Bailout and survival kit

Look at it this way:

What will kill me the fastest:
1. Severe injury (might bleed out in minutes)
2. Exposure (cold water/weather: hypothermia minutes to hours)
3. Dehydration (a day or so in a hot desert, not a factor in a wet place even if the water is "undrinkable")
4. Starvation (we all hope we a never stranded this long!)

Now, Are you with your ship?
1. Landout. Yea, lots of stuff here! (Or there should be) Well, maybe. Did you landout in a very bad way? See #1 above)
2. Bailed out? Maybe or maybe not (assuming you did not break your legs landing in the rocks and can reach it.

So what is REALLY important to have on your body?
1. A method to signal (A PLB is my choice, DUCT TAPED to your body! I want the full force of all my tax dollars coming to get me) And this is in addition to the ELT in the glider. Give S&R multiple reasons to come play in the woods)

1. (Yes A second #1) A good whistle (Fox 40). Yelling just does not travel far. A good whistle will not be missed by S&R. And someplace you can get to it while hanging in your chute in a 100 ft tree. Mine is tied to my chute harness and tucked into the riser covers.

2. A basic severe trauma kit (i.e. tourniquet and strong narcotic pain killers)

3. Some basic shelter: chute+mylar/polycro (window film at big box store, strong, light, small, cheap) will protect you from wind/rain

4. A way to start a BIG fire. Really. Burn the forest down. S&R is too slow (Sorry S&R guys, you do some amazing work, but often you have no idea of where the victim is). Start a big fire and the WILL showup to investigate/extinguish it. Yea, a bit extreme, but keep it as an option. Oh, and can you actually start a fire (a small one to keep warm) if you had to? If you are not absolutely sure you can in really crappy weather, now is the time figure it out. A BIC lighter will be really nice to have as will #5 below)

5. Bonus: A knife (small folder, geeze, no fixed blades to stab you in the crash). BTW: this is in addition to the HOOK KNIFE ON YOUR CHUTE unless you like the ride for life across the Nevada desert behind you chute you cannot collapse in 40 KT winds.


My 2 Cents worth.