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Ditching Principles: Survival Guide to Ditching an Aircraft

by Bryan Webster

71 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #05-1813; ISBN 1-4120-6902-5; US$13.87, C$15.95, EUR11.39, £7.98

A ditching survival guide for anyone onboard an aircraft which ends up inverted in water, as disorientation and panic without training dictate life or drowning with seconds to live.

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About the Book      About the Author      Excerpts      Catalogue Information

About the Book

Bryan Webster started out his 10,000+ hour flying career by taking a ride in a two-seat single engine Cessna 150 and ending up inverted in the silty Fraser River beneath a large unmarked power line span east of Vancouver, BC, Canada. This experience left a lasting impression which 25 years later was the foundation for a new training concept for pilots of light aircraft, Aviation Egress Systems. (More at www.dunkyou.com).

During Bryan’s many years as a pilot he witnessed other aviators in the industry and recreational flyers with no predetermined escape strategy succumb needlessly to drowning while unable to egress from an inverted aircraft forced to ditch in water. Understanding personally the perils of egressing from a ditched aircraft he designed and built equipment to be used in aquatic centers simulating the challenges of disorientation and panic.

After witnessing thousands of students in a controlled situation, many of which who had great difficulty coping with the inverted underwater experience he felt compelled to document behavioural strategies in a book form to reach the flying public and educate them on the  importance of this not well documented subject.  This books content teaches pilots and passengers what to think about and how to react to successfully escape from a downed aircraft and then survive the after effects regarding life vests, life rafts and hypothermia.

Designed to be educational on the technical aspects of ditching an aircraft mixed with real life experience and a bit of humour for an informative, useful guide to help pilots and passengers understand and respect the hazards of light aircraft ditchings world wide. 

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About the Author

Bryan Webster is a 10,000+ hour pilot who has flown over 35 different aircraft types which include everything from hang gliders and Ultra Lights, to almost all Cessna and De Havilland products including the Turbo Beaver Single and Twin Otter. He also flew bird dog for water bombers and medivac plus corporate duties in the Beechcraft 100 and 200 series. To be at home more with his young family he spent 10 years flying single pilot IFR for a large cargo company in Cessna Caravans until the fall of 2001.

After a series of local ditching fatalities Bryan took it upon himself to start an inexpensive egress training program to help better prepare pilots and passengers of light aircraft for what he knew only too well would be a very challenging situation.

Today Bryan lives in Victoria B.C. and teaches underwater egress all across Canada as well yet today flies the De Havilland Beaver commercially in his spare time on the beautiful BC coast.

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Excerpts

Egress - Emergence, place or means of going out exit or opening, passage; escape route or way out.

 

Planning for an aircraft Egress starts at the airport or floatplane dock before you ever enter any aircraft type or configuration that you as pilot may find yourself in command. What I will try to explain here is not to fear aircraft or what could happen during any given flight, but to respect and understand the perils of an unexpected ditching.

Each year in Canada and around the world pilots, for a wide variety of reasons end up ditching in the water that we so often fly over with out any pre-determined escape plan. It could be a floatplane striking an object while on takeoff and capsizing, possibly a wheel equipped aircraft lifting off a runway out over water with unexpected mechanical difficulties, or either one over huge swells and out of fuel.

The actual reason an aircraft with pilot and possibly passengers onboard finds themselves ditching is irrelevant, what is done prior to and in the first few seconds after the crash is what dictates disaster or a positive outcome.

In this book I refuse to spout off a bunch of statistics as to how many people survive or perish a ditching because depending on the aircraft configuration, water temperature and the agency responsible for the information there are vast differences.

For example here in Canada our water temperatures fluctuate dramatically from one season to another.

 In mid summer there will be beaches covered with sun worshippers and swimmers enjoying the warm comfortable water conditions all day.

Then only a few months later you will witness the same people strolling along at that identical location wrapped up in heavy clothing, gloves scarves and toques with red wind burned faces.

The difference in temperature is similar to an aircraft ditching in the warm waters of the Caribbean mid January, and then on the same day another aircraft succumbing to a water impact in the Pacific Ocean. For the Pacific Ocean people the fact our body temperatures are roughly 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit and then being rapidly submerged into liquid 50 degrees colder, the shock is overwhelming and may even take their breath away. For the folks experiencing a similar ditching into the Caribbean waters their bodies are also 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, and yet they take little notice of the minor ocean temperature gradient and focus on the Egress as their water experience may be closer in comparison to a warm bath. Simply put the colder the water temperature the higher the risk of fatalities due to our body’s initial response when subjected to large changes of temperature. This sudden shock to the body distracts an individual from the real emergency of being trapped upside down in a sinking aircraft, thus wasting precious time in making good their escape.

"Bry The Dunker Guy" Bryan Webster A.E.Systems Ltd. 250-704-6401

www.dunkyou.com

 

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Catalogue Information

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