50 or 100 miles from shore

[TDTURBO]

I fly a 182rg and use a raft routinely when flying over shark infested waters. I also have 4 people and luggage and no problem puting a 5 man raft in the plane. They are super small and I doubt would compromise that much space in a light jet.

 

[dash8driver]

You just have to be able to swim faster than the sharks.

not true... you just have to be able to swim faster than the other pax..

 

[JAFI]

That's true, I'll restate:

You have to swim faster than the other humans untill you are the last one, then you have to swim faster than the sharks.

 

[avbug]

Or you could just swim behind the sharks.

 

[flyby]

Or you could just swim behind the sharks.

You'd still have to swim faster than a shark to stay behind one... unless of course the shark had a deferred rudder and was incapable of turning. As soon as it turns you're back in front.

 

[avbug]

Technically, so long as you stay behind it and remain at the same distance, you need only go as fast as the shark...unless it's turning in continuous circles.

When I was younger, among other hobbies I did some rodeo clowning. You never tried to outrun a bull. In a flat out run the bull was a lot faster. In the case of the bull, you just need to out turn it. Stay to one side, and make it change directions a lot. Change directions, then run.

There's always shark repellant and dye. You don't need to worry about the shark; the dye burns you all by itself.

There's always the old robinson carusoe USN style advice that says if you strike the shark squarely on the nose with the hilt of a dive knife, the shark will swim away. I think that ranks right along the folks who recommend stroking the belly of an alligator.

If you swim faster than the shark, and you're behind the shark, you'll swim your way in front of the shark, and then you're in trouble.

Carry ice cream. Sharks love ice cream. Given a choice between you and the ice cream, the sharks will take vanilla ripple fudge every time. Don't get any on you.

Warm waters with sharks is the time when you realize you would have been a lot better off carrying that sacrificial service monkey. Hindsight is always twenty twenty.

I need out of this hotel. Really badly. Really, really badly.

 

[flyby]

When I was younger, among other hobbies I did some rodeo clowning. You never tried to outrun a bull. In a flat out run the bull was a lot faster. In the case of the bull, you just need to out turn it. Stay to one side, and make it change directions a lot. Change directions, then run.

I need out of this hotel. Really badly. Really, really badly.

Maybe it's more about acceleration and not so much top speed? I have a lower top speed than a shark or a bull but I'd say my acceleration is better matched to the bull. I'd face a bull over a shark any day of the week.

That makes 2 of us on needing out of the hotel... finally time to head to the airport.

 

[avbug]

Play tag with a bull and then see what you think. They're not sluggish.

Ever since I saw that series of documentaries on sharks and big fish, where the shark was captured on film eating a helicopter...I avoid them. I believe the series was called "jaws." Never mess with fish that eat helicopters. Even if you can outswim them.

Just carry a zodiac with a big engine on board, and a dozen or so quartersticks of TNT for the fish.

And never inlfate your vest while still in the airplane. You won't get out, and the fish can't go deep enough to get you when you go down with the airplane.

 

[Lead Sled]

I heard from a few people there is now an exemption for the 50 miles from shore requirement for a raft. They say you can apply for an exemption not to have a raft up to 100 miles from shore part 135 and 91 anyone have anymore info on this.??

Let's say you could get an exemption...

Killroy, honestly now, would you really want to 100 miles out bobbing around in a life-jacket? Personally, I wouldn't even want to be 10 miles out. The first rule of aviation survival states that what's legal isn't always safe and what's safe isn't always legal. I love guys who reason that the engine will never quit, so we'll never need to use the raft(s), so we may as well apply for the exemption. You see that same mentality occassionally in corporate types that are willing accept a "wet footprint" on certain ocanic legs.

'Sled

 

[avbug]

Oh, the engine will quit. Sooner or later. Perhaps right away, perhaps in many thousands of hours. But it's NEVER a matter of if. Only when.

Of course, it doesn't take an engine failure. A pressurization failure means a descent to a much lower altitude. Fuel consumption goes up considerably. The bingo point for high altitude cruise changes accordingly; suddenly at a lesser altitude, the aircraft may not be capable of making landfall with that big old wet footprint. A fully functional engine isn't much help in a glide.

It might be a duct overtemp. The bleed is shut off; nothing wrong with pressurization, but it has to come down. Or any number of other things, particular to that individual airplane. Point is that loopholes are for idiots; carry the raft, know the aircraft from the rudder pedals to the farthest emergency exit better than the back of your hand and blindfolded, and yes, you had better be able to tread water.

Who knows? You might even impress the sharks.

It certainly worked in Shark Tales.