David,
I think you have a point and my theory of jumping from the flex wing maybe
ought not to be carried over to the 3 axis.
I always considered that if I did land on water I would do my best to stall
it on and risk a heavy flop rather than flipping over from forward momentum.
Interesting information you bring to the forum and my thanks for that. Looks
like the info I was given was probably more negative on survival time than
it needed to be.
Last year when we had a mass flex wing crossing of the Irish sea I tried to
contact the RNLI several times via email to no avail.
The channel doesn't concern me so much due to the reasonably short distance
and the ships there are plenty to pick one up.
As for the Irish sea well that feels a lonely place with not so many. Due to
the D201 Dublin ATC lack of help and the general poor radio coverage between
Caernarfon and Dublin I probably wont go that route again in future.
I have now fitted a Transponder to my aircraft as I got fed up of not been
allowed service because I have no transponder.
On that issue when returning from France recently I was refused FIS for the
channel crossing return leg because I didn't have a transponder. They told
me they wouldn't activate a flight plan and I should call London Info. Not
much help when you are near Abbeville. I managed to activate my plan about
one third of the way across which wouldn't have been much help had I have
gone down as no one knew I was there.
Regards
Kev T
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-europa-list-server@matronics.com
[mailto:owner-europa-list-server@matronics.com]On Behalf Of david joyce
Subject: Europa-List: Survival
I have done a bit of searching round the topic. The Air Accident Invest
Board site searched for Ditching gives some interesting info:
In the 10 reports produced there was no incident where anyone with a
lifejacket ditched in a controlled way and did not survive. A PA28 ditched
off Guernsey with two pax wearing life jackets and pilot without. The plane
floated long enough for them to get out on to the wing, inflate the dinghy
and for the pilot to go back into the plane to get all his kit into the
dinghy. He ditched with flaps down and gear up.
A Robin however with fixed gear flipped over on landing. This was a
night flight which would not have helped, but it could just be that in among
these two incidents there is a fringe message to add to the mono vs trigear
debate! Neither pilot was wearing the life jacket available in the aircraft,
and while one swam to shore the other apparently took off in the wrong
direction and drowned.
They give a graph for 'Likely Survival Time for a Relatively
Thin Person in Calm Water with no Liferaft'. This compares survival with
just lightweight summer clothing and a survival suit with trousers, long
johns, shirt and heavy pullover. This doesn't seem a totally equable
comparison, but does make the point that the insulation qualities of the
survival suit depend on you wearing thick clothing underneath it, which from
Kevin's account is not too attractive a proposition. They give the following
survival times:
At 5 deg C - S. suit 1 hr 50mins; summer cloths 50 mins.
At 10 deg C - S suit 3 hrs; summer cloths 1 hr
The sea temp in the Channel and Irish Sea at present according to Ant Veals
weather site is around 12 deg C. I haven't got temps for mid winter but it
is difficult to imagine it will be below 5 deg. Kevins acdvice about
survival times in the Irish Sea in May clearly came from a different hymn
sheet than the AAIB one. In all the AAIB comment and discussion I have waded
through there is heavy emphasis on having user friendly lifejackets, and
always wearing them, and talk also about dinghies but no mention of the
desirability of Survival Suits.
In relation to the question of flipping over or trying to jump out
sooner it is worth saying that the guys in the Robin got out without trouble
---From the upturned plane, and I think I would prefer my chances of doing that
(as long as I had a good four point harness) rather than risking being
clobbered by some part of the plane while jumping out, or misjudging the
timing and having it land on top of you or immediately in front. I am also
not sure that hitting a wave at 40 kts would be a pleasant experience, and
it might just be enough to tear your life jacket off. The AAIB detailed one
instance where the guy only had a lap strap, hit the water at speed and had
head injuries which stopped him getting out. The website for anyone
interested is www.aaib.dft.gov.uk Regards, David
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