To come back to the original question, I have made the crossing between the tip of the Cherbourg Peninsula and KATHY (Isle of Wight) on numerous occasions in a C172 with just life jackets. About half an hour depending on headwinds.
Slightly nervous at first due to fear of the unknown, but by the time you’ve worried, you’re already half way across. Have a little chat with London Info on the way across, and keep your eye out for ships (there are a lot) you could land next to if the worst happened.
Re: water survival, if I recall it is an average of 5 minutes once in. I seem to remember seeing one of those “dangerous ferry flight” programs where they did an escape exercise in a specially designed tank. Is this available in Europe?
dublinpilot wrote:
Yes, SVFR is available in a Class A CTR.For many years, that the only way to access the Channel Islands without an IR!
Before London changed their CTR to class D, it was the only for to access the London Zone without an IR.
But that was “UK SVFR”, wasn’t it? Which isn’t quite the same as ICAO/EASA SVFR. Otherwise the UK could just have made the airspace class B instead of class A.
Bordeaux_Jim wrote:
Is this available in Europe?
AOPA in Germany runs Sea Survival trainings, IIRC.
But if you want underwater escape training as well as sea survival you could try Falke in Bremerhaven:
This is intended for offshore oil workers traveling to their worksites on helicopters but is quite relevant for us I would say…
dublinpilot wrote:
It basically means that ATC treat you like you were IFR, providing IFR equilivant seperation standards, and you can avail of reduced weather standards.
Yes, that’s how they do it in the class C airspace >FL100 in Germany. I made the mistake to think they are the same but they aren’t, as we don’t have class A. There is an exception to class A CTRs where SVFR is at least not ruled out, whereas in general class A it is.
Ok, so, either a)accept risk, b) prepare and mitigate or c) get IR, which I am doing already.
Airborne_Again wrote:
But that was “UK SVFR”, wasn’t it?
No, that’s just SVFR. VFR is prohibited in Class A, but there is no similar prohibition on SVFR.
But SVFR is only available in a CTR. That’s certainly the same rules we have here in Ireland (though we don’t have any class A anymore).
It’s 100% ICAO compliant as I understand it.
If you find yourself literally underwater in a GA plane, you are dead, IMHO. It’s going to go straight down, fast.
Unlike a North Sea helicopter which may end up inverted but the floats will stop it sinking.
The emphasis has to be on doing a good ditching and then getting out really fast, carrying the life raft package on the way out.
If you find yourself literally underwater in a GA plane, you are dead, IMHO. It’s going to go straight down, fast
If a high-wing aircraft will float upright, why wouldn’t a low wing aircraft float inverted? Even if gir a few minutes only…
Check the facts:
AnthonyQ wrote:
Check the facts:
That page should be required reading for anyone discussing overwater flights. Particularly as most of the conclusions are based on actual accident data.
There is also a very interesting (and sobering) comparison between different life rafts on the same web site — unfortunately rather old by now.
Regarding airspace, VFR in class A was possible but it is not anymore (I think with SERA) which is why a number of class A airspace were changed to other classes to allow VFR traffic (Channel Islands is one example Paris CTR is another one)
