This is why a fly a twin: Water, nights, mountains. For everything else, singles are fine.
Same thing here.
I’ve flown over the open ocean many times in a SEP, and I was fine with it at the time. But I have to admit the comfort feeling is tangibly different in a twin.
Would people generally bring non-pilots along in a SEP over open water? (outside gliding range of land) I wouldn’t – safety statistics or not.
And are we really prepared for a mid-North Sea ditching? 4 out of 18 people got killed in the helicopter which ditched off Shetland 2 months ago…
Well … I am about to fly to Bergen on a straight flight from Rotterdam and then on to the Lofoten and have decided to go for the drysuit-emergency suits for me and my wife on top of the liferaft and vests, personal PLBs we already had. Then, in worst case, I would pull the chute, ditch and have a possibility of surviving.
> have decided to go for the drysuit-emergency suits for me and my wife
Does your wife know about this decision yet 
My girlfriend fiancee is already drawing a face if she needs to wear a life vest. No way she is going to wear a wetsuit for hours…
Go to a lake with her, this winter and tell her to jump in and stay in for an hour. After that she will love the suit.
Hodja asked: “And are we really prepared for a mid-North Sea ditching?”
In mid-1980s I met in Sydney an American ferry pilot who claimed a rare distinction of surviving a January ditching in North Atlantic. On the route from Iceland to Scotland, roughly abeam The Faroe Islands, his C210 developed a slow oil “leak”. He decided to ditch before loosing power. After a “blind” broadcast of his approximate position – he had the SatNav “briefcase” with him – he descended into the stratus below, breaking out at 2000 feet above the grey and very cold seas …. and there, in the middle of “nowhere”, was a stationary SHIP. He ditched few hundred yards from Her and was on her deck within minutes. It was a Russian “fishing trawler” equipped with the impressive array of “big antennas”. After a welcoming glass of vodka and a hot shower he was locked in a cabin where he remained “incommunicado” for several weeks while the ship’s antennas continued their “listening” watch. They docked back in Murmansk some two months after his ditching. He spent another couple of weeks under “house arrest” before being escorted to Moscow and “deposited” on the doorsteps of the American Embassy. His wife was apparently a little surprised when he phoned her later that day …. He claimed that before departing Moscow he was shown “Move Over, Darling” by the Embassy’s staff …. and, apparently, he has been watching this movie compulsively ever since :)
After that she will love the suit.
Or call a divorce lawyer……
If yes, what type of emergency gear would you want to have on board? (A raft, obviously, but what else?).
I highly recommend to attend the Sea Survival seminar of AOPA Germany in Elsfleth. I did attend in October and it changed my mind. It consists of a theory and a practical part where the latter is in the training center where they can simulate everything. They even pull you into a helicopter (simulated) in heavy weather and train ditching in a helicopter mockup including a 180 turn under water. Next seminar is in 2014.
Just ordered the survival suits for our trip in 2 weeks time to the Lofoten islands in the North of Norway. First leg: Rotterdam – Bergen is about 3,5 hours of flying over the cold waters of the North sea. Better be prepared than sorry. #liferaft #lifevest #survivalsuit #PLB #goodengine #SR22T
Would love to be on that AOPA Germany Sea Survival seminar in 2014.
Sjoerd Jan, would routing via Denmark not be more prudent if the sea crossing is your concern?
Jason: yes, I thought of that option, but now with the survival suits on I think the direct route is OK. The routing via Denmark follows the Danish coast, but also out of reach of land most of the time. Then, after Bergen I will be flying along the coast to the Lofoten islands and any engine failure above a Fjord gives you only the option to ditch, so better then to be prepared and wear the survival suits. In any case, I have been thinking about buying them as also going to Oxford in December with our youngest daughter Joy will be better off while wearing the survival suits, even though I until now do it without and just route and fly the shortest available route from Rotterdam more or less straight over. If I would have a turbine, maybe my thoughts would be different, but I have had an engine failure already once in a piston engine aircraft, plus twice an alternator failure, so know that things can go wrong.
