On Wednesday, August 5, 2020 at 8:02:24 PM UTC-7, Ben Hirashima wrote:
I fly in the Sierras in the summer, and take bailout survival seriously. My survival strategy is #1 survive the first hours after impact, #2 get help quick. If I survive the impact, the next most likely thing to kill me is bleeding, so I carry a tourniquet and a blood clotting sponge, for wounds on the head or neck where a tourniquet cannot be applied. For #2, I carry a Garmin InReach Mini and a ACR ResQLink PLB as backup. Garmin recently had a long service outage, and I'm glad I'm not completely reliant on them. Also, one of the devices could be damaged in the crash/landing so it's good to have backup. Unfortunately, SAR can take a while and the next most serious threat is exposure. For that, I carry a survival blanket, for warmth at night and shade during the day. All my gear is carried in the zippered pockets of my REI Sahara cargo pants, with the exception of the InReach, which is attached to my parachute by a carbiner. Anything not in a zippered pocket is unlikely to still be with me after a bailout. One thing I'm missing is a backup pair of glasses, since my prescription sunglasses will definitely be lost. I'm going to pop one of the lenses out of an old pair of glasses and carry that with me. It will be compact, and allow me to see into the distance well enough if I really need to. I'm also going to add a lighter, to be able to generate smoke/light in case both satellite options fail.

Keep in mind that the odds of a bailout are extremely low. But the odds of landing out (including a crash landing) are much higher. That said, I do know pilots who bailed out. One was very near the airport and hiked out until he found someone who could give him a lift to the airport. I am a little concerned that loading yourself up with a lot of stuff might hinder your exit from the cockpit should you actually have to bailout. The pilot I mentioned found it very difficult to reach the canopy eject latches - more weight on his body may have made it impossible.

Tom