mirror.

Tourniquets for loss of blood. Water (6 bottled water)/water purification tools. Zip ties. Paracord. Bungee cords. Food. Sleeping stuff (pads, wraps, etc). Hand sanitizer to help stay healthy. Bottled water and snack food. I added down booties and an extra pair of socks and sunscreen as well. It all fits in a backpack.

Additions or subtractions? Thoughts?
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For clothing, I always kept two pairs of knee-high wool socks, a pair or two of underwear, a pair of fleece-lined leggings, and a long sleeved synthetic-fiber shirt in the side pocket of my flight bag. They were easy to roll up tightly, so they fit easily into the side pocket. Guys might want to substitute something like poly-pros for that outfit, as it's probably hard to find fleece-lined leggings. ;) I always wore my winter boots and coat to the airport and changed into tennis shoes or my less bulky boots and a warm sweatshirt or fall coat in the plane, so my winter boots were in the back with my heavy coat. Also kept a pair of gloves/mittens and a hat in there in the winter as well, just so I would never forget one.

I also had:
-one of those mini-tools that fold out into a pliers, with all the different gadgets on it, and I figured I could break glass with either that or my key lanyard.
-two pocket knives. One of them was larger and the other was one I always carried on my keychain. That one had a serrated blade.
-three flashlights, one "penlight" that was super bright, one headlamp with white/red lights, and one "normal" flashlight. I probably didn't need that many...
-several bandaids of varying sizes and a bottle of a spray disinfectant, as well as a roll of that sticky gauze and some larger gauze pads, some ibuprofen, and some alcohol wipes
-mini pocket lighter and a box of matches
-a length of paracord that my brother made into a neat little shape to hang on my keychain
-old sectional charts (they were there just because, but they would have made great kindling if the need arose)
-about five to six packs of trail mix with nuts, raisins, and chocolate, two extra 17oz water bottles, and some cereal bars
-an emergency blanket
-small fleece blanket (though that was leftover from when I used it as a cushion behind my back)
-a braided belt that could double as a tourniquet if necessary

I would have probably needed more water if I actually ever had to spend a day or two outside, but I also wasn't flying over terribly-deserted areas. I think it ultimately depends on where you are flying over. Where I flew, I could realistically expect to get help within a day. If you can't, you probably need to plan more heavily.
 
woodchucker said:
Not a flight bag, but your emergency “oops” bag. Attended a CAP presentation on cold weather survival. Three things the presenter suggested having in your pocket are a whistle, pocket knife (with saw blade) and flashlight.

That’s just in your cargo pocket. I might also add a glass-breaking tool.

But in addition to that, you can fit a bunch of stuff in a backpack to help survive a night or two. The presentation covered this. Including a source of fire and an old school pencil sharpener to help create kindling for fire. Dryer lint as well. Butane lighter. Signal mirror.

Tourniquets for loss of blood. Water (6 bottled water)/water purification tools. Zip ties. Paracord. Bungee cords. Food. Sleeping stuff (pads, wraps, etc). Hand sanitizer to help stay healthy. Bottled water and snack food. I added down booties and an extra pair of socks and sunscreen as well. It all fits in a backpack.

Additions or subtractions? Thoughts?
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Hand sanitizer is usually mostly alcohol. I would imagine it can also be used as a fire starter. Also, skip the food. You need water to digest food. Besides, you can also go without food for weeks but you can't go without water for more than a few hours/days.

But all that highly depends what you fly where and when. For example, a helicopter over Atlanta in August is going to be a lot different than an airplane over Alaska in autumn. If you are flying a piston single, you probably won't be tackling really bad weather so just hit the PLB or 406ELT and help will be there before you need to go deep into survival mode.
 
Remember the rule of 3s, you “could” live:

3 minutes without oxygen
3 hours without shelter
3 days without water
3 weeks without food

So #1 priority after surviving a crash would be find a way to stay out of the weather not hunting wild hogs.
 
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texasclouds said:
Remember the rule of 3s, you can live:

3 minutes without oxygen
3 hours without shelter
3 days without water
3 weeks without food

So #1 priority after surviving a crash would be find a way to stay out of the weather not hunting wild hogs.
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3 Hours without Shelter????? What does that even mean? Think your rule of threes should only have 3 rules...
 
Food. In case I run out, a little more food. This is my emergency bag.

Big Flashlight, little headlamp, extra batteries, paper maps, hand-held radio, airhorn, big USB charging battery for phone, spare AA & AAA batteries are in my flight bag. Pocket tool on my belt.
 
SkyChaser said:
Well, to be fair, you're lucky to last 3 hours without some way to get out of the wind and cold if it's below zero.
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I think shelter also includes warm clothing, immersion suits, liferaft etc.. and not necessarily just a house or building to seek shelter in.
 
Gary Ward said:
All I have is a big bottle of wild turkey.
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Fine as a fire starter/sanitizer, but you're going to need an actual bourbon to drink.
:)
I have my insulated hunting bibs, parka w/hood, mitts, and balaclava wadded up and cinched tight in an old frameless ALICE pack. All in, tightly smashed its not much bigger than a basketball and it's light.
A few of those LifeStraw things to suck dirty water. Waterproof matches. Flint and steel. Heavy leather gloves. Pocket folder clipped to pocket (always)(good for cutting away a jammed seat belt). A few flashlights, some snack/protein bars. Always a couple bottles of water in the plane. Some other small stuff I don't remember.

I rarely wear plastic clothing and NEVER in the plane--cotton and wool won't melt and stick to your skin when exposed to heat. Plastic clothes will melt from radiated heat. For the same reason my most frequent flying foot wear are leather cowboy work boots. Never flip-flops, sandals, or bare foot. Long pants always.
 
I'll add a tarp. If it's cold, you can roll yourself in it for shelter
 
A new one in the package is ok. Not sure you can get enough wrapped layers to stay warm in a shower curtain. It's about the trapped air layers.
 
A satellite emergency beacon handheld transmitter would be nice.
 
Domenick said:
A few of those LifeStraw things to suck dirty water.

Waterproof matches. Flint and steel. Heavy leather gloves. Pocket folder clipped to pocket (always)(good for cutting away a jammed seat belt). A few flashlights, some snack/protein bars. Always a couple bottles of water in the plane. Some other small stuff I don't remember.

I rarely wear plastic clothing and NEVER in the plane--cotton and wool won't melt and stick to your skin when exposed to heat. Plastic clothes will melt from radiated heat. For the same reason my most frequent flying foot wear are leather cowboy work boots. Never flip-flops, sandals, or bare foot. Long pants always.
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Lifestraw or other water purification is better than a reasonable number of bottles.

Fire is good. Warmth, melt snow

Also, don't wear things that are too thin. You need insulation from the fire. Even Nomex is not protective in thin (like military flight suits and gloves).
 
Where I fly I don’t think I’d ever be out of cell range. Maybe my emergency supply is a cell phone battery pack and my American Express card.
 
Daleandee said:
I'm guessing by the end of this thread the "emergency go bag" will weigh about 80 lbs ... :D
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The emergency bag provided to us in Alaska weighed in at 90 lbs. I used it as ballast at times, although it was not smart to carry the bag in a front compartment lest the plane bends up and the bag is then not accessible.

2 things I did not carry was BBQ sauce and toothpicks....
 
My favorite backpacking setup was a small a-frame tent, -30F down bag, and a roll up foam pad. Added together, they weighed less than 9lbs, and that was 20 year old tech. If you weren't injured, you could be comfy warm in a ny winter without having to start a fire, as long as you stayed dry. So if shelter for 1-2 people is more than 10-15lbs, I think you're doing it wrong. That said, I haven't carried that in a plane.

My hiking emergency kit was pocket sized. Just had a small folding knife, folding saw, about 3 ways to start a fire (tinder/striker, matches, tiny bic), a solas whistle, signal mirror, a maybe a folding bag for water and some water pills, tiny compass, couple of band-aids, some BAC wipes. All up maybe 4-5 oz. Used to carry that, a GPS, full sized compass, pocket knife, small towel, and a water bottle on hikes. Those were before cell phone days. Sometimes carried a 2m HT.

Flying I haven't carried any of the above, except I always carry a plastic bottle of water. I normally dress warm enough to be reasonably comfortable outside in whatever the weather is. Like Domenick above, I avoid synthetics except for a coat. Bought a carbon-x long sleeve racing t-shirt that I wear in winter. It's surprisingly comfortable.

In my flight bag, I do carry a VHF radio, a cell phone with a GPS app on it, and a flashlight. Some phones won't easily display gps coordinates without an app, and I'd feel silly having a device with a GPS, talking to someone on VHF radio, and not being able to tell them where I was.

I've thought about packing my old emergency hiking kit, an ACR strobe that I have, and a couple of hand held smoke flares with me, but just haven't done it. My reason for doing it is that if someone is looking for me, and I can talk with them on the radio, the strobe or smoke would make it a lot easier to pinpoint my location. "If it works for the USAF" logic. The reason I haven't done it is partly laziness, but partly that if I come down somewhere weird, and don't succumb to drowning, fire, or impact, and I'm conscious, I won't be that hard to find. If I'm not conscious, and I'm in the middle of the Adirondacks, it doesn't matter what kit I have...if the ELT doesn't lead people to me, it'll be 10-20 years. Reading all this, what I probably should do is just get a PLB. But in addition to being lazy, I'm also a bit cheap.
 
Albany Tom said:
Reading all this, what I probably should do is just get a PLB. But in addition to being lazy, I'm also a bit cheap.
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Just get a laser pointer and wait for the right moment ... :D

OK, OK, do not do this ... I kid, I kid!! :)
 
texasclouds said:
Remember the rule of 3s, you “could” live:

3 minutes without oxygen
3 hours without shelter
3 days without water
3 weeks without food.
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Yup, water and shelter are the two biggies. Shelter probably more important if it’s cold, water more important of its hot. Food? One can go a long time without food.

This was a fun quick read that kept me occupied on a transcontinental flight a few years ago.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1586852345/ref=cm_cr_arp_mb_bdcrb_top?ie=UTF8
 
Bill said:
And how to live through the first 72hrs, the typical time frame from lost to found.
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Is that the figure quoted in the book? Looks like it was written in 2003 or maybe even earlier, before PLB's and 406ELT's came about. Smart phones too, for that matter. I wonder if it still holds true?
 
WDD said:
A satellite emergency beacon handheld transmitter would be nice.
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iPhone 14 has this included now. Not worth getting an iPhone 14 just for this. But if you happen to already have it then you have it.
 
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