Background info: I am a helicopter flight instructor in the pacific northwest. I spend a fair amount of my day over the coastal mountain range instructing pilots in the finer art of flying and landing aircraft away from airports and runways.

Needless to say, there is a bit of risk associated with my current job, and a survival kit is virtually indispensable.

Here is the trick though: Flying small, piston engined helicopters, I am severely weight limited, and storage space is also extremely limited. I need to keep any kit as light weight and compact as possible.

Here's what I have so far (starting from top left):
First row:
2 - 1 gal. storage bags;1- waterproof match case with strike anywhere matches, a fishing hook and sewing thread; 1-Gerber Gator folding knife; 550 paracord;

Second row:
1- First Aid Kit containing various bandages, pads, surgical tape, antiseptics, alcohol pads, guaze, razor blade, shears, moleskin, and other various FAK contents. Also a Bic lighter thrown in as well; 2 film canisters, the first containing steel wool and fire cube, the second containing water purification tabs; emergency blanket; compass (wrapped in duck tape). Everything is contained in double wrapped vacuum sealed plastic bags.



Additional gear that always goes with me: Nomex flight suit, Helmet, folding CRKT knife, couple of plastic bottles of water, VFR sectional chart (fancy aviation term for a map ), gloves, and a cell phone.

What I feel I am missing: I think I need to have a means of boiling water, so I am going to get a stainless water bottle. I also think I should have some snacks thrown in as well.

Anything else I am missing? Any changes anyone would suggest?

Thanks in advance.

I would bin the Gerber in favour of either a One Handed Trekker or a decent multitool- and that means either a Leatherman Wave or a Victorinox Spirit - as that gives you both a blade and a saw. Critical kit for shelter building etc..

Thanks everyone.
...Other big concern, unfortunately, is weight and storage space. The aircraft I fly have very small useful loads, and taking extra equipment often means taking less fuel, which is not always a great trade off. I figure I can spare about 3#. The entire kit needs to fit within a pocket in my flight bag.
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We have specific procedures in place whenever an aircraft is dispatched, which includes the pilot/instructor creating a manifest of who is on board, where you are going, when you will return, etc. We also fill out a dispatch board with the same info, and a few more specific bits of info. If we are going past 25 miles from the airport, we file a VFR flight plan and update the info with FSS if we make any changes.

We have a fair amount of aircraft in the air all day long, and we all work together. We report our positions to each other quite often, not only for traffic avoidance, but also if there was a problem, it would narrow the search grid a fair amount.

Our company is looking into other methods of tracking flights, we tested some satellite tracking system, we have some ELT's installed in some aircraft. But all of that is in the test phase at this point.
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