Life vest / PFD survey

Matt Russell

Matt Russell

Member
Just wondering which inflatable life vest / PFDs the group can recommend. Amazon has a couple of cheap brands with good reviews like this one, almost certainly China-sourced, and then you can pay a whole lot more at Spruce or Sportys for products that look the same with slightly different labels.

I assume the "inflates automatically when submerged" type should be avoided for aviation, as you don't want it to inflate before you egress. So... manual inflation is the way to go.

Thanks for any advice. I realized I'm over water a high percentage of time and find it appealing for a number of ditching scenarios.
 
K

KAG

New Member
I have the Onyx A/M 24 for passengers. Sportsman's Warehouse has them on sale regularly for about $90. Other sporting goods stores also sell them. The A/M means Automatic or Manual. You can take out the little automatic bobbin and make it manually operated. Easy to do and you can re-install it if you want to use it on a boat where automatic operation makes sense. CO2 cartridges are readily available so I plan to have my teenage grandson test it one of these days. :)

For myself I bought the one the Seaplane Pilots Association sells and recommends, the Switlik X-back Molle. It is made for aviation so it is manually operated and comfortably worn while seated with seatbelts. It is expensive but has nice pockets and other features. I keep a PLB and other stuff in the pockets but they have several versions with or without pockets. My only concern is that the CO2 cartridge seems to be an odd size..... I can't find them anywhere but so far haven't needed to replace it.

I've worn both of these and they are comfortable. I don't even notice I'm wearing them.

A floatplane instructor I know wears one from Sterns because it has pockets. I think is is more designed for fishing though and am not sure how comfortable it is while seated. She likes it so it must not be too bad.

A seaplane school I know of uses the type that looks like a fanny pack on a belt. I haven't seen one inflated and can't quite picture what it does... I envision a balloon type thing that you hold on to since it isn't worn like a vest. Not my favorite.
 
Ak Kurt

Ak Kurt

Well-Known Member
Dont go cheap on life vests! Get quality. If you have to use it you are already having a bad day and the last thing you need is to have issues with a “cheap” life vest. I wear Mustang vests in my fresh water inland fishing boat. Mustang and Switlik are good brands.

Manual inflate for airplanes.
Kurt
 
Luke06426

Luke06426

New Member
I bought direct from Switlik (https://switlik.com/). Top quality. They sell to the military and USCG. I went with the X-back Basic for myself (includes two pockets you can put survival equipment into such as PLB) and Passenger for rear seat. They are wear-all-the-time life vests - don't want to struggle with putting on a life vest while descending to ditch. Both are comfortable. Also bought two one-man Switlik life rafts. Each is about the size of a loaf of bread, and one fits underneath each side of the rear seat. Cheap insurance!!! Fortunately, I have never had to test either!!! But I am going next week to New Orleans to do an emergency underwater pilot egress training course at fmtc (www.fmtcsafety.com). Saw an article on them in last month's AOPA Pilot magazine. They have a dunking simulator in the pool. $200 for the course - very reasonable.
 
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