ELT/APRS vs. "Family flight plan"

In case you haven't seen some of the photos of the Steve Fossett crash site, here are two that illustrate something that might be good to think about as we set out on our aerial adventures:


(Photos by Bob Rockwell)


This airplane was not seen or heard from for over a year, despite extensive air and ground searches, and thousands of volunteers poring over high-quality aerial photos. In my opinion, his ELT probably didn't stand a chance. Even if it did work momentarily, there wasn't enough time for anyone to hear it before it burned up. It would surprise me if ANY kind of beacon would survive an accident like this.

The grief his family experienced as the days, weeks, and months progressed, not knowing anything about his whereabouts, had to be terrible.

It might be worth considering that the best prevention for this kind of heartbreak for a pilot's family could be minimized if you simply tell someone where you're going, and generally how you're getting there.

The searchers never got within 20 miles of this crash site. It might have been found within a week if rescuers had a simple map or a verbal description of where the pilot was going -- especially in rugged or unpopulated parts of the world.

If you're going to fly over such remote places, perhaps you could laminate a sectional or WAC chart, and leave it with someone, or put it on the wall in your hangar. Before leaving, just mark your proposed route of flight with a grease pencil, or at least mark a circle where you think you might be operating. That way, if the worst happens, your family and friends might have a clue where to look for you. At least tell someone, "I'll be heading about 40 miles south to look at some land," or something descriptive. It Fossett's case, no one had any idea where he was going.

It works for all kinds of terrain, too, not just the mountainous type. In a survivable accident, it might get you rescued before you have to spend a night in a rainy forest or something.

Just a thought.

I do think that, tracking devices such as APRS and SPOT will help make quite a difference when family members don't know the flight direction, or when no flight plan was filed.

In my case, I do fly mountain areas, and don't file flight plans.................because I might want to change my mind on a whim, or because of weather. However, my wife does track my flights with "SPOT", which sends out a GPS position by satellite every ten minutes. I have other family members that also have my SPOT password, if they need to see my last known position.

As has been demonstrated, SPOT will usually get some attention within 2 minutes, "if" you're able to activate it's 911 button.

L.Adamson

L.Adamson said:

As has been demonstrated, SPOT will usually get some attention within 2 minutes, "if" you're able to activate it's 911 button.

L.Adamson

Click to expand...

Press 911 at the 1st sign of trouble. You can always cancel the 911 call by pressing and holding the 911 button. It turns red while it cancels the message.

I guess my point, not made very well, was that unless you have APRS or SPOT, (AND someone who knows that you have it, and knows how to track you), you really have next to nothing, since your ELT can be useless in certain circumstances -- like this one.

Thanks for pointing out my "just-woke-up" thinking!

BuckWynd said:

It might be worth considering that the best prevention for this kind of heartbreak for a pilot's family could be minimized if you simply tell someone where you're going, and generally how you're getting there.

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Good advice. However, even with a "general" idea of the flight route this crash site may still have remained unknown for a long time. Just having a general idea leaves dozens if not hundreds of square miles to search.

Since installing APRS in my plane, I always leave the tracking page running on my home computer when leaving for the airport. My family has been instructed to check the computer monitor first thing if any questions arise concerning my whereabouts. Odds are good the last beacon from my tracker will be very close to the location of the plane, and most importantly, even without me having to press a button "one last time".

Folks, APRS works.

For anyone feeling the need to have their aircraft tracked in a precise manner in case of emergency, there is no reason not to make the effort to install a tracking system. Excuses maybe......but not good reasons.

Good points Sam

I do not file flight plans. I use flight following when ATC considers me not a nuisance and there is radar coverage (not 100%).

I have had to significantly change my flight path for weather which makes a marked up map useless.

Spot or APRS offers the best chance of rescue or recovery available today (my opinion). I consider the ELT mandated dead weight. While I have a 406 MHz PLB, I will install an APRS system when a new model I like is introduced. I prefer it over Spot due to the finer track resolution although it is not absolute in its coverage using 300 mW units.

I think I've said this before, but I'll say it again:

I wonder if there is APRS coverage at the Fossett crash site? Obviously altitude is your friend when it comes to APRS coverage, but it's never really guaranteed. If you go down in western Nebraska, where should they start looking? Where you dropped off APRS? Along your last known heading? What if you planned on turning at North Platte? Spot would probably be more reliable. I'm planning on installing APRS, but then again I'm not all that concerned; really all we're talking about is helping the family find the body.

I think if the crash is survivable a 406MHz PLB worn on your person would probably get you rescued the fastest.

Finally, I know everyone wants the ultimate in flexibility. Just hop in the plane, fire up the GPS, and go. But there is something to be said for flight planning... It might help you avoid a turn into a dead end canyon.

My .02,
Paige

Just a whiteboard Note would help

BuckWynd said:

If you're going to fly over such remote places, perhaps you could laminate a sectional or WAC chart, and leave it with someone, or put it on the wall in your hangar. Before leaving, just mark your proposed route of flight with a grease pencil, or at least mark a circle where you think you might be operating. That way, if the worst happens, your family and friends might have a clue where to look for you. At least tell someone, "I'll be heading about 40 miles south to look at some land," or something descriptive. It Fossett's case, no one had any idea where he was going.

Click to expand...

I live at the confluence of the Mississippi, Illinois, and Missouri rivers with huge flat areas. We have had several "lost" planes from the area go down in the flat area. I was involved with an air search for one and it was hard to spot a wreckage from the air even in flat terrain. We only found it becuase we knew where he generally flew.

My wife gave me a white board for Christmas last year with mine and my hanger mate's aircraft N numbers laminated on it to hang up in the hanger. This way we can sign out with a time and destination. This would help to find us if needed.

APRS works, but coverage in remote areas isn't good. Even radar out here in the west is useless unless you have climbed quite a bit -- which is usually not a problem for RVs. Spot is useless if you don't see cumulus granite until its too late, and/or you haven't made activation part of your emergency training routine. Yes, I understand how the tracking works, but those data points are pretty spaced out sometimes. Heck, it looks like Fossett's ELT got obliterated in the crash as well.

Solving the APRS coverage issues could be done just like many ham clubs have done with mountaintop repeaters. I've been a ham for 30 years but have been an amateur radio operator for 15 (har har har) Once I focus on building my airplane and get more active in the amateur radio scene again these are things I'd like to help address.

Also, I believe in the spirit of being good neighbors I think that we should do a couple of things for amateur radio's sake...

1. Don't just get your license for APRS use! There's a whole world of friends out there to make, and small portable radios should be able to integrate into your plane easily.

2. I think in the urban areas we may need to start adding CD (Carrier Detect) to the smaller APRS setups. When traffic is light the chance for collisions isn't high... but as things get more busy the potential for data collision goes up. The simplicity of APRS is also a (minor) shortcoming... and that's no ACK of received data.

APRS coverage near Mammoth Lakes CA

PaigeHoffart said:

I think I've said this before, but I'll say it again:

I wonder if there is APRS coverage at the Fossett crash site? Obviously altitude is your friend when it comes to APRS coverage...

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There is APRS coverage there today...although admittedly not the densest I-gate coverage. Here's a link showing one within 16 miles and coverage from another 96 miles away on a vehicle, IF I'm reading the page correctly. Not bad for a car; an airplane in this area might get more hits.

Here's the map view.

(Sorry but I haven't figured out how to freeze an APRS map image and then post it frozen here.)

I guess my feeling is if Fossett had had an APRS transmitter, he might have been tracked sooner and the crash site might have been found more quickly. I understand the NTSB is pulling weather and radar data from that day in their investigation. I'm pretty amazed that the radar data is still available. Having been through the 5-day NTSB Aircraft Accident Investigation Class, I'm well aware that they have the authority to obtain ANY information they deem necessary to complete their investigation.

Don

Don

Fossett's "Flight Plan"...or lack thereof

BuckWynd said:

...It might be worth considering that the best prevention for this kind of heartbreak for a pilot's family could be minimized if you simply tell someone where you're going, and generally how you're getting there.

The searchers never got within 20 miles of this crash site. It might have been found within a week if rescuers had a simple map or a verbal description of where the pilot was going -- especially in rugged or unpopulated parts of the world...

Click to expand...

What I remember reading is that Fossett was out scouting some possible sites to break a Land Speed Record. (I wonder if fabrication of the car had begun yet.) There's a lot of flat land to the east in Nevada. The ruggedness of this crash site makes me think he had completed his scouting run and was perhaps being adventuresome by riding some ridge lift near the mountains. Downdrafts, thunderstorms, SCUD...who knows what he got into?

Buck, your point is well taken that no one apparently suspected him of being in this part of the mountains or they would not have spent so much time looking for him elsewhere. I suspect that we will never know for sure what really happened, other than he flew into the side of a mountain.

I hate it for his wife and friends, and it's bad that they had to wait so long, but at least they now have closure. I don't think we'll ever know what happened to Amelia Earhart.

Don

When his plane went missing, my theory was he had a heart attack or a stroke, lost consciousness, and the plane went who knows where before crashing. If something like that happens, a flight plan might not be super useful, although a working APRS or SPOT would be, provided it had signal.