Cannes -> Corsica -> Tuscany trip (and ditching, life rafts, etc)

Maoraigh wrote:

How many boats are there in the area?

Once over the open sea, you don’t see too many boats…

How deep into open sea you went in that picture?

I would probably treat fisherman, navy and comemrcial boats like GPS sattelites and do a RAIM check before flying any open sea route in a single engine ;)

In the golfe de Saint Tropez it would be difficult to not land on a boat

Compared with the annual cost of flying, the life raft is not huge. I bought one some years ago and always carry it. Most likely
I will never use it. My family are too valuable to justify the risk. And I fly a twin.
Just north of Corsica en route LIRJ

For brits, a raft is justified because you always go spend your free time across a sea of some sort

For us continental pilots, crossing water is quite unusual stuff and buying a raft doesn’t look sensible.
A rental outfit in Cuers/Cannes would be nice but the market is small.

An SAR helicopter crewman in Malta told me that the single most important thing you can do is to make yourself visible. From the air it is very difficult to spot a person floating in the water. I’d want a nice big yellow liferaft next to me – or preferably with me in it.

Sorry, don’t have time to check but I’m fairly sure that a PLB is now mandatory in the UK and in France. (Long story, but two live in the glove box)
They’re really cheap now.

I haven’t got around to getting a raft, but do want one. The aircraft is keeping me poor at the moment but I’m window shopping.

In my opinion anytime other than just after summer, more than 15 mins in the water is a real risk, especially tied in with all the shock involved.

I don’t expect SAR helis to come for rescue 500km in water but yes a raft will make you visible at least to passing boats (if you manage to inflate it before the aircraft sinks), but then it will be as much useful as warm suit, fishing tools :)

Personally, I would like to go for a twin + swimsuit + raft if one day I am operating in weather on a long crossings, on single engine I just like to treat as boat sailing: if the wind/engine stops or boat sinks, you can just have an afternoon sun/water bath but you don’t need to bring the whole kitchen and sleeping mattress…

I have invested once in 2 drysuits (for me and the wife), life-raft and life jacket once and wear it all or less (no suits and/or no life raft) depending on the trip we are going to make. Instead of the usual survival suits, I have opted for the sailing drysuits which come at a much cheaper price. The suits we have are still sold today here in The Netherlands for under 400 euro where they even do custom fitting. The suits breathe very well and are comfortable to wear. I am not sure if I will be able to climb into a life raft or if I am even going to be able to get the raft out of the aircraft, but it gives me some comfort that I have prepared the best I can (other than not flying over water).

Approaching Propriano from the sea side. See the river system flowing also in front of the threshold.

Parking the Piper Archer 3 that I was flying at that time at Propriano.

The parking area.

There was a nice cafe at the airfield. Very simple but with very friendly people.

I found some old pictures of a flight years ago to Propriano. We love that place and as stated above, it felt like a relaxed place to go. When we were there, you could park the aircraft, then walk along the runway to the beach. There was a river system flowing just before the beach that we had to cross with a little rubber boat that was sitting there already. The beach there happened to be a nude beach, so don’t be surprised if some people walk by naked :-)

The airfield was used for para jumping activities at the time.

The para jumping aircraft returning to the airfield empty to pick up the next batch of jumpers.

I even found some pictures of the flight back from Propriano late afternoon to Cannes Mandelieu. I do not remember the altitudes I filed the flight plan at, but the pictures give you a good idea of the haziness and visible or not visible horizon. At that time, I did not have an instrument rating, but found the flight easy. Not a lot of boats below me in the sea in case you have to ditch as you can see from the pictures.

Departure out from Propriano Airfield for a VFR flight late afternoon to Cannes.

Arriving at Cannes. Nice to see the coastline after flying over the sea for some time.