Thoughts on survival vests

It’s a common suggestion among the backcountry pilot brethren to assemble a survival vest, since in the event of a crash and post-crash fire situation, it’s likely the only items you’ll have with you post-egress are what you’re wearing. But what exactly should be stored in this vest? Often, pilots will buy the vest they like most for its comfort or appearance, then fill the available pockets with whatever fits or whatever they can find.

We’ve visted this topic in the past with a great article titled The Survival Vest, by British Columbia based professional pilot John Vandene, and his final result was great. However, it’s a very personal endeavor to spec your vest, and so BCP member and frequent contributor Greg Hren aka “Bigrenna” of Bushwagon East decided to roll his own, with a slightly different approach. Leaning on his background as a paramedic and Fellow of Wilderness Medicine, he started by identifying some core philosophies about air crash survival to determine what tools and supplies would best fulfill the actual needs of a survivor in order to achieve the most important goals: Stay alive and be found.

There’s no dancing around it, the following video is long at 37 minutes. It’s not a highlight video or fast-paced entertainment; it’s a deep dive into the philosophy and contents of a survival vest. Greg has clearly done a fair amount of thinking and planning in building his, yet yours may be different altogether. Skip that hour-long episode of…whatever you normally watch on TV; grab some snacks and beer(s) and kick back for this first installment of our Knowledge Series videos, Survival Vest Philosophy. Below the video we’ve listed a few notes from the production for reference which will hopefully help in assembling your own vest.

The Three “C’s” of Survival Vests

According to Greg, the singular purpose of a vest is to “prepare one mentally, and prepare one physically” for the unplanned stop, forced landing or unexpected insult. He believes that a simple approach to assembling vest is best, and suggests it meet the three “C’s.” Comfortable, Compact, and Complete.

Evolution of an Insult

In his film, Greg first starts by imagining the arc of a crash in what he calls the “Evolution of an Insult,” which takes from one of the official definitions (medical) of the word insult: “an event or occurrence that causes damage to a tissue or organ.” He argues that having a better idea of the steps one might encounter post-event will better inform you as to what items might be needed to successfully emerge on the other side of that insult. These steps are as follows:

The four tenets of post-crash survival

It’s natural to create taxonomy and organization as an approach to any problem, and survival equipment is no different. Instead of simply starting with a single piece of equipment such as a vest, Greg suggests one first identify global needs to be addressed, then apply solutions to each problem. To this end, Greg distills this process into four basic tenets to staying alive and being rescued. These are: Be Healthy, Be Comfortable, Be Crafty, and Be Found.