Sunday, January 16, 2022

The Top Ten Wilderness Survival Skills...Number Eight©

 

 


This is the eighth in a series of eleven articles on the top ten wilderness survival skills, things you should know before you go into the wilderness.  To read the previous article go HERE – Author’s Note

 

The Number Eight, Top Ten Wilderness Survival Skill: Calling and Signaling for Help

 

The number eight, top ten wilderness survival skill on my list is, knowing how and when to call and signal for help. 

 

In a wilderness survival situation, you should call or signal for help as soon as the situation is stable and your immediate survival priorities have been met. 

 

Remember, the first hour after any wilderness emergency is critical, and what you do or don’t do might determine your eventual survival, and for that reason it is often called the “Golden Hour”.  The first hour is also the most stressful, you will be disoriented and scared, and these feelings will only be made worse if you are injured and in pain.  Use the “Rule of Threes” to help guide you.  First, take care of any injuries, this is crucial, particularly in the case of severe injuries which can quickly lead to shock.  Second, find or build a shelter from the wind and weather, and start a fire.  This is particularly important if you or someone else is injured or the weather is cold, wet, or windy.  And third, call or signal for help.  The first hour after a wilderness emergency is also the golden hour for calling and alerting rescuers and signaling for help, all of which will improve your chances of eventual rescue.  If you are uninjured and the weather is mild, you could move this task up to become your second priority1.  If you are in a group, and other able-bodied people are with you, have one of them begin calling and signaling for help as soon as possible after a wilderness emergency, while you and the others deal with other immediate survival priorities.

 

The “Rule of Threes”, graphic by the Author.


But before you go...

 

A trip itinerary, from the Washington Trails Association, HERE.


Don’t forget, signaling for help actually begins BEFORE you leave for the wilderness.  Always leave a trip-plan or itinerary and an expected time of return with someone, a responsible someone, before you leave your home base.  For more on this read “The Top Ten Wilderness Survival Skills...Number One ©”, HERE.

 

“Reach out and touch someone”

1979 AT & T jingle

 

From the “Hiker’s Guide to Search & Rescue”, Washington Trails, March & April 2015, by Cassandra Overby, page 18, HERE.


Do you remember that old AT & T jingle that went “reach out, reach out and touch someone”?  Well, it is good survival advice.  As soon as the situation is stable after a wilderness emergency, and all your immediate survival needs have been met, you should try to alert rescuers.

 

It is a good habit to always carry a way to call for help if you need it, and when in doubt call for help!  Carry either a cell phone, a SPOT device, or a Personal Locator Beacon (PLB), and know how to use them.

 

An excerpt from “Survive: Beyond the Forced Landing”, by the Air Safety Institute, AOPA, HERE.

 

Signaling for Help

 

Survival Training Edition, AF Manual 64-3, 1969, page 2-5.  An excellent PDF copy of the Department Of The Air Force, Survival Training Edition, AF Manual 64-3, 1969 edition, can be found HERE.

Calling and signaling for help is a two-fold task, after you have called for help, either without any success, or even if you have reached rescuers, you should always set out signals to increase your visibility, to help the rescuers find you and to alert rescuers to your predicament.  You can signal for help using active signals like a mirror, a whistle, smoke, or a series of fires; or you can use passive signals such as shadow, contrast, or pattern ground signals. 

 

Excerpts from “Survival Hints for the Sportsman, 1959©”, HERE.


Signal Mirror

 

One way of using an improvised or single sided signaling mirror, from the sample survival pamphlet, found in “AD 401819, Department of Army Approved Small Development Requirement for Individual Aid and Survival Kit for Special Warfare”.


The most effective visual signal is the signal mirror, or heliograph, and according to The Survival Book2 it “is second only to the radio as a rescue device”.  Sweep the horizon with your signal mirror at regular and frequent intervals, the flash can be seen by rescuers even if you, yourself, can’t see or hear them, and is visible on clear days for 10 to 20 miles (16 to 32 km).  Flashes from a signal mirror can be seen for miles even on a hazy day and even at night by using moonlight.

 

Aiming an improvised signal mirror, “V” fingers, index finger and thumb, left, “V” fingers, index and middle finger, center, “Thumbs up”, right.  Photographs by the Author.


The simplest way to aim an improvised signal mirror which is shiny only on one side, is to hold out your hand at an arm’s length in front of you and form a “V” with either your index and middle finger or with your thumb and your index finger.  With the target centered in the “V” of your fingers and the mirror held over one eye, rotate the mirror until you see the reflected light on your fingers.  The flash will now hit the target, wiggle the mirror to make it flash. 

 

Another way to aim the mirror is to hold your thumb up vertically at an arm’s length with the target resting on the tip of your thumb and the mirror held over one eye, rotate the mirror up until the flash can be seen on the tip of your thumb.  The signal is now on the target, wiggle it to flash.

 

From Survival Training Edition, AF Manual 64-3, 1969, pages 2-7 to 2-8.

To aim an improvised mirror, or any mirror, which is shiny on both sides, rotate the mirror so that the Sun is shining through the hole or “X” in the center of the mirror3 and onto your face or a hand held close to your face.  You will be able to see the “X” or the dot of Sun on the shiny backside of your mirror.  Rotate the mirror so that the “X” s or dots line up, while keeping the “X” s and dots lined up, find your target.  When both the “X” s, or dots, and the target are lined up, the Sun is being reflected at the target, wiggle the mirror to make flashes.

 

How to use a retroreflector-type signaling mirror from Survival Training Edition, AF Manual 64-3, 1969, page 2-8.


Whistles

 

Information on the International Whistle Code from the back of a Fox 40 Whistle package, picture by the author.


The next most effective way of signaling for help, over a short distance, is a whistle.  A pea-less whistle (a whistle without a rattling thing inside it) should be attached to your pack strap, to your life preserver, or hung around your neck on a string.  Avoid “dangles”, anything dangling is likely to get snagged and lost, strap it down, tuck it into a pocket or hang it around your neck UNDER your shirt.

 

The location of contents of my survival vest or survival PFD: 1) Shelter supplies, in the back pocket; 2) my compass and pea-less plastic whistle, both of which weigh 2 ounces (57 grams), clipped into the front upper pocket; 3) my survival kit and spare knife and compass, in the lower left front pocket; 4) my comfort supplies, in the lower right front pocket; 5) a BanadanaMan Emergency Bracelet, that contains 174 inches (442 cm) of string, which I wear on my wrist; and 6) my neck knife, which weighs 4 ounces (113 grams) and, obviously, goes around my neck.  Photograph by the Author.


So how do you use a whistle?  Simple, if you hear a noise in the woods, a good rule is to “answer a noise with a noise”.  Pull out your whistle and blast three, three-second long, whistle blasts at it, wait a minute and do it again, and keep doing it until the noise stops.  Remember, you usually don’t have to worry about wild animals, since they don’t like to be near people.  If it was an animal that made the noise, then it will run away, if it was a rescuer that made the noise, then you are found. 

 

A question that I have frequently been asked by students in my survival classes is, “Why is it important to always have a whistle”?  I usually answer this question by asking, “how long can you yell for help, before you become hoarse?  I follow this question up with another question and ask, “How far away do think your shouts for help will be heard? 

 

An excerpt from “Scouts and Outposts”, The Climbers’ Club Journal, page 178.

The answers to these questions are, unfortunately, not very long and not as far as you would like.  Shouts for help can only be heard for about 100 meters or yards or less, depending upon the atmospheric conditions and whether there are leaves on the trees or not, which in the grand scheme of the wilderness isn’t very far.  A whistle on the other hand can be heard for much greater distances, between 200 to 400 meters or yards, depending on what type of whistle it is4.  This is why whistles are important survival tools and you should never leave home without one. 

 

Another question I am often asked by students of my survival classes is, “What if I don’t have a whistle?  If you don’t have a whistle, and you should always have one when you go into the wilderness, sing your favorite song, bang a stick on a log or a rock, or as a last resort, shout.

 

Signal Fires and Smoke

 

An excerpt from “Survival Hints for the Sportsman, 1959©”, HERE.


You should always build signal fires and shadow, contrast, or panel signals in open areas, close to your shelter, if possible.  The survival manual Down but not Out, states that three fires, 100 feet (30 m) apart and arranged in a triangle or in a row are an international signal for help.  Three of anything, three canoes, three piles of debris, three fires in a row, three whistle ballast or gunshots, are also a signal for help5.

 

An excerpt from FM 3-05.70, page 315.  Be careful with tree torches, you don’t want to create a forest fire, especially since you could get burnt alive by it!


Remember bright flames at night and during the day, black smoke against a light background or white smoke against a dark background, will attract attention. 

 

“Tree Torches” or “Torch Trees”, they can be effective, but be careful!  From “Survival Hints for the Sportsman, 1959©”, HERE.


Shadow, Contrast or Panel Signals

 

Survival Training Edition, AF Manual 64-3, 1969, page 2-8.


Shadow signals work by creating a shadow in the shape of a symbol, mounds, trenches, piles of brush, stones and even blocks of snow can be used to cast shadows.  Contrast signals work by standing out from the background, for example stomping out a snow trench and lining it with evergreen boughs, lining up light colored rocks or driftwood on a dark beach.

 

An SOS signal made of rocks in a remote part of Western Australia, spotted by a helicopter pilot in 2017.  It turns out that the signal was made in 2013 and that the makers were rescued shortly after.  Remember, always destroy your signals after the rescuers arrive!  From the BBC News, HERE.


When building shadow or contrast signals both the U.S. Coast Guard6 and the U.S. Air Force recommend that each letter of a shadow or contrast signal be 18 feet high by 3 feet wide (5.5 m high by 1 m wide), a ratio of 6 to 1.  The horizontal parts of the symbol should be 12 feet long and 3 feet wide (3.6 m long by 1 m wide), ratio of 2 to 3.

 

Survival Training Edition, AF Manual 64-3, 1969, page 2-8.


Panel or pattern signals work by turning over the corners or folding over part of a cloth panel that has a dark or high visibility color on one side and a reflective or contrasting color on the other side to create symbols.  You can use a poly-tarp that is silver on one side and dark on the other or a thermal survival blanket/tarp that is reflective on one side to create these patterns.

 

Panel or pattern signals from Survival Training Edition, AF Manual 64-3, 1969, page 2-8.


“Improvise, Adapt and Overcome”

 

An excerpt from Survival Training Edition, AF Manual 64-3, 1969, page 2-8.


Don’t be afraid to improvise, I once read about someone who spelled out SOS on a large rock with blue duct tape.  It worked: he was rescued!

 

Are your signals working?

 

The arrow points the way, photograph by the Author.


In the first “Golden Hour” after your wilderness emergency you followed the “Rule of Threes”, you took care of any injuries, found shelter from the wind and weather, called, and signaled for help, and found a source of water, but it has been more than 72 hours and the rescuers still haven’t found you, so now what?

 

Well, perhaps, your calls and signals for help haven’t been seen or heard, so ask yourself, “are your signals working, can they be seen from the air”?  Maybe the spot where you have set up your campsite is difficult to see from the air, or maybe your signals are hard to see.  Before you decide to try to bug-out, you should try to use some more active signals, like flashing a signal mirror or even, possibly, lighting a “tree torch”.

 

No matter what, if you plan on moving campsites to a more visible spot, to a better source of water or you have decided on walking out and rescuing yourself, leave a message at your old campsite detailing your plans and the date and time that you left, and leave an arrow made of branches or stones on the ground, pointing in your direction of travel.  Leave ground signals like breadcrumbs to show your path, they will help rescuers follow you and will make it possible for you to return to your starting point if your plans do not work out or you become more “misplaced”.  For more on this read “There And Back Again...What in the Blazes?!©”, HERE.

 

Breadcrumbs that you can leave along your path.  An excerpt from The Book Of Woodcraft, by Ernest Thompson Seton, page 162-163.


Don’t forget to come back next week and read “Moose Hunting and the Origins of Robert Rogers’ Rule XXI and XXIII©”, where we will talk about moose and how moose hunting and how the origins of Robert Rogers’ and modern-day ranger’s rules are connected.

 

A bull moose, feeding at the mouth of the Galipo River and Pen Lake, Algonquin Provincial Park, summer of 2014, courtesy of Steve Burgeson.


I hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me on YouTube at BandanaMan Productions for other related videos, HERE.  Don’t forget to follow me on both The Woodsman’s Journal Online, HERE, and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube.  If you have questions, as always, feel free to leave a comment on either site.  I announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.

 

That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

 

 

Notes

 

1 It was difficult to decide which was more important on my list of Top Ten Wilderness Survival Skills, finding and disinfecting water, or calling and signaling for help, since both are of equal importance.  In the end, I decided to put water in the seventh spot only because it was the next priority after shelter and fire in the “Rule of Threes”. 

 

Since, usually, you will have at least several hours after a wilderness emergency to find and disinfect water and stay hydrated, and because it is so important to activate rescuers as soon as possible after an emergency, calling and signaling for help has a higher survival priority.  Calling and signaling for help, even though it has a higher survival priority than finding water and staying hydrated, became number eight only to make discussion easier.

 

2 The Survival Book, 1959, by Paul H Nesbitt, Alonzo W. Pond and William H Allen, page 27.

 

3 An improvised survival mirror can be made from many things, an old CD, a broken piece of mirror or a piece of scrap metal.  If you are using a tin can lid, a piece of a car or an airplane, or other piece of scrap metal, buff both sides with fine dirt or sand to make them shiny and then with a nail (to make a dot) or a fix blade knife (to make an “X”) punch an aiming hole in the center of your mirror.  To reduce the chance of cutting yourself on sharp edges, buff first and then punch the holes.

 

From “How It’s Done: Survival Signals”, Field & Stream, June 1974, by Ernest P., Jr. Doclar, among other sources

 

4 Scott Free, the author of “Whistle Test: Bigger, Better, New & Improved”, stressed in his article that the greater the distance over which your whistle could be heard, the greater the lung power required to blow it.  If you are injured, exhausted, elderly or a child the more powerful whistles might be impossible for you to use.

 

5 Pro Tip!  If you are canoeing, and you have three canoes, never leave all three lined up along the shore in a row, it looks like a distress signal.  Pull one farther up and turn it perpendicular to the others.  That way you don’t risk sending the wrong message.

 

6 Outdoor Survival Training for Alaska’s Youth, by Dolly Garza, page 30

 

 

Sources

 

“AD 401819, Department of Army Approved Small Development Requirement for Individual Aid and Survival Kit for Special Warfare”, [Reproduced by Defense Documentation Center for Scientific and Technical Information, Cameron Station, Alexandria, Virginia, Originally by the Headquarters United States Army Combat Developments Command, Fort Belvoir, Virginia, April 17, 1963], https://ia902804.us.archive.org/19/items/DTIC_AD0401819/DTIC_AD0401819.pdf, accessed September 14, 2018

 

Air Safety Institute, AOPA; “Survive: Beyond the Forced Landing”, [Frederick, Maryland], http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=57&ved=0ahUKEwjjpoab-eTYAhWMp5QKHYYIA0o4MhAWCEswBg&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aopa.org%2F-%2Fmedia%2Ffiles%2Faopa%2Fhome%2Fpilot%2520resources%2Fasi%2Fsafety%2520advisors%2Fsa31.pdf&usg=AOvVaw0MXBFxEgfsS5ow6y80vbbv, accessed September 1, 2021

 

Andrews, Arthur Westlake; “Scouts and Outposts”, The Climbers’ Club Journal, Vol. VII, No. 28, [George Philip & Son, London, 1905], p 178 https://books.google.com/books?id=sU5NAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA180&dq=scout+how+far+shout&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&ppis=_e&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiRrYTP7v_nAhVOmuAKHTiGBxAQ6AEwBnoECAQQAg#v=onepage&q=scout%20how%20far%20shout&f=false, accessed March 3, 2020

 

BBC News, “SOS mystery in remote Western Australia may be solved”, June 8, 2017, [© 2022 BBC.], https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-40197125, accessed January 15, 2022

 

Department Of The Air Force, Survival Training Edition, AF Manual 64-3, [Air Training Command, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., August 15, 1969], page 2-7 to 2-10

 

Doclar, Ernest P., Jr.; “How It’s Done: Survival Signals”, Field & Stream, June 1974, page 136, https://books.google.com/books?id=2t1BG4UG2WwC&pg=PA136&dq=%22aluminum+foil%22+kite+survival&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiUro3NkKb1AhX0SDABHcgYCmQQ6AF6BAgDEAI#v=onepage&q=%22aluminum%20foil%22%20kite%20survival&f=false, accessed January 9, 2022

 

Free, Scott; “Whistle Test: Bigger, Better, New & Improved”, October 25, 2011, https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/whistle-test-bigger-better-new-improved.894108/, accessed January 15, 2022

 

Garza, Dolly; Outdoor Survival Training for Alaska’s Youth, [University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2005], page 30

 

Headquarters, Department of the Army; FM 3-05.70, [Washington DC, May 17, 2002], page 315, https://irp.fas.org/doddir/army/fm3-05-70.pdf, accessed September 10, 2021

 

Hunter, Richard S.; “Heliographic Signals”, Air Sea Rescue Bulletin, March 1946, NAVCG 128, Vol. III, No. 3, [U.S. Coast Guard, Washington DC, 1946], page 24 to 29 and page 48, https://www.google.com/books/edition/Air_Sea_Rescue_Bulletin/ZLJIAQAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=using+an+improvised+signal+mirror&pg=PT151&printsec=frontcover, Accessed October 7, 2021

 

Information Canada; Down but not Out, [Maracle Press, Ltd, Ottawa, Canada, 1975], page 81 to 88

 

Lauffer, Brian P, and O’Bryan, Bob; “What You Don’t Know or Don’t Do Can Hurt You”, Flying Safety Magazine, January 1986, Volume 42, Number 1, https://www.google.com/books/edition/Flying_Safety/MJuxMs0WZgIC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=using+an+improvised+signal+mirror&pg=RA8-PA18&printsec=frontcover, accessed January 9, 2022

 

Nesbitt, Paul H.; Pond, Alonzo W. and Allen, William H.; The Survival Book, [D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc., Princeton, New Jersey, 1959], page 27 to 29

 

Risk, Paul H.; Outdoor Safety And Survival, [John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, NY, 1983], p. 47-50

 

Schuh, Dwight R.; Modern Survival: Outdoor Gear and Savvy to Bring You Back Alive, [David McKay Company Inc., New York, NY, 1979], page 109 to 110

 

Thompson Seton, Ernest; The Book Of Woodcraft [Garden City Publishing Co., Inc., Garden City, NY; 1921], page 162-163

 

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