Any SPOT owners read the July 09 Kitplanes article on the SPOT locator? Do your experiences jive with what they say? Its not a very complementry article.

Dave

Haven't read the article, but here's my put:

Mine will consistently fail to push track updates up in northern WA state, particularly in the Cascades. It'll get some, but it's like there's a big blankout area running from south of Stampede Pass into the North Cascades. That's probably where I'd need it most. You probably know this, but it's an open-loop system - it just broadcasts, and you don't know in real time if the messages have made it to the satellites.

But... It's one more thing to have in your bag of tricks, and I actually renewed my tracking service last month. Last week, I brought a VFR airplane back to the Puget Sound from Michigan, by way of Oklahoma, and it worked great in all places but the Cascades (and one missed hit in NE Wyoming).

For me, it works good enough to keep - but not to really rely on. It doesn't work as well as claimed, but it works well enough that it might tip things in my favor - it might help the good guys find my smokin' hole.

--Tony

We use SPOT without the tracking feature by sending OK messages every 20-30 minutes when in flight. I can't recall loosing one of those in flight unless attempting to resend over a current send. The summary at the end of the article sums it up well. You just need to understand the limitations of the equipment.

Typically when flying to BC strips, I don't file FAA flight plans but instead leave one at home. I rely on SPOT to send messages home so my progress and loocations are tracked. I leave instructions as to what to due if I haven't reported within 18 hours by either SPOT or phone. So far this has worked well and is much better than the pre-SPOT days when the only practical choice was to leave instructions if I didn't make contact by a scheduled time - sometimes a span of a week.

I do think carying a PLB is also a good thing; it would be good to see a Ritter review now that the McMurdo units are shipping.

I'm having horrible luck getting in air tracking to work with my SPOT. I have it on the v brace in the windshield in my Cessna- which looks like it has a great view of the sky, with the SPOT logo up as per instructions. I get about one hit out of 4. Also, about half the time after I land and go to turn it off, its already off - on its own. Not real happy with this unit, wouldn't bet my life on it. As a comparison, I have my olf Garmin III pilot about a foot further back on the dash than the spot (toward the seats) and it works perfectly. So apparently the garmin's antenna works way better even with a more limited view of the sky. I've noticed no difference in SPOT performance if facing north or south in the plane. I thought my southbound legs would get better reception - clearer view of southern sky, but this isn't the case. I'll think realy hard about renewing my tracking subscription.

Sounds like you have a bad unit. Direction of travel is irrelevant to a SPOT as the satellites are not like the XM system where there are two satellites in geosynchronous orbit. The SPOT sats are more like GPS in that there are a bunch of them and they are moving relative to the ground.

Actually the SPOT units do require a clear view of the southern sky, especially the further north latitude you are located, as they use Globalstar's sat network to transmit the messages. Globalstar sats are closer to the equator, and earth's curvature begins to block them out particularly when you have higher terrain near to your south. The SPOT receives its GPS coordinates from the regular GPS sat system, but to transmit that location, they need to see south to the Gstar satellites. Could be a bad unit with the tendency to shut itself off - I would say close to 1/2 the time. Just not impressed with the unit, the damn buttons are small also, and my big fingers can hardly push and hold the on and ok buttons at the same time to get the tracking going. I guess as a former Globalstar sat phone user, I shouldn't have expected much more. Anyone had to send a unit in for warranty? wonder what the turnaround time is, and if they will credit the downtime to your subscription. I went through all this crap before with Globalstar phones, and really am not looking forward to trying to get any kind of customer service. I think I should have gone with Spider Tracks right away, as that is probably what I will end up with in the end.

I checked the "Spider Tracks" website...no pricing info, but since they use terms like "Fleet" and "Comercial Operators" I'm thinking it's out of the price range of many pilots.

Anyone know the actual costs of the system?

We have spider tracks down here in NZ. Our Airways dept has subsidised GA as an incentive to get spidertracks into GA, they think so highly of it. $1295 NZD ($803 USD)is the subsidised pirce for us. $1995 USD is listed as retail price on their web site. All the pricing is on their site if you look hard enough. Great product and far more reliable than spot in this part of the world. Great for fleets or individual farmer pilots like us who like to venture into the back country.

Jamie