Would be exactly my choice also. Either raft or taking this 2h longer route around Poland.
Flying over Baltic and knowing that in case od engine failure ones and it’s passangers chances are minimal – what for such thrill?
You can’t know how good that escape route (life raft) really is… especially since both you and I went for the cheapest and simplest raft there is…
I don’t think so. The UK overhauler of these (SEMS) says the Survival Products ones do open about 99% of the time. (They test inflate them at overhaul, though they use air and not the integral gas canister because the latter produces very cold gas which makes the rubber brittle)
And they weight only about 10kg so a normal person can handle them. That’s why I chose that one.
The more pricey RFD ones, at say 20-30kg, will need Geoff Capes to get them off the back seat and in the end they are no better unless you want to hold a party in one. And it isn’t till you get to the huge (30kg+) ones that you get sea anchors and a ladder to climb up.
I had one RFD one on loan for a few weeks, about 20kg, and it was too heavy to be practical.
I don’t think so. The UK overhauler of these (SEMS) says the Survival Products ones do open about 99% of the time.
The issue more is if this light weight construction with a single tube and no ladder and sea anchor will allow you to get inside or whether you’re just carrying 10kg of expensive useless hope. It’s subject to a lot of debate. Many people claim that you should get at least a small Winslow raft (13kg). I have the same raft as you and honestly, I don’t know if it provides much value in case of a ditching. It’s nice and compact though.
There is a former TB20 owner who ditched with the same raft and only got his feet wet, so they do work.
With all rafts which don’t have a ladder, you basically have to inflate them out on the wing and step into them, and let the aircraft sink underneath. The procedure for getting in from the water is much more complicated and needs fitness and practice (or at least knowing how) and it helps to not be wearing a life jacket because if you wear one you can’t do the required bouncing to get in (well, that’s one procedure; there are others which are even harder).
With a high wing plane, you may be right in that you may need a raft into which you can get easily from the water. That’s one reason I would never have a high wing plane, however.
That Wilmslow raft you linked to looks interesting especially for having a ladder despite being fairly light. It is $3000 and I can’t see a European outlet for it. It’s also a lot bigger than the Survival products one when packed.
We have the Winslow mentioned, imported it Via Mike Perry at Guernsey when we bought the Commander, its a proper job, IMHO these small ones are more like inflatable paddling pools and I wouldn’t want to be in any substantial sea state in one of those !
I did fly from Berlin to Riga and back two years ago. After consulting with local AIS we filed around the southern border of Kaliningrad. The extra distance travelled was not that bad. A friend did not care about Kaliningrad, the flight plan was accepted but in the air he was refused to fly there. So depending on where you want to go in German just fly around Kaliningrad and avoid charges and trouble.
From my home, I watched an air force guy repeatedly get into, then fall out of, a one-man raft, in choppy sea. The helicopter wouldn’t pick him up until he could stay in it. After lifting him, it dropped the winchman. A few arm strokes took him to the raft. An easy movement, and he was in. The helicopter left, leaving him to drift ashore to the recovery guys.
It’s obviously easy – IF you’re practiced..
If you want to take this seriously, you have to consider proper training. It’s better to do all those beginner’s mistakes and learn your lessons in a pool. Like that you are not able to get into the raft of your choice or help others get in (you can definitely fall out). Or that you really should completely zip up your immersion suit. There was at least one pilot who successfully ditched few hundred meters in front of a ship, wore immersion suit and yet he died because he failed to seal it properly. He might have been just unconscious when the ship got there but it took them some time to fish him out (weight of the pilot plus water in the suit in not the best weather).
I spend a bit of time on the Baltic-US trade when I was still living in NL and I think your chances are pretty slim if you’d have to ditch in April.
To be able to survive any substantial amount of time you would need to get into the raft dry, and that would only work on a very flat sea.
Your chances would be much better wearing an immersion suit as Martin says, in my opinion a properly fitted suit would give you a better chance than a little raft.
Training would be a good idea, it’s not (very) expensive and fun to do. I guess you could do the HUET part of the offshore basic safety course for around €400. That would teach you how to properly don an immersion suit & life jacket, how to escape from a upside-down sinking aircraft and how to get into a raft.
The time you’d have to wait for help to arrive depends a lot on who’s SAR area you’re in, unless you’re lucky enough to ditch close to a ship.
Just be aware that ships can’t receive aircraft radio (different frequency and modulation for the VHF), so unless you manage to ditch just in front and the OOW isn’t busy working on his HSE administration (or simply fast asleep due to fatigue) they may just continue on until they receive a call from the MRCC that received your distress signal.
Also with most big ships stopping and lowering a boat to pick you up is non-trivial, especially in cold climates when the outboard motor may be stored somewhere inside to keep it from freezing. It might well take 20-30 minutes from the first alarm before they’re able to pick you up (my guys do it in 10… but we are staying well away from the Baltic sea, in someplace warm and tropical).
If you have a choice of ships (likely in the channel), pick a passenger vessel as they have a fast rescue boat with a trained response team that should be able to launch within 5 minutes. They would also have a doctor and a bar on board either of which you may need after a ditching.
The P&O Irish Sea ferry that I blagged a bridge ride on a few years back (said I was a ‘pilot’!) had a radio tuned to 121.5 permanently.
