[wingsaloft]

Definition of dingy in English:

dingy
ADJECTIVE

Gloomy and drab:
‘a dingy room’

‘Who wants to go to a dingy playing room to get crushed in silence when you can go to the pub and talk to your friends.’
‘It was when I first moved back to London, and I was renting a room in a flatshare in a dingy house in Putney.’
‘She looked around a dingy and dirty room that contained two stalls, but no other door out.’
‘He was shaggy and a dirty person, his dingy white shirt full of holes, and jeans full of mud.’
‘It was a dingy place with a dirty floor and more dust than goods on the shelves.’
‘Finding no one, she sighed and seated herself at a small table in a dingy corner of the roo

Origin
Mid 18th century: perhaps based on Old English dynge ‘dung’.

[neilmurg]

Definition of dingy in English:

so, not tempted just to give the correct spelling of dinghy. Sad! (tm DTrump)

[neil9327]

For the cross-channel I have worn a wetsuit (half done up so I don't overheat), and a lifejacket ready to put on. With a single bag containing a PLB.

My opinion is that if your engine fails from above 2000 feet or so, you'll have enough time to make your mayday calls, take off your harness, then do up the wetsuit, put on the lifejacket, put on the PLB, put your harness back on (having lengthened the straps) and tightened, turned to the into-wind general direction but along the line of the waves, try to restart the engine, and if that fails say your prayers and get ready to swim.

[Dave W]

Strong recommendation: Wear your suit and have your lifejacket on throughout the flight.

In the event of an engine failure at any altitude, you'll be busy. Messing around putting on a lifejacket runs the risk of losing best glide airspeed during your cockpit gyrations to get teh jacket on and do up the suit, thereby affecting the optimum glide distance, and even more importantly you run the risk of failing to get the jacket on properly (and your seatbelt done up again) prior to water entry.

Having a lifejacket in the aircraft but not wearing it is very unwise indeed, I reckon.

[Miscellaneous]

Having a lifejacket in the aircraft but not wearing it is very unwise indeed, I reckon.

Well that's very polite, Dave. Is that what you're really thinking?

Sorry Neil. I just couldn't resist.

[Dave W]

New Year's Resolution: Choose my words more carefully whilst retaining the key meaning.

My sentence could be summarised in fewer words, I agree.

[Rob P]

Having spent the best part of two hours overwater in the Colt heading across the Bay of Genoa from Bastia to Cannes I have become fairly relaxed about the 14 minutes from N Foreland to Calais.

No logic behind that. Just a fact.

Rob P

[SteveX]

For the cross-channel I have worn a wetsuit (half done up so I don't overheat), and a lifejacket ready to put on. With a single bag containing a PLB.

My opinion is that if your engine fails from above 2000 feet or so, you'll have enough time to make your mayday calls, take off your harness, then do up the wetsuit, put on the lifejacket, put on the PLB, put your harness back on (having lengthened the straps) and tightened, turned to the into-wind general direction but along the line of the waves, try to restart the engine, and if that fails say your prayers and get ready to swim.

Utterly absurd. Why is the plb in a 'bag'!!!!!!!!!!!

For the short crossing of the Channel I have life vest on and the plb is attached to it. I only go late summer with family as no suits worn. At a decent altitude I see no need for a raft given proximity of land (hence helicopters). Anything longer eg. Irish Sea then a raft.

[ianfallon]

I wonder how much a winter wetsuit would give over normal clothing - that thought had crossed my mind too as a compromise

[Rob P]

You just like dressing up in rubber. Admit it.

Rob P

[Shoestring Flyer]

What is the general concensus on the benefits of a wetsuit compared to a drysuit?...Is one better than the other for our purpose?

[Miscellaneous]

My view is a wetsuit will doing nothing but give you a sense of having made an effort, which is not a criticism. A dry suit will give you a better chance dependent on what you're wearing under it.

[Dave W]

A drysuit is significantly better than a wetsuit, since you are kept warm in the water by the insulating layers of dry clothing you wear beneath it rather than by body heat eventually warming up a thin layer of water trapped between suit and skin. Wetsuits aren't designed for clothing to be worn under them, and I understand that in cold waters divers will typically wear drysuits anyway.

I also suspect that wearing a wetsuit may run a risk of heat exhaustion in normal use - ie when not in the water.

Professionals in boats and aircraft wear drysuits; I'd be inclined to follow their lead.

[Rob P]

I suspect Ian was planning on the wet suit as underwear rather than with clothing under it.

It would probably add a few more minutes of valuable time in the Channel.

Rob P

[Dave W]

Minutes?! That's not much good.



("Survival suit" above = dry suit. From the Safety Sense Leaflet on Ditching).