Flotation & life rafts

Over water, the bet changes shape: not "will they find me?" but "can I survive the ditching long enough to be found?" Flotation gear is what buys the time the rest of the rescue needs.

What the regs require (almost nothing)

Start with the honest regulatory truth, because it surprises people: for a non-commercial small-airplane flight, there is no blanket Part 91 requirement to carry life vests or a raft — even over water. <CFR id="91.205-day" /> requires flotation gear only in a narrow case: when the aircraft is operated for hire, over water, and beyond power-off gliding distance from shore. A private pilot flying friends across a lake or along a coastline is, by regulation, not required to carry any of it.

So overwater equipage for the typical PP flight is knowledge, use, and judgment — not a mandate. Which means, exactly as in K1, the decision is yours to make well or badly.

The ditching survival chain

The reason to carry flotation despite no rule requiring it is that ditching survival is a chain, and every link has a clock on it:

1. Survive the water entry — fly the ditching itself (the IX.B power-off landing, over water).
2. Get out — egress a flooding cabin, fast, before it sinks.
3. Stay afloat — a PFD here is the difference between treading water and conserving energy.
4. Stay warm — and this is the link people underestimate: hypothermia, not drowning, is usually the clock. Cold water pulls heat from the body far faster than air, and it does it in minutes.
5. Be seen — signaling (dye, mirror, a 406 ELT or personal locator beacon) converts "afloat" into "rescued."

A raft addresses links 3, 4, and 5 at once — out of the water, insulated, and a far larger visual target. That's why it matters even though nothing requires it.

Using it right

The gear only works if it's used correctly, and two points are routinely gotten wrong:

• Don the PFD before the overwater leg, but inflate it only after you're out of the airplane. An inflated vest inside a flooding, inverting cabin traps you against the ceiling and blocks egress — the most lethal mistake in the chain. Wear it deflated; pull the toggle once you're clear.
• A raft must be reachable and tethered — stowed where you can actually grab it during egress, and lanyarded so it doesn't drift away as it inflates.

Finally, the cheapest overwater survival equipment isn't equipment at all: altitude and a route that hugs the shore. Staying within power-off gliding distance of land when you can means many "overwater" legs never actually put you out of reach of a beach — and a glide to the shoreline beats the best raft ever made. Higher cruise altitude directly extends that gliding distance, so on an overwater crossing the altitude you'd give up for a smoother ride is also the altitude that keeps land reachable. It's the same trade as everywhere in this task: a little planning before takeoff quietly removes the emergency you'd otherwise be equipping for.