Hitting the Water--My Experience with the Dunker.

In the movie “An Officer and a Gentleman” during a simulated aircraft ditching Aviator Candidate Mayo (Richard Geer) successfully removes himself from a contraption that looks like a cross between a jet fighter cockpit, mechanical bull, and water park ride.  You may recall that another candidate did not successfully escape requiring Drill Instructor Foley (Lou Gosset Jr.) to dive into the pool to save the about-to-be-drown candidate.  Despite great performances by the actors, the apparatus, known as the “Dilbert Dunker,” steals the scene.  An article on the device on Naval Aviation Museum website notes,  although it was Hollywood that introduced the device to the general public in the motion picture… for generations of naval aviation personnel the “Dilbert Dunker” that sent them plummeting into a pool during water survival training was a rite of passage.”  The same can be said for personnel trained in Alaska by the Department of the Interior’s Office of Aircraft Services (OAS).

My own experience in the dunker occurred at the Alaska Club East swimming pool a couple of weeks ago as part of the Water Ditching and Survival training sponsored by OAS.  The training is mandatory for personnel whose field work may require them to land or takeoff from water or participate in extended overwater flight.  In my case, the latter applies, an airborne count of beluga whales in Cook Inlet.  While the chances of flying this mission for me are slim, I would not be able to participate without the training.  Our dunker was not as elaborate as that used by the Armed Services.  Our dunker is made from pvc pipe and web straps and pushed into the water a positioned by people rather than pneumatic-hydraulic power.  The cage is about the size of a Cessna 150 cockpit.

The ditching training consists of a six step process:

1. State emphatically, “I AM A SURVIVOR” which creates a positive mental state to help meet the challenge of ditching.  
2. UNPLUG the flight helmet from the communications system, breaking a tether that could prevent escape. 
3. OPEN THE DOOR, BRACE.  Opening the door prior to impact helps ensure an exit that might otherwise be jammed closed by aircraft hull damage. 
4. WAIT 4 SECONDS after all violent motion has stopped and SIT UP from the brace position.
5. CLEAR EXIT PATH of any debris or obstruction in front of you with a sweep of the hand and GRASP REFERENCE POINT –such as the aircraft airframe adjacent to the door.   Firmly establishing the reference point combats disorientation that may result when the aircraft comes to a halt in an unusually attitude, such as upside down in cold, dark water.
6. RELEASE SEAT BELT and EXIT  the aircraft, swimming away from the hull and towards the surface to being careful to try and avoid any debris or aircraft fluids, such as fuel, in the water.

Successful completion of the exercise required three exits using this procedure.  We teamed with another student for the exercise.  If either student did not follow the procedure correctly (an instructor monitors the steps both above and underwater) the exercise would need to be completed.  The first immersion was usually a straightforward sinking of the dunker in the upright position, followed by more complicated scenarios, such as the aircraft on its side, in which case both students had to swim out of one exit, or inverted.  Creative instructors develop a number of different situations. Aircraft do not crash and submerge in a singular way.

Students committed the six steps to memory by verbal and tactile repetition, we talked and felt our way through the sequence.  The repetition establishes “muscle memory” for performing the steps in the correct order.  The simulation also creates stress.  My training as a scuba diver, swimmer, and lifeguard provides a certain ability to cope with stress underwater.  The simulation created an entirely different and unfamiliar situation that raised the stress level.  

During one immersion where the cage went nose down and came to rest inverted.  I inadvertently let my grasp of the reference point go for a brief moment while removing the three point restraint (lap belt and two shoulder belts).  I found myself on the “ceiling” of the cage on the floor of the pool.  It took a few moments to reset my reference point and I swam out of the cage just as the safety monitor was giving the order to raise the cage.