Denial can be a useful thing when it comes to getting the job done. Ive done my fair share of flying overwater and out of gliding distance to land, and just rationalized that the odds were slim of ditching and Id figure it out when it happened. The reality was that I didnt have a clue what being immersed in an aircraft would be like. I had no plan, and that meant that if the aircraft did anything other than stop upright and floating, I probably was going to the bottom wearing a 3000-pound aluminum suit. The point of egress training like we sampled at Survival Systems Inc. is to give you that plan. It doesnt so much teach you how to egress your specific aircraft (although they do their best), but it gives you a system to stay oriented and get out. And, more importantly, it gives you a chance to practice while clothed, upside-down and underwater. 
Theory and Practice
Survival Systems has been around since 1982 when the company was founded in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Their current headquarters is just a short walk from the ramp at Groton Airport in Connecticut. They also have a seasonal location in Kenai, Alaska, and several military installations. In fact, military and government agencies represent 50 and 20 percent of their clientele respectively. The remaining 30 percent is almost entirely corporate aviation.
GA pilots taking their aircraft ditching course (they offer many other non-aviation survival courses) represent just a small fraction of what they do, and this shows in the classroom session that takes the first half of the one-day program.
The class uses up the obligatory Powerpoint slides bulletpointing the stages of hypothermia and common aircraft survival equipment. There are written materials,