I'm the Safety Manager for a new flight training organization in Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates (NE corner of UAE, just on west side of mountains bordering Oman). We intend to start flight training at the end of this year or early in 2008, using the Cirrus SR22 and the Eclipse E500 VLJ for turbine transition. One of my primary tasks is survival and med kit design/procurement. I've long been aware of Equipped To Survive and now need to even become more interactive with it through this forum.
As for our flight ops, we will have a full-time staff of dispatch and flight supervisory personnel. This will permit strict monitoring of due-back times and prevention of our a/c becoming overdue for any extended amount of time (thereby avoiding extended overnight survival situations by downed air crews, hopefully!). We are fairly certain that there will be readily available SAR assets in the area should we need to initiate SAR actions. The typical crew on our flights will consist of one Instructor Pilot (I.P.) and two students (one flying, one observing, then switching at an outlying airport), therefore the survival kit must sustain three adults for an appropriate amount of time. These are just a few of my primary kit design/component selection parameters. Obviously, the learning curve here is essentially vertical, with this task being just one of many competing for my time and attention.
I'm figuring the key components will address signaling, water/small amt of food, shelter, and first aid. How about some component selection/kit design factors from forum readers on where possibly I should be going with this initiative? In advance, THANKS!! If you need further details, respond to this post and we'll go from there....

Welcome to the fire newguy! Sounds like you have a very interesting job.

What can you tell us about the possible terrain and weather that the downed pilots may encounter? Judging from the location I'm guessing hot and rocky with little available ground water. Is the area sparesly inhabited or are there a lot of villages around? Would it be safe for the flyers to approach the local population?

I'm thinking a lot of water and some high-quality signalling devices go in the kit first.

-Blast

I think you need the advise of an expert, not just anyone who logs onto this site. Contact Doug.
simon

Keeping in mind, there is a vast wealth of knowledge amongst the members; I am going to make a suggestion that you seek the consulting services of a professional for this endeavor. The professional, I would suggest is Doug Ritter himself.

From the forum members you will receive a whole host of excellent suggestions, but what you need is a comprehensive and complete assessment of your needs by a professional who has the knowledge to provide a comprehensive response to your specific needs.

Just my 2 cents-

Pete

Strange, EtAl.,

I've been working at GAMCO in Abu Dhabi off and on over the past year. While I'm no expert in desert or over water survival (Arabian Gulf) I'd strongly suggest you include; an IRIDIUM Sat-Phone, GPS, and as much water as you can carry.

Regards,
Wild_Weasel

You might want to have a look at the Thuraya SG2520 smart/sat/gps/triband gsm/camera phone at
http://www.thuraya.com/content/thuraya-smartphone.html

I would strongly suggest taking a look at this link:

http://www.dougritter.com/DR-aviator_survival_pak_index.htm

Also, there's a section on the main ETS-site concerning Aviation surival.

Welcome Newguy!!!

As said below, contact Doug, and check out the info on his website...

I read your post first thing this morning. Engaging Doug's professional services would probably be a sound investment.

I am going to suggest that you equip the instructors and students with the following:
Parachute.
Survival vest
Contents:
2 litre bladder pack.
Torch, LED with spare batteries.
Signal Mirror.
Flares & Smoke Flares.
Broad brimmed Hat.
Sunblock.
Sunglasses.
Clasp knife.
Topographical map.
Sun compass.
Magnetic compass.
AMK heat sheet.
Basic First Aid kit.
Blood chit.
Lighter and cigarettes.
GPS,
SAT Phone.(instructor).
PLB.

Most of it is self explanatory, except for the sun compass, cigarettes and the blood chit.

Sun compass: Magnetic compasses are unreliable in that area. The SAS etc use a device that allows you to determine direction from the sun. Do a Google search for it.

Blood chit: This is a document that informs the reader that you will pay $0000 for the bearer. Provided that they are delivered to you alive and intact. Intact means still in possession of his family jewels. In a woman's case it means unmolested.

Cigarettes: One of the quickest ways to break the ice with a local is to offer him a fag. Its not PC but it works.

If you come down in the desert there is a fair chance that you will be found by the locals first. Depends on who they are, you will either be helped or murdered for what you have on you. A blood chit is to help persuade them that helping you is a lot more profitable.

I also think that a Desert Survival course should be a required part of the curriculum. Students should be also schooled in local culture, morals and mores. Specifically what not to do, how to avoid giving offence and how to greet people, showing them respect without appearing like a victim.

Thats not a problem, in UAE, Oman and Yemen, political correctness hasn't quite caught on yet!

I find some of the assumptions many have made after the original post rather naive.

I'm going to echo the suggestion on talking to Doug and for your FAKs, the folks at AMK, but just to toss the ball around...

You have SAR assets available- Civilian? Military? Contract? Whos? How long will it take for them spool up? Are you over water, or over land only? How long is your typical flight, and are you ever out of communication with the airports?

I would think the first thing is the individual kit, on each person. The PSP or the SOL from AMK or one of the better small kits from BCB (but go through it with a fine tooth comb), a good pocket knife, and water.

For the aircraft, you're big thing will be signals. The sat phone/gps combo, and/or a PLB per aircraft, based on the checkered performance of ELTs that's we've seen recently. Mirrors, whistles, signal panels, strobes to show exactly where you are. Flares, smoke bombs, not so fond of.

Fire extinguisher.

Water. Obviously.

Shelter. I don't know that part of the world, so other than a sun shade, I'm not sure.

A good first aid kit.

Before any americans start accusing Am_Fear_Liath_Mor of being a gay pimp:

'Fag' is british slang for a cigarette.

Leigh,



I was unaware of potential issues with magnetic compasses in the UAE. On two resent trips to Abu Dhabi, I used my compass to align several SatCom antennas and it seamed to perform fine if I was clear of aircraft or structures. What is the source of your information?

I've spent a lot of time exploring the Mojave Desert in my neck of the woods, here in the western US, and the desert in the UAE is barren by comparison.

Wild_Weasel

I would like a data source for the solar compass statement as well. Without support for your statement, I'm tempted to call it a bogus claim.

I know people who've been to most of the Arabian peninsula, including the UAE. They're the kind of people who'd mention things like magnetic oddness to me, they know I'm interested in stuff like that. And a fast google showed nothing relevant except for this thread.

First off, allow me to thank all of you for your responses. Already the responses have stimulated me to think carefully about this initiative and I vlaue greatly the comments, which I'll address:

Blast-suggest you look at this link for geography of UAE:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_the_United_Arab_Emirates
As for the inhabitation, mostly very rural (sparse) villages/towns, with a few large cities (Dubai, Sharjah), many people living way out in the boonies that do farming/raise goats, sheep, etc., yes, very safe to approach the locals, they always seem to be interested in anything new (in spite of the language barrier), Arabian customs/law REQUIRE them to assist lost/stranded/distressed personnel

Ironman-As for the SAR assets, the government (both military and civilian) contracts out the SAR mission to an outfit called Falcon Aviation Services : http://www.falconaviation.ae/services.php?mid=35
They are using the B412 and Augusta AW139, equipped w/FLIR, Nightsun, etc. Each helicopter is crewed with at least one paramedic, so med treatment arrives when the helicopter arrives. I just had a chat with these guys today over at the arprt and will soon be delivering two briefings to them (our ops/fleet info and another brief on the Cirrus SR22 ballistic recovery system (BRS)). They are based at three separate locations in the UAE, so I'm figuring that they can get up + running w/:30 after receiving notification from the ATC boys that we've an overdue a/c. Flight ops will be both over land and water, with some of the overwater ops being beyond power-off glide distance for that altitude. JAA/JAR regs require PFDs for all onboard anyway (another on of me projects). Also, mandatory reporting requirements (CAR OPS-1) require that our guys report to ATC every :30.
I'm still staying with my focus on signaling (to include 406 Mhz PLB), shelter, med kit, and food/water. I'm NOT going to equip these guys for an extended desert party, I just don't feel they'll be out there that long.
Please keep the cards + letters coming, I really appreciate all of the input!!

Desertsafetyguy