Water Ditching and Survival--The Personal Flotation Device aka lifevest

“How likely are you to use this training in the next thirty (30) days?”  It is a standard question on an effectiveness-of-training evaluation form.  What caused me to chuckle on seeing it and the responses was the subject matter of the just-completed course—Water Ditching and Survival.  As part of the course, I had been immersed in a simulated small aircraft cabin, extricated myself, righted a six-person life raft, climbed in the raft, and pulled in one of my fellow student.   “Not very likely, I hope” was my initial response muttered to myself.  But, considering that preparation is the object of the training and that risk management techniques are woven into the content of the course, “very likely” is a good choice.  Preparedness and training is part of risk management for the mission, whether flying point-to-point or flying 50 miles offshore over the Beaufort Sea on a Bowhead Whale Survey, as I did back in 2005.

What makes the “very likely” response even more likely is that at the beginning of summer in Alaska, airplane travel in the next month is a likelihood.  (Three “likely” words in one sentence might make air travel inevitable.)  Airborne is how we get around, especially in a small plane if we are going to locations beyond the road system, which may entail water takeoffs and landing or flight over water.  For example, two of my five neighbors have small airplanes on floats.  That is the only means to get to their cabins on two of Alaska’s uncountable lakes.  For work, when we visit villages to speak with the residents, we go by charter, propeller-driven, aircraft.  Our coastal destinations usually means an overwater takeoff and approach for landing,

The preflight safety briefing--pay attention

The applicability of the training is not just limited to general aviation aircraft.  The inflatable personal floatation devices (pfd) used in the course are the same as those devices that the cabin attendant on a commercial airline tells you during the preflight briefing “are stowed under your seat for your use in the unlikely event of a water landing.”  Think of how often that any passenger, including yourself, checks to see if the pfd package is indeed stowed where the attendants, safety instructions, and placards say it is stowed.  Hopefully the previous occupant did not take it home as a souvenir of the trip.  You think I am kidding?  Go to EBAY and type “airline life jacket” in the search line. Luckily, most are from out-of-service airlines.  Want a new one of your own?  Check out the marketplace of every aviation product you could (n)ever need—Sporty’s Pilot Shop

We examined a number of inflatable pfds as part of the course, ranging from the airline type to more elaborate suspenders and vests with pockets.  All types are activated by pulling the tab, which activates the CO2 cartridge, filling the device’s air chamber.  We were advised to check that the CO2 cylinders were serviceable and had not been previously activated by unscrewing the cylinders from the trigger mechanism and examining the neck of the cylinder to make sure they were still sealed.  As a backup, tubes allow the wearer to orally inflate the air chamber.  “Do not activate the vest until you are outside the airplane” the instructor reiterated, otherwise the buoyant vest trap the wearer in a submerged aircraft.” For the same reason, the instructor cautioned against using any device that automatically activates on contact on water. 

“Pockets are useful”, one of the instructors noted, “because the survival gear on board the airplane, which is really ‘camping gear’—it makes waiting to be rescued more comfortable—may not make it out of the airplane and to land.  In that case, you will need to survive with whatever you have on your person.  That should include items like a firestarter, knife or multitool, signaling device and some kind of high energy emergency rations, at a minimum. Think of your situation and what you might need.”  (Except for the rations, I carry the essentials on my wrist with the Alaska Survival Bracelet.)

I used volunteer with the Alaska Office of Boating Safety to do water safety education programs for children.  In that capacity, I learned almost everything there was to learn about pfds and life jackets.  In the not too distant past, I was certified as a Red Cross water safety instructor, lifeguard instructor, and lifeguard.  Most of what I know is applicable to aviation, with some caveats. For example, I have an inflatable suspender style pfd that activates on immersion in water.  I use these for openwater sailing.  They are not to be used for flying.

Underwater Grappling and the Canadian Club

I recently encountered a website that highlights diving-as-adventure advertisements from the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, including those that linked underwater adventure and intrigue with liquor. 


As a youngster in the 1960s, the only “grown-up” reading material around the house (other than the evening newspaper which I delivered for many years) was my mom’s subscription to “Redbook” and my dad’s subscription to “Newsweek.”  Turning the pages of the latter, must have been where I first encountered the liquor advertisements about hiding a case of Canadian Club Whiskey in a remote locations around the world including the Great Barrier Reef and then challenging readers to seek it out.  A unique kind of treasure hunt! The campaign forever fused “Canadian Club” and “adventure” in my young mind, although I have never consumed the product.  According to a recent article in the Daily Mail, several cases have yet to be discovered. This campaign reminds me of the geocaching craze that swept the country in the late 1990ss and early 2000s with the advent of portable and affordable global positioning system units.

About a decade prior to the “hide a case” campaign, Canadian Club had other advertisements that none-the-less sought to link the whiskey with adventure.  One of these ads highlighted doing underwater judo in the Virgin Islands, circa 1960. 

Early 1960s Canadian Club Advertisement

It’s sink and swim when you grapple with underwater judo!

1.  “Under the sea off the Virgin Islands, with no way to breathe, I was recently introduced to a wet and wonderful local variety of wrestling,” writes George Atcheson, an American friend of Canadian Club.  “Wearing only a face mask, the object is to pin your opponent to one of the ring poles—or make him surface—while the snorkel equipped referee keeps score.  As a former Navy from man, I thought it would be a cinch.  How wrong I was!  Rounds were only two minutes each, but before the first thirty seconds were up, my lungs were bursting from the strain.”
2.  “No holds are barred—but it’s not easy to make any of them stick when you’re sometimes wrestling upside down.  When I found myself in a neck lock, I thought for sure I’d be forced to go up for air.”

3.  “Breaking loose, I angled my opponent toward one of the poles—but he proved too slippery for me.  Finally, after several more rounds, we invoked the rule of “mutual exhaustion” and, heading for the surface, ended the game in a tie."
4.  Back in Saint Thomas, we all gathered at the Hotel Caribbean for a good talk and a pre-arranged meeting with a good friend—Canadian Club.”

I did actually try underwater judo of a sort, Mizu Jitsu, offered as underwater safety and self defense course designed for divemasters and lifeguards, on a trip to Honolulu in 2008.  I had gone to Oahu to do some diving and compete in an ocean fin swim race at Ala Moana.  I was a lifeguard instructor at the time and the advanced training offered by Mizu jitsu was something I wanted to try.  Many of the techniques we practiced in Mizu jitsu were similar to the escapes practiced in lifeguard training.  The pool exercise, which culminated dojo mat training, took us through a series of drills.  The final encounter in the training, shown in two photos, was pretty much as described above in the Canadian Club ad, except the after-encounter beverage was a soft drink consumed pool side. 

Who knows when the skills come in handy.  Maybe fighting off claim jumpers on my sunken treasure site as they try to steal the missing case of Canadian Club.