I am posting this idea here to see if anyone can run with it. First the "legal stuff" I am putting this idea/concept here for those of you on this list to take it and run with it. I think that this is a GREAT idea, but that is just me.

Most, if not all, of us here have taken the time to do due diligence in making survival kits, BOBs, and Get Home kits. For the most part I am wiling to bet that they don't float. This is where my thought comes into play.

Companies like Mustang have suspender styled life vests. The concept was to take the suspender styled life vest that opens when submerged and attaching it as either suspenders for your but pack styled kit or for your kit.

The reasoning for this is when you’re over or near water and your kit falls into the water you don't watch your life line fall to the bottom. After the auto open is submerged enough it would deploy the buoyancy device and thus your kit would be floating. Once you get your wits about you, you can grab your kit and swim to safety.

I came up with this idea when I wanted a less bulky alternative to what I do when I go over water. When I go around water my survival kit has its own Life Vest. This way if it goes over, I can recover it.


The logical aspect is that the buoyancy of the "life vest" would have to be enough to compensate for your bag. My survival kit weighs in at about 25 pounds (don't ask, and YES I know it is heavy) so I would have to find a buoyancy device that equals or exceeds that weight.



So, that is my idea.

Life vest in a pouch, auto-inflating

There are several fishing vests available with inflatable bladders so they can double as life jackets. The vests have enough pockets to comforably carry a good deal of gear. I have one that I wear when I go fishing on other people's boats. I know they always have plenty of fishing gear, but, the safety gear is sometimes lacking.

I don't have a detailed list, but, in my vest I easily hold things like a VHF handheld radio, strobe, pencil flares, mirror, whistle, dye marker, cyalume, some line, a knife, a modified version of Doug's pocket survival kit, and a millenium bar or two. If I go overboard, well, I have a fighting chance.

I know your concept was to marry a self inflation device with another kit. I've just found that the vest itself is a nice container. It's like a pilots overwater survival vest.

I get a similar effect by simply partially inflating the collapsible water carrier and canteens when and if it seems possible we will be around significant amounts of water. I have used them as floats to assist crossing water two or three times. Works great in the summer heat.

Even without added buoyancy I have found that because I use a lot of baggies and water resistant stuff sacks when packing that my pack tends to float fairly well. Canoeing in the summer with with camping gear, where a daily dunking is half the fun, our packs all tended to float pretty high. In fact so high that they tended to blow/float away. This prompted us to rig dummy cords on them. On the other hand the camp stove and griddle, understandably, sank like a rock.

To non-Americans who now have a very strange picture of American fishermen, suspenders in the USA = braces to hold your trousers up.
To confused Americans, suspenders in the rest of the English speaking world = things that women wear to hold up stockings in 1950s pinups.

Just in case anyone is now suffering post traumatic shock at the image of the USA's lakes and waterways populated by rugged outdoors men wearing inflatable lingerie.


ps. don't get started on fanny-pack ;-)

My understanding is that in the US of A we tend to call the belt that holds up stockings a 'garter belt'.

OK, if I understand this right you want something like the old "May West" type life jacket rigged to self inflate if you need to ditch?
Kind of like the EPIRBs (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacons) on ships are supposed to do.
It might even be able to rig it so it attaches to the outside of the kit.
I think the idea of compact flotation for a survival kit is a worthwhile idea to play with.

Even though when I boat or canoe my packs are all positively buoyant and sealed water tight the sleeping bags and clothes are bulky, so something less bulky for flying would be very desirable.

You gave a weight of 25 pounds. Since water weighs about 62 pounds to a cubic foot you should be OK for the 25 pounds with 1/2 foot of volume.
If you had 1 foot of volume it should float both you and your pack.

I am considering this idea of yours now. A PFD with a small CO2 cylinder should do it quite nicely.

Edit:
Jeff seems to have it roped,tied and branded.

I avoid water activated inflation systems simply because if inside an aircraft when it hits the water, the last thing you want is the PFD inflating before you egress. The same philosophy would apply to a separate kit.

If your kit is tethered, it needs no flotation.

I think most of the modern inflatable vests have a "manual only" inflation option, which would be handy for aircraft use as you mention. With the sailing one I have, which is also has a built in harness, you select manual or auto inflation when you arm it.

I have had the "opportunity" to have a suspender style vest auto inflate, as I went off the bow. Fortunately, it was my own stupidity that caused my misfortune, and it was in daylight. Still, I imagined that it could have easily been at night, and I might have been hit in the head by a spinaker pole, knocked out, and overboard. In that case, working on the bow at night, I hope I'd be clipped into the jackline on the boat, but, sometimes things happen.

I will say that those inflatables are not very comfortable, when they inflate, they snug right up around your neck. Not dangerously tight, just uncomfortable for any long period.