Rules of ABC
Survival is 80% mental, 10% equipment, and 10% skills
1. Get what you need. Fire materials off trees not ground - 3 times what is needed. Get water - vital for survival  (Use plastic containers) Conserve energy lost due to shock of accident. Rest before making survey of area and making
survival preparations.

2. Inventory
Attract attention. Three fires are distress signal.

3. Select alternative that takes least time, energy, material.

4. Make for safety and durability.
Shelter:
Aircraft hull may not be best choice.
Get off ground or under ground out of wind and wet.
Best bet is to stay with aircraft.

5. Desire for survival is essential.
Salvage aircraft parts as containers, remove compass, gasoline,
oil, upholstery, wiring, battery, hoses.

6. Heat water before drinking to conserve body heat. Wear dry clothing
as much as possible.

Crash Survival
#1 survival item is to let a responsible person know where you are going, your route, and ETA. Insurance is to make contact after arrival. If you are not found quickly, you are not likely to be found at all.

Survival items that are nice to have, short-term and essential for longer are:
Flashlight, digging tool, foul-weather gear, blankets, food, water, matches and candles. A real plus would be a
portable GPS, a handheld radio, or a cellular phone. Dehydration is the worst threat usually facing a downed pilot.

Winter Clothing
Combine high-tech and traditional materials. It is easier to keep warm by wearing multiple layers. Inner lawyer should not absorb moisture and wick it away from the body. 1/4 of body head leaves via the head. Waterproof headgear may be the most important single survival item.

Pilots are optimists that believe bad things happen to other people. They believe that flying is so safe that there is no
need to be prepared for catastrophe. Before leaving home you should prepare the 'what if' options. Whenever you
go flying you should be dressed to walk home. You should have required items within cockpit reach. You should
stay with aircraft and survive until conditions allow foraging. Short-term rescue is usually within a day. The greatest
danger is exposure to conditions causing hypothermia. The right condition of wind, temperature, and moisture can
expose anyone to hypothermia. The body loses heat most rapidly when wet.

Making your position visible can help rescue. Make a clearing, start a fire, and make large SOSs. Use common
sense, have confidence in yourself and be patient. Prior planning, preparedness, practice and training will enable
you to make the best decision possible.

Item:
Pilots fail more frequently than do any other facet of aviation.

Living with Weather Delays
Enjoy the weather delays they are going to occur more often than not…
1. Take a ground, simulator, or local flight lesson.
2. Make new friends
3. Visit the local ATC facilities
4. Go to an alternate airport and rent a car.
5. Now you have time to visit the local tourist trap.
6. A gambling casino can't be far.
7. Shopping is always an alternative
8. Look at the weather and be thankful you're down instead of up.

Weather Avoidance
Certain trips require better weather management than others. Understanding the weather you get is far more
important than just making a collection of weather elements. A failure to understand mean that flight planning may
proceed when it should be delayed, moved faster or skipped all together.

The preflight weather planning is the time to make flight decisions. Based on what you know about the weather you
must decide if you are capable of making the flight in the face of forecast weather, terrain, and available facilities.

Once underway you are more in need of real-time weather. This means you will contact every HIWAS, ATIS,
AWOS, ASOS and Flight Watch along the way. You will seek PIREPS because they are the most real-time
weather you'll ever get. You will give PIREPS and stay in contact with Center where you can get CWAs (Center Weather Advisories) and CWSUs. Don't delay asking for help such as higher, lower, vectors, nearest airport

War Story:
In late May of 2000 I made a flight to Illinois and back to California over a period of six days and 42 hours of
flying in a C-172. This involved considerable such planning as above. I was not certain that I would depart until the moment of my departure. We had a terrible storm two days prior to my departure. I watched it move through and
past. I knew my greatest risk lay in catching up with the storm. On the second day of my trip I caught up with it
near Kansas City.

Near Salina, KS I could no longer maintain VFR so I asked Center for an IFR Clearance. They could not give a clearance without radar contact. I made a slight change in direction and was able to gain a thousand feet where they
had radar contact. I climbed to 5000 and proceeded toward Johnson County Airport. I was near the tops of the
clouds because the sun would occasionally shine through. No turbulence or problem. When I was handed off to
K.C. Approach, I advised that I had no plate. I was read the plate numbers and frequencies for a Localizer
Approach. No problem.

I departed VFR and flew across Missouri to southern Illinois under 2500' ceilings while all the bad weather trotted
further east since I broke out at about 1800 feet. No significant weather the rest of the trip. The making of weather decisions is difficult to teach without actual exposure. Experiencing weather is the best way to gain weather judgment.
The experience needs to be weather specific and acquired in bits and drabs. Shock treatments of weather may not
be survivable. We all remain vulnerable to weather and being aware of this is a source of very desirable caution.
END

Fog
Fog occurs when the air close to the ground reaches the dew point. Of the basic types of fog, radiation fog is the
most common. Radiation fog forms on clear nights since clouds tend to warm the earth and air. Radiation fog is
usually less than 300 feet thick. A light wind tends to make the fog even thicker. The rising sun lifts the fog and
eventually breaks through. Any moisture on the earth evaporates and creates more fog. For this reason it is not
unusual to have radiation last all day.

Advection fog comes with the on shore winds as it blows across a colder surface and causes humid air to form fog.
This fog is then blown or more likely 'sucked' inland as a layer of fog over the earth. This fog first covers the lowlands
and can then be forced over hills and mountains as upslope fog.

When a moist front arrives the associated rain can form precipitation fog. If the air is near freezing this front will form
ice fog. In some circumstances the start of an engine can provide the needed moisture to create ice fog.

Cold Weather Cross Country Planning
Radar facility controllers are required to be familiar with and advise aircraft of any icing conditions within 150 miles
of their sector. Get a diversion before it becomes an emergency. It is illegal to plan or fly into a situation where icing
is even mentioned in weather information.
Route
--Follow roads
--Have an ETA destination contact
--Wait a while and the weather will change
--Weather stations are sparse
--Prepare a survival plan
--Get clear of plane and stop
--Survival is 80% mental
--Your fears are your worst enemy
--Check ELT operation
--Use the aircraft
--Survival is 10% equipment
--Get dry and sheltered
--Care for injuries
--Garbage bags
--Survival is 10% skills
--Don't eat snow
--Eat sugar
--Get out of the wind