Flight Suit Survival 'Gear' - What would you include in your pockets?

[IceNine]

^ Old school and taste's horrible.

MIOX is the way to go.  Light, portable and around the same size as a mini Mag

[jimmydeanno]

^ Old school and taste's horrible.

MIOX is the way to go.  Light, portable and around the same size as a mini Mag

Nifty, but the $140.00 price tag is a little steep.  I think water purification tablets are around $2.00. 

[DC]

$$$$$$

EDIT: Never mind, jimmydeanno beat me to it...

[Rangercap]

If you put six feet on each boot then you will have 12ft, not 60.... Unless you have 10 legs...

Nope, I only have two legs, and I always pack paracord with 8 strands... hence,  "stay away from the cheapo stuff"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracord

Brian
PAWG

[Rangercap]

^ Old school and taste's horrible.

MIOX is the way to go.  Light, portable and around the same size as a mini Mag

Do you like the miox? How long to the batteries last? I've been thinking about picking one up.

One more item... EMT shears... and you can use them with one hand. (try opening a swiss army knife with one hand).

Brian
PAWG

[DC]

If you put six feet on each boot then you will have 12ft, not 60.... Unless you have 10 legs...

Nope, I only have two legs, and I always pack paracord with 8 strands... hence,  "stay away from the cheapo stuff"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracord

Brian
PAWG

I was being sarcastic, if it wasn't obvious. I still want to know how six feet on each leg equals 60+ft...

[Rangercap]

If you put six feet on each boot then you will have 12ft, not 60.... Unless you have 10 legs...

Nope, I only have two legs, and I always pack paracord with 8 strands... hence,  "stay away from the cheapo stuff"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracord

Brian
PAWG

I was being sarcastic, if it wasn't obvious. I still want to know how six feet on each leg equals 60+ft...

No, it wasn't obvious... But you caught me... a 6 foot length of 8 strand paracord, has 48 (6 times 8 is 48) feet of strands. Plus the casing, 2 ea @ 6ft = 60 feet total.

My head hurts with all this math -->   now, I'm being sarcastic  ; )

Brian
PAWG

[DC]

If you put six feet on each boot then you will have 12ft, not 60.... Unless you have 10 legs...

Nope, I only have two legs, and I always pack paracord with 8 strands... hence,  "stay away from the cheapo stuff"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracord

Brian
PAWG

I was being sarcastic, if it wasn't obvious. I still want to know how six feet on each leg equals 60+ft...

No, it wasn't obvious... But you caught me... a 6 foot length of 8 strand paracord, has 48 (6 times 8 is 48) feet of strands. Plus the casing, 2 ea @ 6ft = 60 feet total.

My head hurts with all this math -->   now, I'm being sarcastic  ; )

Brian
PAWG

Okay, 60ft if you take it apart, I've never done it, but if you do that would you not only get a fraction of the strength that Paracord is so renowned for?

[Rangercap]

Sorry if this thread gets hijacked...

Certainly they will not be the same strength as 550 cord. But if you're in a bind for some string, like for an emergency filter, tying a shelter together, traps and snares (whip out your survial manual if you have one), it is nice to know EVERYTHING you have available in your situation...  we're talking survival. Tie the ends with fisherman's knots or square knots. Try to take apart some cord sometime... you'll be surprised at what you can do with it.

It's also mental thing. It gives you that little boost of self confidence, that if you are EVER in a survival situation, it is there for you to use, and you maintain the mental fortitude to ride it out until you are rescued. Being prepared (physically and mentally) will dramatically increase your odds of getting out alive.

Every CAP plane has a survival kit and I would bet that half the pilots in CAP wouldn't know what's in it off the top of their heads. Maybe I'm wrong... but there are a lot of civilian pilots in CAP that haven't been in the military, let alone to a SERE school, or even been in a survival situation, real or training.

Brian
PAWG

[Teal 37]

Nice listing of items olefido. I would suggest adding a small Rescue Strobe Lite for night time signaling... mirror in the day and the strobe at night.

A Firefly2 takes up very little room in pockets.

[IceNine]

^ Old school and taste's horrible.

MIOX is the way to go.  Light, portable and around the same size as a mini Mag

Do you like the miox? How long to the batteries last? I've been thinking about picking one up.

One more item... EMT shears... and you can use them with one hand. (try opening a swiss army knife with one hand).

Brian
PAWG

It's also on my "hit list" one of the guys in my unit has one, he loves it and says you can use it a couple dozen times before you need to replace teh batteries (if you use duracell industrial).  You still need to carry salt, but you only need one crystal (solar salt) for 5+ gallons of water.

[Rangercap]

^ Thanks for the info. I will still hang on to my First Need.

Brian
PAWG

[IceNine]

just saw one on ebay sell for 45 delivered

[ol'fido]

This is for Teal37. The bike light I included is a strobe light. We,ve tested these and you can see them as far away as a purpose built strobe plus they are are smaller and run on 2 AA batteries. Also, my memory and eyesight may be failing( I have three grandkids) but I do believe I included the signal mirror somewhere in my list. I did mention the baby bottles above  but not in the itemized list.

For all and sundry, a little paracord might be useful and I use it to dummy cord alot of items I mentioned.  The thing about this whole exercise is that in my neck of the woods there is some point of civilzation within 5 miles of anyplace. So having all these little doohickies may be academic.  In my old age, I think I'll follow the advice of the SAS and have a shelter, food, and water for 72 hrs before I start going all Davy Crockett.  I was mostly going with what I would have for the exercise and for me. You may need something different.

[Stonewall]

For about 18 months of my Air National Guard career I was a Life Support guy; the ones who stock, care for, and steal inspect aircrew survival gear.  This is how I got to go to SERE school.

I don't have an "official" list of what we packed into an aircrew member's survival vest with quantity and actual NSN numbers, I pretty much memorized the equipment.

Survival Knife (we used Gerber)
Leatherman
GPS (Etrex)
Waterproof Matches
Signal Mirror
Pen Flare
Fire Starter (good ones, cost like $60)
Water Purification Tablets
Water Reservoir
Strobe w/IR and Blue Filter
PRC Survival Radio w/243 MHz Beacon
Pen Light
550 (para) Cord, approximately 50'
Lip Balm
Sun Screen
Bug Juice
Compass (Lensatic)
Razor Blade
Fishing Kit
Individual (waterproof) First Aid Kit packed by the Medical Squadron
Survival Saw
Ziploc Bags
Survival Manual
MK 13 Day/Night Flare/Smoke
Sewing Kit

I was in a C-130 unit so these things vary between units, commander's discretion, and aircraft types.  These items are inspected regularly and items such as batteries are replaced well before their expiration date.

[Duke Dillio]

I wonder if they make a civilian version of the Phoenix lights we had in the Army.  They were an infrared programmable strobe light that fit to the top of a 9V battery.  You programmed it with a penny.  Anyone seen one of those around.  That would be a great thing to have.

[RiverAux]

Not sure how helpful those would be to the average person in the US considering that the chances of being searched for at night by somebody with the equipment to see them is very low. 

[Duke Dillio]

A civilian version would entail white light versus infrared.....  My bad for not being a little more clear about that...

[RiverAux]

Plenty of civilian strobe lights out there.  I carry one with my gear.  What do you program into these?

[Duke Dillio]

The strobe pattern.  The light is only about 1/2" high and fit right on to the top of a 9V battery.  There were like two pins on the top of it.  You would take a penny and tap the pins in a specific pattern and it would memorize a ten second pattern and keep repeating it with the light flashing in the pattern you set it to.

Here's some info on the military version:

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/phoenix-light.htm