That's pretty tough terrain Rich is flying over. If you were doing that, what emergency gear would you want to be carrying with you? And keep in mind that people often associate the need for emergency gear with mountains, which is misleading. Sure, folks in Eddie's region fly over large dense forested areas in the Appalachians, Rich's footage is from California, and some of us visit that long spine of mountains known as the Rockies. But there are lots of other areas for which an off-airport landing can make a ditch bag very desirable. For example, we've flown over extended areas of Nebraska and South Dakota - and over other sections of the Great Plains - where you might land next to a dirt road but not see a soul for several days. I wouldn't want to fly anywhere in the great Southwest without a ditch bag, as much of that is truly remote country. And even in the 'benign' region near our home base of Jacksonville and in Southeastern Georgia, one routinely flies over hundreds of square miles of Okefenokee Swamp. (Are you relying on cell service to bail you out of such a predicament? You can try to use it. But rely on? Nope).
So what's in your ditch bag?
BTW some backcountry pilots adopt the same practice as military pilots: They carry their ditch bag on their person. If a quick egress from the a/c is needed - threat of fire for example - they don't have to search through a now-jumbled up cockpit for their ditch bag. E.g. my son is able to breathe underwater while escaping a sinking helo, float on the ocean's surface, deploy flares and talk with rescue aircraft all due to what's on his flight suit. This Montana pilot & IP - Jeanne MacPherson - sometimes flies like this when e.g. flying into the Jim Bridger Wilderness Area to land at wonderful Schafer field:
The pic is pretty small and fuzzy but here is a close-up example of what she is wearing:
To offer some perspective on why pilots bother to equip themselves in this way, consider this: Schafer is the location of a seasonal USFS Ranger Station. The rangers based their use pack animals to do trail maintenance and respond to medical emergencies. The only way they are resupplied - basically, food and sundries - is by mule pack that takes two days to reach them from the trail head. Very beautiful but very remote country. How well would I be equipped if overflying that area and needing to land? It's a puzzle Patricia and I keep problem solving...
a name out of the past!