Survival Kit for Air ambulance

I have to assemble a personal survival kit for myself for emergency situations. The kit has to be on my person at all times during flight. That way it is properly "secured" and can't be lost in a crash scenerio. The kit has to fit in one of my cargo pockets on my flight suit. Most likely I will be using one of the lower leg pockets. So space is very limited.
Some recommendations are:

signal mirror
fire starting device, bic, matches, magnesium, etc.
emergency space blanket/bivy
knife or multi-tool
cordage
asprin, tylenol, ibuprofen
ring saw
bandaids, gauze
duct tape
tube tent?

Usually there is a crew of 3 and everybody carries their own. But there is a master "survival kit" stowed in the rear of the aircraft. It has 2 tarps, 3 blankets, whisperlite stove, 4 cup pot, MRE's, small bow saw, candles, parachute cord, signal mirror, katadyne water filter and a few other things I can't remember. In a worst case situation (crash) this kit could be destroyed, burned up, or inaccessable. Hence, the reason for each person to have a smaller extreme necessities kit on his or her person.

The area I fly in is the pacific northwest and is comprised of rugged landscape, mountains, and desert. The kit needs to be lightweight, versatile, and small. The things everybody in here knows best. So let me know about products you like or any other suggestions you might have. Thanks,

Doug

Water purification tablets leap to mind, in case the filter in the master kit is trashed (during the crash or after.)

I'd add power bars or similar. Small silnylon tarp. Cut all but one form of anti-inflammatory, add benedryl and pepto. The water purification tabs are a good idea. Won't you already have bandaids/tape/gauze in your flight suit pockets? Either windproof matches or a Blast Match. Cotton balls or dryer lint soaked in paraffin or vaseline. Compass. Greatland Laser.

Search on Altoids Tin survival kits... you'll find some good stuff there.

Are you flying R/W or F/W?

Where space is so limited, I would focus on food and fire. A knife is handy, but you can usually improvise that. I would bother with minor pain killers, but a serious painkiller maybe. Minor medicinal relief can be obtained from tree bark and stuff. I don't like those magnesium things, but in this situation it might be better than a lighter. Not sure. You would need a striker to go with it, so it might just as well be a small knife I guess. Signal mirror would be handy, given the situation. Lighting birch trees on fire works wonders also. Depends on where you are flying maybe. I wouldn't worry about water purification as a priority. You can improvise a filter, and you can boil water. You can heat up water with a rock but improvising a drinking bowl can be tricky, and its nice to be able to carry water also. Again it depends on where you are flying. Perhaps a container that fits in your pocket.

Small water flask, double as signal mirror.
Fill the flask with honey, later with water.
Pocket knife. Magnesium Fire Starter.

Not sure how much room is left.

My choices (closely related to what I carry)

If you can, put it all inside an aluminum cup or teeny tiny mini-loaf pan. something you can
boil water/melt snow in. dunno if that'll fit
in your pocket. I have this in a nut can that has a plastic lid.

- A small leatherman micra or swiss army knife
- A mini-bic lighter.
- A small firesteel (light my fire scout)
- couple of cotton balls soaked in vaseline
- a small candle or two (ikea tealights)
- duct tape
- 4 safety pins
- 150lb test dacron fishline (for guylines/tieing things, not for fishing)
- a space blanket or space blanket bivy bag
- a small hunk of light plastic painter's tarp (about 9x7 or bigger if it'll fit)
- a small button cell powered LED light.
- a small compass
- some light nylon rope or paracord (I have mine wrapped around the outside of the can)

work up from there.

I don't bother with any first aid sillyness (you're in a rescue copter) beyond duct tape,
and I don't bother with fishing or hunting sillyness, you're not going to be trying to live off the land. you're going to be trying not to die of exposure or thirst while you wait to be rescued. I don't bother with water purification either, if I have a fire going I can boil, but more than likely just drink it untreated - nothing in the water will do me any near-term harm.

If you could fit something like an Integral Designs silponcho, even better, but that's a bit bigger. - The above in a nut can, with the silponcho always goes into to my daybag if I'm dayhiking - in addition to anything else I take.

I'd add a compass, Immodium (or your diarrhea med of choice), a few sewing needles and either fishing line or dental floss, and if you have the room, a tiny tube of superglue.

Also, aspirin, ibuprofen, and Tylenol are largely interchangeable in an emergency situation, so I'd stick to whatever works best for you. For the hardcore "I might not be able to reach my main kit", you may want to toss in a zip lock bag, a few (3-5) water purification tablets, and an AA or smaller LED flashlight.

Try looking through this website: http://www.equipped.org/home.htm It helped me decide what to put in my kits. They have a section on different sized kits, and they also do reviews on items that are commonly used.

Two items I like are a Sparklite firestarter (comes with tinder) and dry condoms. The condoms are good for holding water, and don't break as easily as you'd think. The sparklite itself is a lot smaller than one of those magnesium ones, and is easier to use.

Thanks, I like the altoids tin Idea. I'll look that up.

"Are you flying R/W or F/W?"

Primarily it will be F/W. We have 1 full time R/W and also a 2nd if things get real busy. My kit will be primarily for a F/W aircraft. The F/W is a Pilatus PC-12 that has STOL (short-take-off and landing) capabilities. Which is what we need to get in and out of the rural places up here. I'm trying to design my kit based on a survivable crash.

The R/W is a totally different situation. There are times when you might have to sit it down the the middle of a mountain meadow and wait bad weather out for any length of time. Also it is not uncommon to land and then have to hike a few miles to evac the patient out and then get stuck and have to stay overnight. Of course, you have the master kit to use at your disposal during those times.

So far everybody has good ideas. I will have a couple doses of an anti-inflammatory and maybe some medical tape on me. Otherwise I have a full aircraft of medical supplies to use.

Some of the definitivie things I'm going to include is:

1. fire starting supplies-Most likely a bic lighter and some vaseline cotton. A tealite candle and 6' of duct tape-which burns real well and will burn wet.

2. A small signal mirror

3. Leatherman

4. power bar or snickers.

5. Small cordage of some type

6. space blanket or bivy (which is a must)

Also a few ideas' i've been throwing around. I know a guy who carries a tampon in his kit. He will use it to "go fishing" into the fuel tank and soak up some fuel for a fire, or will break it apart and use it to start a fire. I like the idea of some 120# dacron test fishing line for cordage or dental floss. I'll probably use one or the other. Also I've been kicking around the idea of taking a disposable roasting pan and cutting out the bottom to the overall shape of my kit and putting a flat piece in there. That way I can bend myself a flat-bottomed low sided pan/bowl if I need to boil water. It wouldn't hold much, but some is better than nothing. Also a short straw to drink out of it might be a good idea. I could also use it to start my kindling on if the ground is wet or snowy. I don't go anywhere without my leatherman. So it will be in a pocket at all times. I'm also considering keeping a #16 Elk hair caddis fly and a hare's ear nymph fly in there. Around here there is always a trout stream to get food from. I could always make a make-shift fishing pole out of a willow shoot. A few friends swear by those cheap ring-saws. I think they are pretty much a POS compared to my leatherman saw. I think I'll just keep my leatherman for that reason. I would love to have a sil-nylon tarp or even use a painters tarp. But I have a feeling both will be to big and bulky.

Thanks for the ideas so far. Keep 'em coming! Just remember, lightweight and has to fit into a cargo pocket!

Doug

Your Ideas are good. And you are right. Hopefully I won't have to spend more than 24hrs out there in a bad situation. There are literally search and rescue teams every 20 miles here. With satellite tracking, GPS, and radio communication. They should know exactly were we are in case of emergency. We just have to wait until they get there by horse, snowmachine, or another heli.

I use a streamlight nano-light that I keep on my zipper pull. It works real well and is bright as the sun.

Thanks for the link. I've got a whole aircraft full of latex gloves. I can just see us in a crash situation when everybody is pulling out their kits to inventory what we have have and I pull out the condoms. I could just imagine the looks on the female paramedics' faces. Just depends on what you consider true "survival"

I didn't see anything mentioned about radio communications, other than the radio stack in the aircraft. For the choppers kit you might add 3 or 4 FRS/GMRS radios with spare batteries.
Those are idiot proof and can keep a group connected if someone ventures off.

In my airplane I carried a heavy duty prescription pain medication in my kit. Back then it was Dilaudid, but there may be better ones now. There are sometimes horrific injuries and burns in a crash and pain management can keep people alive.

A good compass and whistle.

One last thing I sometimes carry that might sound strange, is a pocket parafoil kite. I like to fly kites but if I'm stranded and I'm able, that sucker is going up. It's tiny but you can see it for miles above the trees, assuming you have wind.

The pocket parafoil is a sweet idea. I was thinking about wrapping my kit in a lightweight piece of bright orange parachute material to use as a flag if I had to. But nothing says "hey i'm here" like flying a bright colored kite above the trees.

We do have radios already on each person, it is required for normal base communication.

I'll be adding a small compass also

We've got prescription pain killers, however unless I get a separate RX from a Doc and carry my own, I can't carry company sheduled drugs on my person for personal use.

I liked your idea of flat foil that can be made into a pot.
If you focus on being able to make bark tea, its a good start.
Bark tea while flying a kite, that would be sweet.

You could make some hard candy and make it whatever size and shape you need to make it fit into your kit. Don't bother with chocolate because everyone has body fat. Its carbs you need, to keep the body fat burning and the brain functioning. Just add a lump into each cup of bark tea.

I was going to tell you to ditch the ring saw for a saw on a multi-tool, but it looks like you have already got that one down. Those ring saws are worthless, and I have used my saw on my SAK for years with no problem. phat mentioned dacron fishing line. I would take either that or #69 or #92 sized bonded nylon thread. And take a needle or two.

From JAK "Bark tea while flying a kite...." Might as well enjoy yourself!

About your issued radios...I'm the FEMA/RACES radio officer for my town and since our region just changed to a 400mhz trunk system, the handheld radios carried by fire and police are worthless, unless the repeaters are within range and working. So, make sure your issued radios are NOT digital and/or trunking or they will be paperweights. Analog is what you want, preferably something on the aircraft bands and med channels. Funny how our military prefers cheap Motorola Talkbacks to the issued stuff. They simply work and AA batts are everywhere.

I carry a do-everything ham radio but you'll need a license for that.

Why would this matter if you crashed and needed help? Maybe they would pick you up sooner if you are using the ham without a license.

Wow, sweet plane! I'm envious of your 53" cargo door... that would really be something to have up here! Nice specs for take off and landing... looks like an ideal aircraft for medevacs. How does it perform in cold and ice? We fly a King Air 200... pretty much the standard go-to a/c up here... that and Lears, which require long runways and perfect wind conditions. Do you guys fly Nurse/Nurse or Nurse/Paramedic? We do both depending who's on call... most of our crew are nurses.

I agree the condom might not go over well unless everyone was "on board" with them. Before you make your decision on a firestarter, go back in the archives and look for the thread on starting a fire with cold hands. That was a really good thread. There's also quite a bit on pocket survival kits. Have you calculated the volume of your cargo pocket yet? Do you have any extra space in other pockets? Our survival kits strap to the leg, so you could consider that possibility as well.

MNS

Finallyme, I think you may be right. If we all carried a ham radio and didn't bother to get a license, they would probably find us in a matter of hours huh???? Sounds like the safe thing to do to me...sabre11004....

The first step that you take will be one of those that get you there !!!!!

This ONLY works if you ONLY use it in an emergency. You could not use it otherwise, kinda like pushing the PLB button when you didn't need to. Getting a license wouldn't hurt either.

I assume that in an air ambulance you can count on air rescue within a short period of time. The aircraft would have an ELT that would bring help quickly.

Follow the rule of 3s.

You have live:
3 minutes without air
3 hours without shelter
3 days without water
3 weeks without food
3 months without love.

I think your gear should be about shelter - fire building, multi-tool to construct a shleter, saw to cut branches for insulation, etc.

You may or may not be able to rely on the ELT to bring help quickly. They certainly malfunction. In super rugged terrain such as where our fella is flying it might give a location, but between wx and terrain it could be a while before rescue. Our teams up here go through survival training... if the OP doesn't get survival training through his program, it might be a good idea to add that to the "kit."

MNS

MNS,

You are right. The local hiking club teaches a survival course and the final exam is spending the night in the mountains with just a space blanket and knife.

Skill weighs zero and is very compact.

Survival training should be the first item in the kit.

I believe survival training is required by CAMTS, the "good housekeeping seal" for medevacs. We require annual survival training for our crews.

MNS

We fly RN/EMT for most. If there is a maternity patient we fly RN/EMT and an additional L&D RN. If it is a neonate we fly a core flight RN, NICU RN, and an RT if the baby requires oscillation and Nitric. Our Core staff is RN's and EMT's, we contract through the hospital to provide the L&D and NICU nurses if we need them. Our flight team is a different corporation than the hospital we service. The plane is perfect as far as flying in tempermental weather. Although if weather is too bad we stay grounded. King airs are pretty much the benchmark for air ambulances. Due to operating and maintenance expenses we chose the pilatus. Plus that large cargo door sold us. In actuality though it was chosen by someone in a higher pay grade. We got lucky.

I have other pockets, but I want everything as light as possible. last thing I want is my flight suit stuffed to the gills. I've thought about using a separate pack and strapping it to my leg. Any suggestions for a pack?

Your exactly right, Shelter is our main concern up in our neck of the woods. stay sheltered and stay warm, wait for help and we will be found. The only other scenerio is when we have to leave the aircraft to get the patient because the safest LZ is miles from the patient. A couple of times a few crew members had to spend the night out in the field due to weather conditions not suitable for flight. They basically lived out of their pockets for 24 hours and were prepared. They were no wear for worse when the heli returned to pick everybody up.

On a different note. the saws that are provided in a leatherman are absolutely phenomonal. I can't believe what those little things can cut through. My personal favorite is a spestnaz special forces shovel. It can dig, chop, and french fry 3 different ways. I'm trying to convince everybody to keep one on the aircraft

We actually might have to hike the ELT to the top of a ridgeline to expedite the rescue. It's kind of up to the pilots disgression.

We get training twice a year. We just did our winter survival course. They are always alot of fun. Plus you get to create scenarios, practice snow shelter construction and firebuilding and hang out with your co-workers.

No suggestions off the top of my head... one of our flight Paramedics made the strap on survival kits we use. I do have a combat medic thigh pack for my W-EMT gear, but it requires a belt to hang from. I hadn't thought about it, but I suppose you could make a thigh belt with 1 1/2 inch webbing and fast-x buckle... I just hadn't thought about it. Now that I'm thinking about it, you could take something like this bag from REI, add thigh straps and have a nice little kit. For that matter you might be able to take a fanny pack and convert it to a thigh pack... or wear it as a fanny pack...

MNS

P.S. Sorry, I'm hungover this morning... thinking about anything is quite an accomplishment, LOL!

Forget the ring saw.
Instead combine the saw and knife, get the SAK Rucksack model
locking blade "pocket knife".
You need a personal water container, a 1 liter platypus bag?
A K&M match case.
Some food and water tabs as mentioned.
"Do" rag.
3-4ft. of surgical tubing to suck water with or tourniquet etc.
Your own SS cup/pot in your helmet bag with a full
1 liter water bottle, cup on the bottom of the bottle.
Your own pyrotechnics if you are able, electronic flasher if not.
A couple photon style lights on zippers, one red for in A/C use,
one white for on the ground and signaling.
Bug goop of some kind and benedryl.
A couple large contractor trash bags, to many uses for these to leave them out.
A decent alternative is the Ritter pocket survival kit if you want a decent pre-made kit. You should still add the above items. Or just take the easy way out and get the Ritter Kit with a sm AMK first aid kit
At least look at the Ritter contents list.