EXPERIMENT IN SURVIVAL
by George Sigler

George Sigler was a Navy pilot who flew his A-3 jet in Vietnam and later flew - you could almost say barnstormed - it in Europe. Never a stickler for regulations, he set out to establish the world's record for the longest non-stop, single piloted, carrier based aircraft flight - without Navy permission - of course. Flying from Spain to San Diego he was prepared for the worst from the Navy. But by the time he arrived, they changed their minds and welcomed his feat with fanfare. He was their man! This was to be a precursor for his future experiment in crossing the Pacific.

During his Navy time, and later as a civilian ferry pilot, he gave a lot of thought to the best approach to sea survival. Surviving a ditching of a small Cessna at sea gave more focus to his project.

He and a fellow Navy Reservist, Lt. Charlie Gore set out in a life raft from San Francisco with no water, and only 6 pounds of food, for Hawaii. They believed they could save the lives of future castaways if they took a scientific approach to the problems of survival at sea. Again, the Navy wanted nothing to do with such a foolish trip, but when they arrived 56 days later, ships and aircraft were deployed to retrieve them for medical testing.