Survival in the Desert 15 items?

Question

Here's the situation: it's around 10 AM in mid-August and you've just crash landed in the desert in the southwest US. You were in a light twin-engine plane which has burned. The pilot and the co-pilot are dead. None of the rest of the passengers, including you, are badly hurt. The pilot was unable to notify anyone of your location before the crash, but there was some indication that the nearest inhabited locale was a mining camp 110 kilometers away. You were around 95 kilometers off the course on your flight plan. The area you're in is flat and barren, except for the occasional cactus. The weather report said that it would be 45 degrees that day. You all have on casual clothes and street shoes.

Before the plane burned up, you were able to salvage 15 items from the wreckage:

Flashlight (4 battery size)

Jackknife

Sectional air map of the area

Plastic raincoat (large size)

Magnetic compass

Compress kit with gauze

.45 caliber pistol (loaded)

Parachute (red and white)

Bottle of salt tablets (1000 tablets)

One liter of water per person

Book entitled Edible Animals of the Desert

Pair of sunglasses per person

Two liters of 180 proof vodka

One top coat per person

Cosmetic mirror

Answer 1

This is an old aptitude test they used in job interviews, and may still do for all I know. I can, sort of, remember some of the answers.

The most important thing is to stay put. You have a much better chance if you let someone come and find you. There is no guarantee there will be anyone at the mining camp if you decide to travel, even if you get there.

List of stuff

1 Top coat- reduces sweating by keeping a humid layer next to the skin, protects from sun burn and keeps you warm at night- deserts are cold at night)

2  Mirror- very good for signaling for help during the day.

3 Sunglasses to protect retinas from solar glare

4 Plastic raincoat to make desert still

5 Compress kit to use as collection vessel under still

6 Water- not nearly enough, but it might help to get you through the first day.

7 Parachute as shade and daytime signal

8 Vodka, gauze and flashlight- stick gauze in neck of bottle, strip plastic from a wire in the torch, use wire to generate spark from battery and light gauze. Instant molotov cocktail night signal. Drinking vodka would make dehydration much worse.

9 knife to strip wire and cut coat.

10 pistol- may be of some use as a signal, but there probably wont be much to shoot and you will be dead long before starvation is a problem.

11 book and map- can be burnt or used as insulation in clothing.

12 compass- You are staying put so not much use. Might give you some idea which direction help will be coming from.

13 salt tablets- only really needed if you have an adequate supply of water, which you don't. Swallowing salt when dehydrated will make you worse.

Answer 2

One person couldn't make it thru a couple of days on 4 litres of water, so your primary problem is providing more water. For this, you need the plastic raincoat to build a solar still. You want to travel at night and hole up during the day, requiring the parachute. Too bad you don't have anything to support it. The flashlight, mirror and .45 might be useful for signalling. The gauze could substitute for sunglasses. Either it or any cloth item could be ravelled to make nooses for catching lizards. Forget the book; almost any desert animal is edible and you won't be out long enough to need food. Forget the compass; you have the sun and the north star. The vodka is not only fuel but it can be used to cool you off by letting it evaporate on your skin. The map may or may not be useful. You could look at it, then leave it if your memory is good. Forget the coats; you will be travelling at night and generating metabolic heat. Cut them up to make head-cloths. A few salt tablets might ward off heat stroke. Jackknives are always useful. You could use it to kill your companions to make the water last longer. ;-} It also can cut the spines off cactus to give you another water source. It's a pity you don't have a good source of fire. If you had pliers, you could have removed the bullet from a .45 cartridge and replaced it with gauze or cloth, then fired it into fuel. How strong are your teeth?

I'm not certain that heading for the mining camp would be the best plan. I might head downhill steadily. That will get you to water and, eventually, civilization. You also don't have to worry about missing the camp by being just a degree off in your orientation.

Later addition: The remaining pieces of topcoat could be used to create an arrow pointing in the direction of travel just in case someone finds the wreck before we get out of the desert. The lining could be cut to make puttees to keep the sand out of our shoes, to some extent.

If the lens of either the compass is curved, it could be filled with vodka to make a lens to give you a source of fire, assuming that nobody got a light from the wreck.

Answer 3

Firstly as you were only 95km (58miles) it would be safe est to stay with the plane. Search parties would cover over 200miles sideof flight path. I presume that as it is August that 45degrees means centregrade (about 112 degres farenhight) This 2 h0t 2 move away from the planes shade untill at least sunset.

Firstly i would dig a pit on west side of plane(still in shade) & use (1)jackknife to cutup catacts to place in hole.

     (2) place "raincoat" over hole to collect condensation. This is done first as very soon it would be to hot to dig plus the west side would soon be in full midday sun.

(3) everyone put on sunglasses & look for search plane.

(4) start rationing out water, but be carefull as rescue could take more than 1 maybe 10days.

  If you haVENT managed to save a flame from the burning plane then try to use mirror(5) 0r(6) spark from torch to ignight some (7) vodka on a sun heated rock. The (8&9) map & book can be used to keep fire going plus you would be able to scavenge some dead catacts, bones, unburnt combustable parts of plane. You WOULD also need oily & 0r live catactes to make black smoke when plane seen.

  POSITION MIRROR(5)to REFLECT SUNLIGHT so as to help seach planes see you.

(10)tie up red & white parachute so that it has a mall opening & is now ballon shaped. ( 11) fill compress kit with(7) vodka & attach to parachute so that it will hang below like the basket of a hot air ballon. "" Sometime over the next week, when a search plane is spotted/ heard, place gauze in compress kit with a wet wick sticking out. LIGHT VODKA WICK from previous lit fire & fill parachute ballon with the resulting hot air. The  P Ballon will be many times more visable from air than the wreck. at the same time you throw the live & 0r oily catactus onto the fire to make black smoke.

   (12)Topcoats though probably needed  on the 1st , 2nd, 3rd night as the desert temputure can drop to near or below freezing at night. The water from the condensation from the raincoat/ cactus pit should keep you alive.  Though not essential the (6)torch would help to locate emerging desert animals at night to cook on your signal fire.

Stay put & make condensation water, wait for rescue.

(13&14) The compass & gun give to anyone dumb enough to risk walking out from a highly visible, flat, safe site when there is  no one within survivable walking distance in that heat. -- The sectional air map (8) would only be good for fires at ground level. The gun would be needed for a quick end by walker when his water ran out. 1st , 2nd day at most in 45degrece Centregrade (115 F) heat.          



The only thing not needed in the short term is the salt tablets. Though salt is needed for sweating , you do need to drink more water. --Extra water not avaible.

Answer 4

ok.. you said august? 10 am? in the southern california desert??

then there's no way in "HECK" that it's going to be 45 degrees!

july & august in southern california is closer to 128 - 132 degrees!!

but you would definitely need:

flashlight, map, knife, compass, compress kit, pistol, parachute (for tent/camping), s***w THE SALT!! leave it there!, all the water you can salvage, the book, the sunglasses, the vodka (for fire, first aid, etc, NOT DRINKING), the coat (for protection from the sun) and the mirror (flash any planes or helicopters that might pass)

you travel mostly at night or early morning - with the tent up by mid-day (at the latest) to avoid the sun/heat from the desert - drink water (RATIONED) and head for the nearest ROAD or STREET or FREEWAY...

someone is driving down that road... especially in so*cal...

good luck :)

Answer 5

I would take the parachute for sure. You could spread it out so that you could be spotted from the air. I wouldn't forget the jackknife either since you might have to skin a lizard. A mirror could help you fry the lizard. Water, that seems to go without saying. I don't know what order you would rank these, but they would be my first choices.

Answer 6

WOW!! I love these kind of questions!

thank you Liz!

Well, first off, Im a big fan of "staying together" during hard times, and thats because the people can help you feel much more safe! I mean, did you watch castaway?? Nothing worse than being alone

Okay, as for the items, I'll immediately discard the slat tablets because salt dehydrates the h**l out of you!

Other than that, Im sure you can survive a whole day, so the whole "eating lizards" thing is just NOT right! And besides, Lizards are extremely agile and hard to catch!

Okay, so we continue our journey to find the inhabited place! Lets say we where walking at a pace of 3.6 km/h, or 1m/s! Ofcorce, this is the minimum speed!

3.6km/h will allow us to get to our desired destination in around 30 hours! We CAN survive for 30 hours without food, so just suck it in and Walk till you reach civilization!

Ohhh, theres still the aspect of wild animals such as snakes and vultures! Pffff

I would like to hear what YOU have to say...

take care

Answer 7

So me, and the other passengers called Ray Mears, Bear Grylls and ron hood  would stick together and drink the vodka and munch on delightful grubs and sorrel cakes that Ray knocked up but only once Bear had got back from building a huge SOS fire on top of the nearest mountain.

Answer 8

I would take:

Compass

A world Map

my Lantern

First Aid Kit

Medicine supplies

Parachute

Alot of Water

Shampoo

Tooth Brush

Food

Tooth Paste

Bible

GPS

Tools

Clothes

Matches

AX

Shovel

Pocket Knife and other things too.