Practicing safety and survival situations gives me a huge boost of confidence. Today Mary and I, shot off an aviation life raft manufactured by “Survival”. Glad I am not too overweight and weak enough to preclude me climbing in! I passed! Good to fly over water again.

Note:

(1) Aviation life rafts generally DO NOT have a knife to cut the lanyard. The lanyard has a loop which is fitted over your wrist. Please don’t secure aviation life rafts to anything except yourself. Unlike surface vessel rafts.

(2) This raft was for warm water and imminent recuses. Cold water is beyond the scope of this thread’s intentions. But, please comment if needed.

(3) “Survival Products” have my admiration. Great products.

What's involved to repack a raft like the one you deployed?

PapernScissors wrote:What's involved to repack a raft like the one you deployed?

Good question, thank you for asking. This raft was 15 years old and had been repacked and inspected previously by a certified repair station several times. I forget the cost but, it’s not inexpensive.

After the video we slit the raft and permanently decommissioned it (calendar time). I replaced it with a Switlik, which I also use on the Scout amphib.

Before purchasing a life raft discuss where and how much servicing is with manufacturers. If a raft is stored in a benign manner the TBO can be extended if used on a non revenue private vessel. But, do research regardless.

I have had a couple of the Survival Products rafts. They are nice and compact. They get twice as large if you attach the survival kit. I actually visited their facility when I lived in Miami ages ago. Nice folks. They do re-pack and inspection of the rafts and also do inflate, test and re-pack on life preservers. When I visited, they must have had 100 inflated vests hanging in racks for the inflation test along with some of the airliner door chutes. They also had several rafts inflated for the same reason. They apparently need to have them stay inflated for a period of time, do not recall how long, to pass re-cert. The packing process must be a hoot, didn't see them do that. I just remember watching the techs fold and pack parachutes into the canister for ejection seats. They use a hydraulic ram to smash them in place, comforting.

Arctic rated rafts get real big quickly. They have an inflated floor and a canopy that inflates as well. Kind of look like a rubber Apollo 11 capsule in the water. They are also rather pricey. You need one if you ever want to cross the North Atlantic, along with survival suits and deployable 406 floating beacon. The Canadian MOT guys need to inspect your aircraft before you leave east. Nobody cared going west.

Very good info Mr. “DogPilot”. I really enjoy discussing safety equipment and techniques. Flying over water is definitely a different scenario, especially as temperatures decrease. Things to keep in mind when going North.

Mahalo!