Wilderness Survival Guide 67 A pattern of three signals (e.g. three gunshots, three blasts on a whistle, three shouts or three fires) is universally recognized as a distress call. Blowing a whistle is very easy and its sound can travel further than your voice, so always pin one to your shirt or hang one around your neck before going into the wilderness. Choose a plastic whistle that has no pea inside it as the moisture from your breath can freeze the pea, thus disabling the whistle. Also, a plastic whistle will not stick to your lips in the winter. A simple visual way of signaling aircraft for help is to use tree boughs, logs, light-coloured rocks, or scratches in the earth to make such commonly used attention-getters as a giant “V”, “X” or “↑”, pointing to your tree to say, “here I am!” You can also spell out the international distress signal, “S-O-S” (Save Our Souls). Each letter should be at least 3 metres (10 feet) in size and 3 metres (10 feet) apart. In the winter, tramp out these signs in the snow and lay tree boughs in the tramped depressions to increase the contrast between your signal and the snow. Remember the bigger the better, so make your signals in large open areas of the forest to avoid the branches of the surrounding trees. Fires can also be used to attract attention. Several fires are far more effective, so arrange three in a straight line, or in a triangle shape, in such a way that the smoke from one fire will not obscure either of the others. Space them out about 6 to 30 metres (20 to 100 feet) apart, depending on the size of your clearing. If you use the triangle formation, sit in the middle of the triangle so you receive the radiant heat from all the fires to help keep you warm. When the ground is wet or snow covered, build the fires on a log platform to prevent self-quenching. Keep a pile of spruce or pine boughs at hand to throw onto the fires the moment you hear an aircraft, as this will create more smoke at first, followed by a brighter fire. If the forest is very dry, a fire can quickly get out of control and become a danger to your survival. Make sure to build your fires on rock or bare ground, clear the area around them so a spark does not start a forest fire and there are no branches hanging over the fires. Signaling with a mirror or shiny object can also be extremely effective in bright sunlight or even on hazy days, as the flash from the reflected sunlight can be seen for several miles by an aircraft. To signal with a mirror or shiny object, hold it next to your eye, hold one hand out with a finger or thumb following the aircraft, and repeatedly flick the spot of light from the mirror across the thumb and the aircraft. Do not bother with a series of three; hit the plane repeatedly with the flash. SIGNALLING www.adventuresmart.ca
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