Warbird Information Exchange

Steve -

What kind of vest do you wear?

Thanks for this Steve. From an observer's point of view this was quite interesting.

Mike

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Mike R. Henniger
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That's a interesting possibility, although I know pilots who have flown L-39s with a ton of ice on them. One fella, who shall remain nameless, couldn't get the canopy open after landing because it was so iced up.

The L-39 has MINIMAL ice protection. Blead air heats the engine air intake, and also the first stage guide vanes. You also have hot air to defrost the front windscreen, but there is nothing for the wings or tail.

As for my vest, well I haven't been able to find an ex-military one, so I use a photographers vest. Kind of bulky, but it works.

Again, the L-39 is an excellent airplane, but it's more warbird that private Lear Jet. I don't fly mine in hard IFR, and I try not to fly at night, especially over rough terrain.

Steve

Hi Steve! You should try an outfit called US Cavalry. I used to go there and get aftermarket LCE's and stuff like that when I was in the infantry. There is a 60 gunner vest that would make an excellent survival vest. They might even have an actual survival vest.

http://www.uscav.com

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Deep Thoughts,
Jack Handy

Give some thought to finding a real survival vest made for flying. Realize that there's going to be a lot of wind blast and stress on the pockets if you ever do have to get out. You don't want to have all this great stuff in your vest, only to lose it when the pockets rip open or when the zipper splits when you jump out.

The SRU-20/P is the vietnam-era vest that you can probably pick up surplus and relatively cheap. The vest that I have is called an AIR ACE vest:

http://www.survivalinc.com/product_view ... ine_ID=101

Not sure of the cost, but modular, well-built, and guaranteed to hold up even in the event of a high-speed ejection.