Bullwinkle wrote:
When I was in military survival training, they showed us the picture of a
guy who died because he didn't have his hook knife.

Landed in a tree, ended up hanging upside down, wrapped up in shroud lines.
Had his hook knife with him, but had not secured it in the survival knife
pocket of his flight suit with the supplied cord. He pulled it out, dropped
it, couldn't reach it on the ground (just a few inches too far), and died
before he could be rescued.

Bill Daniels blithely speaks in a similar thread about being mostly worried
about where to go for dinner and a beer: if he's not joking about that, then
his level of denial is almost pathological. He badly needs to re-examine his
assumptions.

You've got to think worst case scenario, and then decide what you need to
survive until you can get rescued or rescue yourself.

For me, I've given a lot of thought to the topic, and hope I'm prepared.

I can think of a worse worst case scenario than that, given a little
time. Probably would require full body armor and close air support to
survive. ;-)
Avoiding the need to hit the silk by having enough flight time,water and
pee bags in the cockpit is by far the best preparation IMNSHO.


Shawn