We have been told that when flying in the back country and in the event of a forced landing, your survival gear should be very close and readily available. Especially if you are partially incapacitated. I figured that actually on my body would be best.

I bought a fisherman's vest ($14.00) from a sporting goods store and a good 1st aid kit from COSTCO. The vest is light brown and hunter red would be better, but that was all I could find.

I numbered all of the many pockets with a permanent marker. On the inside of the back I indicated my emergency contact name, address and phone number along with my blood type.

In the #1 pocket is a reference list which tells what is all the pockets.

Along with the entire 1st aid kit are many helpful survial items such as fire starters, spare batteries for the flashlight, Leatherman set, rope, signal mirror, pistol, snacks etc. Of course, if you have a personal locator it should also be included.

I am fortunate that when I fly back country I always have a wingman so if I do go down he can check on my condition via radio, note my position and call for help via emergency frequency, cell phone, SPOT or whatever it takes.

Assuming I am still concious I can begin to attend to any wounds and set up shelter while awaiting rescue.

Having survival gear actually on your person prevents the situation I read about in AOPA where one of the two on board survived a crash but his SPOT was up on the glare panel and dissapeared through the windscreen in the crash and couldn't be found. He perished from exposure.

Hope this tip helps...

John

https://www.google.com/#q=survival+vest ... ypilot.org

Gump

there should be a requirement of all Newbies here to go back and check the topics they are interrested in for the multitudinous threads done to excruciating boredom by us in the past....

Hay John,

How about a couple of pictures.

Rick

Rick

Sent the photos to your email.

Lil'John

John,

Thanks for causing a refresh on the subject. As pointed out (!) there is lots of good info already in previous threads, but the specific article I liked the best is:

https://www.backcountrypilot.org/knowledge-base/safety-and-survival/161-the-survival-vest

The same vest used by the author is still available by the way. I bought one last fall from ScoutTech Outfitters.
They ship to the states with no hassles. Here's a link to the vest on their