I don't know how the weather was in Montana yesterday but,,, Here in Jackson Hole it was not flying weather for sure.

Hope he's ok.

http://www.helenair.com/articles/2009/0 ... _plane.txt

Please keep good thoughts ... full search at first light this morning.

Thought he was a goner last time; he's a savvy pilot who was solo and PIC this trip ~ here's hoping that if anybody could bring it down safely and be like a cat with 9-lives, after what he went through last time ~ it's Sparky.

His friends from California and Idaho are already on their way to Montana to help with the search ~ Susan

I hope Sparky is ok.

RB

Hoping for a positive outcome.

gb

http://www.helenair.com/articles/2009/0 ... gplane.txt

Latest update

After his last mishap, I would have put money on the fact he would not fly without his survival vest/PLB. In this case, no news is bad news. My prayers go out to him and his family.

Bonanza Man wrote:http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2009/03/18/news/state/16-missing.txt

Need you check to see if Sparky was on IFR flight plan ? Maybe a radar return- His wife said he left 2:30 PM yesterday afternoon for return flight to Helena> Distance of under 90 miles. Send me a email at [email protected] (182 STOL on BCPO) cell is 702.581.2022 Thanks
Bill Reid

Talked to Sparky's wife this morning _he had a SPOT( I tried to find Sparky's SPOT site does anyone have it ?) and PLB ,don't know if there was 406 mhz. ELT in airplane. He apparently got delayed from fly out of Bozeman ,MT. for a day /night because of bad weather. I know he had a 696 with weather and was not against flying IFR when it required it. I urge all pilot in Bozeman or Helena area's to try and find Sparky Imerson by flying between the 2 points (Helena/Bozeman ) back and forth with a spotter or 2 ,I know he would have flown direct or near it. I'm Praying that Sparky is found safe. Anyone with anything further to report please post it here or send me a email direct at [email protected] Bill Reid

I hate to see these threads. I hope the old boy is alright.

I merged this thread with the one from Flywriter.

1SeventyZ wrote:I hate to see these threads. I hope the old boy is alright.

I merged this thread with the one from Flywriter.

Talked to Sparky's wife this morning -There doing a full scale search according to FSS Prescott supervisor. N2698Y is what we're looking for - He just bought the airplane in January . I was going up to work on it last week-weather was lousy so I didn't make it. Lets all get out if we can to try and find him. Good Lord please find him well. Bill Reid

182 STOL driver wrote:

1SeventyZ wrote:I hate to see these threads. I hope the old boy is alright.

I merged this thread with the one from Flywriter.

Talked to Sparky's wife this morning -There doing a full scale search according to FSS Prescott supervisor. N2698Y is what we're looking for - He just bought the airplane in January . I was going up to work on it last week-weather was lousy so I didn't make it. Lets all get out if we can to try and find him. Good Lord please find him well. Bill Reid

Got to Looking at Google Maps (I need Terra Server -much better) 18-20 miles northwest of Bozeman is where radar coverage was lost. Sparky was on IFR flight plane and flight following , I looked at google map looks to be North of Interstate 90 near a town (?) of 3 forks. There appears to be several landing areas in the area. If radar contact was lost at 18 miles northwest of Bozeman that would be like 10- min. after depature .Area is around 4-5 k . Sparky was probably picking up ice I'd guess 8-9 k MSL headed home. I think if his airplane crashed he's within 5-10 miles north of 3 forks . I have a approx. location of Lat. 46.01.89 x Long 111.24.61 Lets keep looking .

Thanks for the updates Bill.

Force joins search for missing Helena airplane and pilot
BY MARTIN J. KIDSTON
Independent Record

UPDATED 1:45 p.m.
A search and rescue crew from Malmstrom Air Force Base arrived in Helena shortly after noon today to join the hunt for a missing Helena pilot and his plane.

Sparky Imeson's Cessna 180 disappeared from radar in rugged terrain roughly 18 miles northwest of Bozeman around 2:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Search crews with the Montana Department of Transportation's aeronautics division spent this morning searching the east slope of the Elkhorn Mountains, where a cellular tower picked up a signal from Imeson's phone shortly after the plane dropped off Bozeman radar.

"For the phone to receive that call, he'd have to be in that general location," said Mike Rogan, aviation support officer for MDT. "It was the closest tower. Someone tried to call him, but no one answered." Rogan, along with Jeanne MacPherson, the bureau chief coordinator for MDT, went out Tuesday night after getting word of the plane's disappearance.

The department's search plane is specially equipped to spot an Emergency Locator Transmitter, or ELT, which acti-vates when an aircraft goes down.

"We went out immediately and did a route search," MacPherson said. "We went to Bozeman, landed, and flew the route back."

MDT launched several aircraft early this morning hoping good visibility would reveal the aircraft.

Rogan said the search is being concentrated on the east slope of the Elkhorn Mountains, in particular, a deep drainage cut by Beaver Creek.

Rogan and Ken Wilhelm, an air mechanic with MDT, flew one of this morning's missions. Other aircraft from Bozeman joined the hunt.

"You're looking for an airplane that could be in the trees," Wilhelm said. "It's all snow in here. You've got standing lodgepole trees. You've got downed trees. You've got short trees. Anything that looks straight on the ground, you look at it again, and you see two trees lying at 90 degrees."

The aeronautics division is a busy yet somber place today. Most of the searchers know Imeson. They notified both Lewis and Clark and Broadwater county sheriff offices of the pilot's disappearance.

MacPherson said Imeson had not filed a flight plan before leaving Bozeman on Tuesday afternoon. Montana pilots only need to do so if traveling more than 250 nautical miles.

But radar suggests that Imeson was flying a direct route between Bozeman and Helena, one that would have taken him over the Horseshoe Hills near the south end of the Big Belt Mountains.

A good thing to take from this is always leave your cellphone on. One of the first things Montana Aeronautics does in cases like this is to search for your cell phone. More than one person has been found here by being able to narrow the search area down because of a cell phone hit.

Bonanza Man wrote:A good thing to take from this is always leave your cellphone on. One of the first things Montana Aeronautics does in cases like this is to search for your cell phone. More than one person has been found here by being able to narrow the search area down because of a cell phone hit.

Got this from Scott Newpower

I believe he was VFR from BZN-HLN. Very odd circumstances as he almost killed
himself Sunday. He was IFR and requested a block altitude of FL200-FL240,
said he was testing something on his engine. He got hypoxic and was basically
incoherentand drifting all over the countryside until we got him down around
15,000 and then he landed here at BIL. He claims not to remember the last
hour of his flight. Me thinks there's more to the story. As for the lost
radar return it said they lost him about 18 or so miles north of Bozeman. To
me that's not unexpected as that's about where you would go into the mountains
and I wouldn't expect the Bozeman radar site to be able to see you very far to
the north.

Scott


Need you check to see if Sparky was on IFR flight plan ?Maybe a radar return-
His wife said he left 2:30 PM yesterday afternoon for return flight to Helena>
Distance of under 90 miles. Send me a email at [email protected] (182 STOL
on BCPO) cell is 702.581.2022 Thanks
Bill Reid

Assuming Sparky was carrying both a SPOT and a PLB (the latter being much more reliable) per his wife (and last year he told me he was always carrying the PLB after his last crash) and there have been no distress alerts from either device nor anyone in the area picking up the ELT, does not bode well, I'm afraid. Keeping my fingers crossed, but seriously worried.

Bill, this might be the flight referenced in your post on FlightAware. It shows nothing for a flight after that, and theoretically if he was on an IFR plan or VFR flight following, it would be on here. Of course they might remove the information for search and rescue ops for some reason. I sure hope he is waiting out the weather in a tavern somewhere.

Dokmow wrote:Bill, this might be the flight referenced in your post on FlightAware. It shows nothing for a flight after that, and theoretically if he was on an IFR plan or VFR flight following, it would be on here. Of course they might remove the information for search and rescue ops for some reason. I sure hope he is waiting out the weather in a tavern somewhere.

Got several responses to my "Hornets let's crankem up" Have ships from McCall,Idaho- Washington,Calif. on the way if my airplane were up I'd be there too. May go to get 210 and go later tonight. Need more ships and eye's in the air. Need slow and go airplanes to fly from Bozeman to Helna ,Mt. with 121.5 radios
open squelch . Need everyone to check and see if they can go and help . If it wasn't for Sparky Imerson blazing the trial for back country airstrips maybe we(
BackcountryPilots.Org ) would be regulated to the black top jungles called airports. Help find Sparky !

Here is a pirep from just before Sparky departed BZN. We landed at Bozeman at 1:00 pm on Tuesday in a Citation. Must have just missed Sparky departing, and we would have heard a Skywagon on the tower frequency.

We needed to shoot the ILS, coming down from the flight levels. We were number four or five on approach, experienced continuous moderate turbulence from 15,000 down to 10,000 in the clouds. Winds were quite strong down through 12,000, with velocities around 50 knots from the west. We didn't pick up any ice on approach. Below 10,000, the ride was essentially smooth with light winds. We broke out about ten miles northwest of the field, and there was unrestricted flight visibility below the clouds. There were snow showers and IMC conditions over the Bridger Mountains to the east. A military helicopter arrived VFR from the northwest almost simultaneously with us. All in all, it was an average day in the mountains -- not one for beginners, but certainly well within the capabilities of a Skywagon with a pilot like Sparky.

When we departed BZN this morning, there were two planes from BZN out searching with several there or on the way from HLN. We discussed flying to HLN first, before heading enroute, but decided we would be more a hindrance than help.

Back Country / Mountain Pilots !

Immediate Attention Required

Search / Rescue Operation for One of Our Own


Well known mountain and back country pilot Sparky Imeson has been reported missing on a flight from Bozeman, Montana back to his home in Helena, Montana. He was flying his blue and white Cessna 180 N2698Y.

He left Bozeman at 2:20 PM for a one hour flight to Helena. His radar track was lost approximately 18 miles north of Bozeman on course. We do not know for sure whether this was a radar anomaly, an electrical malfunction or a downed aircraft. However they have tried to reach him by cell phone without success.

We need to field a search party immediately.

Sparky is an expert at back country flying and knows how to make the best of a survival situation… this means that finding the aircraft soon gives him a very good chance of survival. This is a TIME-CRITICAL situation.

As an added incentive, EDM Aircraft enterprises is offering a 50% discount on either our aircraft battery upgrade or aircraft rigging service, in return for your immediate participation in the search for Sparky and his aircraft. Show fuel receipts for 5-6 hours of flying from an airport in the immediate area searching for Sparky, and EDM will honor the discount.

It shouldn’t really be necessary, Sparky Imeson has dedicated much of his life to teaching others and sharing his flying knowledge so that YOU could fly safer and come home to your family. Please go the extra mile and help bring one of our own back to his family. I’m flying up from Las Vegas and will be joining the search Thursday morning… get there before me and help find Sparky! The local authorities are not treating this matter as importantly as we feel they should be.

One of back country aviation‘s best friends needs our help… for real. If you were down in the mountains you would want people to drop what they were doing and saddle up to help.

This is not a drill!


Bill Reid EDM Aircraft enterprises [email protected] 702-581-2022