Preparing to Ditch
In addition to techniques for escaping a fallen aircraft, some of the training is about what you should do before the aircraft and the water meet. One key tip is to memorize a few details about the aircraft interior: potential handholds, doors, kick-out window exits, and any other useful features that can help you orient yourself. While submerged in roiling water. In the dark. In an aircraft gone topsy-turvy. Identifying the exits is just the fi rst step. It’s also important to understand how
they relate to other features, as you may need to use physical cues such as the number of seats between you and the exit to fi nd it in a dark or inverted aircraft. Another tip: if your aircraft is headed for the drink (pond, lake, ocean), cinch
yourself tightly into your seat—as tightly as you can—and assume a crash position. You’ve seen the illustrations on the safety card on airliners, right? If your restraint is a single lap belt, those illustrations are good. If you’re belted with one or more shoulder harnesses, reach up, cross your arms as you grab the harness on each side of your neck, and tuck your chin into the resulting “V” of your crossed arms. T ere are several modifi cations of crash positions based on the aircraft and the
harness system you’re in, and plenty of other bits of wisdom and advice dispensed during class, so I suggest you take this course from Survival Systems USA, or a similar course, to learn more. For now, though, let’s take these two pieces of advice—know the aircraft and assume a crash position—and head to the pool.
Aircraft Meets Water
Finally, now comes the water-in-your-sinuses part. T e in-pool training includes becoming familiar with the sensation of being
inverted in water, where, indeed, that water will fl ood your sinuses. It’s an uncom- fortable feeling, and when you surface you’ll expel the water, but it’s important to experience the non–life-threatening nature of that discomfort so you won’t be distracted by it when your attention will be better focused elsewhere. You’ll gain that experience as you hang upside
down from the pool’s edge and, subse- quently, while belted into a cagelike training device known as a “chair,” with and without an emergency breathing device (EBD). T e chair is constructed of aluminum tubing as a rough simulacrum of a helicopter—very rough—providing within its skeletal frame merely a seat with a harness
62 ROTOR 2020 Q2
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