OK......Members, you want some info. on what can happen when the SHTF....???

**Rick** · 08-12-2010, 10:01 AM

Sourdough (or anyone else that's a pilot) - You obviously did a lot of bush flying. What kind of gear did you have on the plane with you and did you make your passengers carry any safety gear with them?

When you were flying they had those government airstrips all over the place with survival supplies and extra mechanical gear in them, didn't they?

**Sourdough** · 08-12-2010, 01:13 PM

Originally Posted by Rick

Sourdough (or anyone else that's a pilot) - You obviously did a lot of bush flying. What kind of gear did you have on the plane with you and did you make your passengers carry any safety gear with them?

When you were flying they had those government airstrips all over the place with survival supplies and extra mechanical gear in them, didn't they?

I think your misinformed, there are nav/aid sites on mountain tops near the entrance to passes, that have repeaters to relay radio communications. It was/is common knowledge that there is survival supplies (Not much) in the remote Mt. top building. The supplies are there for the maintenance crews who might not get picked up for weather reasons. True there are supplies in the building, but they were not intended for pilots who crash.

Now if you crash on a 9,884 foot high solid rock Mt. your dead, if you crash in the valley & you are alive, you ain't going to climb up two miles of cliffs, only to find the building under 60 feet of snow (Note: they change the batteries in mid summer, and use a helicopter).

The law requires pilots to carry survival gear, but does not say what must be on board. I always carried Lots of survival gear. And most pilots know you often (Because of fire, plane sinks in water, etc.) only have what gear you are wearing, enter the pilots survival vest & small flight bag with charts, a few candy bars, and a "Pee'bottle" aka the pilots pal.

**Rick** · 08-12-2010, 02:07 PM

These were landing strips with little huts. Inside the huts were pieces parts for aircraft and some people supplies. If you had mechanical problems you could land and if your part was inside then you could use it free of charge with the understanding you would replace it. Sorry if I came across wrong. I didn't mean a crash per se but mechanical problems that might force you to land. I'm going by memory but it seems those strips were scattered around AK. and have since been abandoned for whatever reason.

**Sourdough** · 08-12-2010, 02:43 PM

Originally Posted by Rick

These were landing strips with little huts. Inside the huts were pieces parts for aircraft and some people supplies. If you had mechanical problems you could land and if your part was inside then you could use it free of charge with the understanding you would replace it. Sorry if I came across wrong. I didn't mean a crash per se but mechanical problems that might force you to land. I'm going by memory but it seems those strips were scattered around AK. and have since been abandoned for whatever reason.

I have never heard of that. My guess is if that happened it was back in the 40's during WWII, the shuttle of thousands of American Aircraft to our friends in Russia.

**Winter** · 08-12-2010, 04:04 PM

Sad that Uncle Ted has died.

Down here it's all floatplanes. On the S&R trips I've been on, the pilots always had bags with survival gear and rifles ranging from SKS's to Marlin guide guns.

To those of you who haven't flown floatplanes and the smaller planes; it has a reasonably high pucker factor. You will wear your seatbelt and even then it is no guarantee your head won't bounce off the beaver's fusilage a few times per trip.

Give me a rotary wing aircraft any time.

**LowKey** · 08-12-2010, 08:17 PM

I fly quite a bit (as a passenger) and have always worn boots. You get the routine down pretty good after a couple trips. Just don't wear the steel toes. I did that once and got grabbed for the full security screen.

I took them off on the 7 hour flight to England, then after about an hour, had that image of Tom Hanks wearing shoes with no toes and put em back on. LOL. We were flying the over-the-top route in early May (over Iceland and through the ash). Cold that way. If you don't die in the crash, the water would kill you in minutes anyway so it really didn't matter.

Flying is a different kind of survival bag. Candy bars, phone, fresh socks, a good book, a toothbrush, and maybe a light jacket. If I ever fly in something small enough and slow enough not to kill me on impact I'll have to give it more thought.