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John is the UK military’s chief instructor in Land, Sea and Extreme Environment Survival. In this episode he talks about the priorities of survival should you find yourself forced to land in a remote location.
How much attention do you pay to what you wear or carry on you when you go flying? For some of us our organisation or company might mandate what equipment is carried – and that can start to add up, personal location beacon, knife, pocket flares, first aid kit, mirror, pistol, HEEDs bottle, whistle etc if you are military.
For many of us though it’s a wallet, keys and mobile phone. This episode will challenge you to think about what you will do if you get forced down due to weather or mechanical problem in a remote area and need to wait for rescue or recovery.
[Tweet “Most important thing is to have a good #rescue beacon with you. #helicopter”]
John takes us through the key elements of survival and how that relates to helicopter aircrew. As an ex-Puma pilot and now someone that trains UK military personnel including aircrew on survival John is able to talk about specifics such as using parts of the aircraft to help out.
I probably wouldn’t have thought of using the aircraft battery to help getting a fire going for example. Another key lesson is don’t go anywhere without a 406Mhz beacon.
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[Tweet “Stay with the airframe if you can. Much bigger footprint for search teams.”]
In this week’s episode:
01:43 John Hudson bio
03:20 Sergey Ananov rescue in the Arctic Circle Jul 2015
05:33 RAF helicopter training – Puma
06:40 Full time role as Defence survival instructor
08:35 Overseeing the training of other survival instructors
09:40 SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape)
11:30 Extreme survival environment training – deep snow, jungle
15:14 ‘Dude you’re screwed’ TV series on Discovery channel
18:16 Camera operators on the show while ‘surviving’
21:15 Training around the world for groups
23:00 Mental preparedness is a key factor
25:00 Make a cup of tea, allows time to think, glucose, heat to boil water
26:30 Muscle memory training – fire on start, aircraft evacuation, emergency briefing
29:50 Protection, Location, Water, Food
30:30 Protection – first aid, clothing, shelter, fire (fire first in cold environment)
34:46 Location – 121.5MHz no longer satellite monitored, want a 406MHz beacon, big ground signals, flightplan before you go
39:10 Water – limiting factor in longer survival, must be clean but…. , ‘big bubbles, no troubles’, methods of sterilization
41:30 Food – glucose type sweets don’t require water to process
42:35 Practical equipment to take flying, cutting tool, grab bag, signal mirror, compass on your watch strap
46:30 Resources you can repurpose from airframe – radios if they still work, battery to start a fire, tires for black signal smoke, insulation fabric, fuel for fire and cooking, piping/ducting to carry or store water
50:30 Leadership and passengers – 75% chance that any individual will be stunned and bewildered. Panic is not that common but contagious. Give them tasks to keep busy.
55:10 Books – South: Sir Ernest Shackleton, Antarctic survival story from early 1900s, When I Fell From The Sky, Juliane Koepcke, survived 10,000’ fall into jungle, Royal Marines Survival Handbook by Colin Towell
58:40 Top take away ideas from the interview
1:00:00 Episode Sponsors trainmorepilots.com
Links from this week’s episode:
John’s personal website – johnhudsonsurvival.com
Survival Wisdom website and resources
Dude You’re Screwed TV series website
BBC Article on Sergey Ananov’s survival story
Royal Marines Survival Handbook by Colin Towell
Snippet from a Dude You’re Screwed episode – John making a cup of tea
[leadplayer_vid id=”56052A5FAC8C2″]
[Tweet “Make a cup of tea, allows time to think, glucose, heat to boil water @jhsurvival”]
[Tweet “Survival is not one huge task, it’s a series of little tasks”]
Got a question for John that we didn’t cover in the episode or a survival tip? Continue the conversation in the comments below.