Quote:
Originally Posted by swjohnsey
In a former life I was a SERE instructor, went to the SERE instructor course at Fort Bragg in '82 while Nick Rowe was commandant. You need a good knife, a couple of ways to make a fire. Bic lighters are cheap and effective but don't work when wet but will work again once dried out. Life boat matches and vaseline soaked cotton balls make a good second source. The crashed plane will likely be a good source of shelter and other useful stuff. Paracord can make lots of useful stuff like fishing line from the guts. A few small fish hooks can come in handy. Food is way down on the list of priorities as most folk can last a month or more with no food. Water! A little to get you started like a quart plus a way to treat and store it. Military water purification tables (iodine) and regular household bleach both work. Put the bleach in one of the little plasic food coloring bottles that will give you a really tough container plus a means of measuring drops. Platypus makes some nice folding bladders for storing/treating water. Space blanket. Compass. Signal mirror. Put it all in a small backpack. Dry Ducks make lightweight rain gear/ponchos that is cheap and light. The poncho is probably the most versitile.
We carried a SERE kit on our person, small enough to fit in a pocket. Mine was in a taped up Sucrets container. Mine had a small knife, Gerber LST mini, small Bic, button compass, bone saw, Lomotil, water purification tablets. Braided fishing line and a couple of very small hooks.
Look at what the military puts in their aircraft survival packs. Military pilots generally don't have a broke airplane to work with.
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Probably the best summary I could give in terms of what is in my vest…plus the PLB, of course! I look at food as something to just give my mouth something to do - not really trying to keep me alive, because the PLB should be getting me long before I need to worry about calories! Water is in all our planes, and whether I carry it in my vest is dependent on the terrain over which I am flying.
In answer to questions, my vest is a very rugged fishing vest - not too small, not too large, and I wear it even when I have a parachute. And yes, I have practiced egresses with it, and it doesn;t hinder me for ground or air egress. YMMV, so practice with what you’ve got.
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