I got on the Tomnod mailing list during the missing Bonanza crash in Idaho.

They just sent me this one.




Plane Vanishes Over Arkansas
Last week, Jake Harrell and his small plane vanished over rough terrain while traveling between Oden, AR and Wickels, AR.
^^^This is a photo of the actual plane we are looking for. Note the orange wings.

Take Action Now >>>
Search satellite imagery to find signs of the plane or its pilot.


If you want to help look go here:
http://www.tomnod.com/nod/challenge/arksar2014

The imagery is kind of cruddy with some clouds and decent visibility. The areas that are more remote look like pine plantations of varying ages. A LOT of green. You would think that a white plane and orange wings would stick out.

This was a friend of a friend. The wreckage was found today as well as the body. Not sure on any details other than he was a great guy. A police officer and a military member (USAng)

Heartfelt condolences to friends and family. Missing planes don't often come with a happy ending. When they turn up like this, they usually don't provide any clear lessons that the rest of us could benefit from. It's just sad all around.

Glad to hear that he was found. Sad that the news was not better. Thoughts and prayers to his friends and family.

http://www.newsdaily.com/environment/cbb24dac5fa49b79efbcee027d90a260/plane-of-missing-forestry-pilot-found-in-arkansas


TUESDAY FEB 11, 2014 | CHUCK BARTELS FOR THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The Arkansas Forest Commission says a pilot missing since Jan. 31 was found dead after crews located his aircraft.

Agency spokeswoman Adrianne Barnes confirmed Tuesday that pilot Jake Harrell did not survive.

Search crews had worked for 11 days to find Harrell. A Civil Air Patrol pilot spotted the wreckage at about 4 p.m. Tuesday. Ground crews then went to the site.

The plane was found near Glenwood in wooded and mountainous Montgomery County, where some of the most rugged territory in Arkansas can be found.

Harrell was on patrol for wildfires when he failed to make a scheduled check-in. He hadn't been heard from since.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

Searchers found a missing Arkansas Forestry Commission aircraft on Tuesday, 11 days after it dropped out of contact, but the fate of the pilot wasn't immediately known.

The commission said the plane was spotted at about 4 p.m. Tuesday by the Civil Air Patrol and the sighting was confirmed by a state police helicopter. Ground crews were on the way to the site.

Pilot Jake Harrell, 34, was patrolling for wildfires on Jan. 31 when he failed to make a scheduled check-in and hasn't been heard from since.

The plane was found near Glenwood in wooded and mountainous Montgomery County, where some of the most rugged territory in Arkansas can be found. Searchers struggled with wintery weather after Harrell vanished and most days were unable to use aircraft in the search, leaving it to teams formed from about 100 ground searchers.

Even when aircraft were able to search, the effort was hampered by areas with thick pine trees and snow.

Numerous agencies took part in the search. The territory is so dangerous that officials would not allow volunteers to help look for Harrell. Their work was made more difficult by a December ice storm that pulled down trees and branches that cluttered the forest floor.

Pastor Rob Loy of the First Assembly of God in North Little Rock has acted as family spokesman. He'd said Harrell's wife, Jamie, understood the odds were bad for her husband being found safe but was holding out hope of a happy ending.

Harrell had filled in for a sick co-worker on Jan. 31 and was supposed to have been in the air for two hours.

Forestry officials were uncertain of his route so the search area included up to 2 million acres, equal to more than 3,000 square miles. Rescuers received calls from as far away as eastern Oklahoma and northeast Texas.

Harrell's last known position was near Oden, about 20 miles from where his plane was found.

Always Remember, Jake Harrell http://www.wlfalwaysremember.org/incide ... rrell.html

Crzyivan13 wrote:http://www.newsdaily.com/environment/cbb24dac5fa49b79efbcee027d90a260/plane-of-missing-forestry-pilot-found-in-arkansas


TUESDAY FEB 11, 2014 | CHUCK BARTELS FOR THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The Arkansas Forest Commission says a pilot missing since Jan. 31 was found dead after crews located his aircraft.

Agency spokeswoman Adrianne Barnes confirmed Tuesday that pilot Jake Harrell did not survive.

Search crews had worked for 11 days to find Harrell. A Civil Air Patrol pilot spotted the wreckage at about 4 p.m. Tuesday. Ground crews then went to the site.

The plane was found near Glenwood in wooded and mountainous Montgomery County, where some of the most rugged territory in Arkansas can be found.

Harrell was on patrol for wildfires when he failed to make a scheduled check-in. He hadn't been heard from since.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

Searchers found a missing Arkansas Forestry Commission aircraft on Tuesday, 11 days after it dropped out of contact, but the fate of the pilot wasn't immediately known.

The commission said the plane was spotted at about 4 p.m. Tuesday by the Civil Air Patrol and the sighting was confirmed by a state police helicopter. Ground crews were on the way to the site.

Pilot Jake Harrell, 34, was patrolling for wildfires on Jan. 31 when he failed to make a scheduled check-in and hasn't been heard from since.

The plane was found near Glenwood in wooded and mountainous Montgomery County, where some of the most rugged territory in Arkansas can be found. Searchers struggled with wintery weather after Harrell vanished and most days were unable to use aircraft in the search, leaving it to teams formed from about 100 ground searchers.

Even when aircraft were able to search, the effort was hampered by areas with thick pine trees and snow.

Numerous agencies took part in the search. The territory is so dangerous that officials would not allow volunteers to help look for Harrell. Their work was made more difficult by a December ice storm that pulled down trees and branches that cluttered the forest floor.

Pastor Rob Loy of the First Assembly of God in North Little Rock has acted as family spokesman. He'd said Harrell's wife, Jamie, understood the odds were bad for her husband being found safe but was holding out hope of a happy ending.

Harrell had filled in for a sick co-worker on Jan. 31 and was supposed to have been in the air for two hours.

Forestry officials were uncertain of his route so the search area included up to 2 million acres, equal to more than 3,000 square miles. Rescuers received calls from as far away as eastern Oklahoma and northeast Texas.

Harrell's last known position was near Oden, about 20 miles from where his plane was found.

Sad deal for a fellow pilot... Sad also for the wife to wait 11 days for the news...

I wonder who the "OFFICIALS" where that forbid other searchers????

Very sad. Condolences to his family and friends.

This might be an appropriate time to once again plug for 406 ELTs. Although it might not have made any difference to the pilot, it would have likely saved 11 days of hard searching for many people, had this airplane been so equipped.

Cary

My impression is that so far, the 406 ELT's are no more likely to actually be appropriately triggered than the previous models. Which makes sense, since they are still relying on the same inertial trigger.

The ELT is a 1970's solution, and between the legion of satellite tracking options currently available, the worst of them is still better than an ELT by virtue of the inertial trigger design. Any satellite tracking device that was activated would have made this a very short search.

IMHO.

Sad news and I feel bad for his family.

I don't recall this being mentioned in the JC search, but Spot has a new product called Trace. Motion activated so you don't have to worry about turning it on or off. I don't think you can send messages, but it's another tracking option that is a more modern solution to the ELT question.

My impression is that so far, the 406 ELT's are no more likely to actually be appropriately triggered than the previous models.

Somehow the 406 technology has improved, because they have demonstrably fewer false alarms than 121/243 ELTs. Whether that makes them more likely to go off in a crash, I don't know. But they're required to have a switch within reach of the pilot to turn them on, so presumably a pilot, knowing he was about to go down, could turn it on--then the inertial switch wouldn't be an issue.

Based on my belt and suspenders philosophy, my airplane has a 406 tied to my GPS, and I carry 2 406 PLBs plus an old 121.5/243 ELT which can be manually activated.

Cary

Cary wrote:

My impression is that so far, the 406 ELT's are no more likely to actually be appropriately triggered than the previous models.

Somehow the 406 technology has improved, because they have demonstrably fewer false alarms than 121/243 ELTs. Whether that makes them more likely to go off in a crash, I don't know. But they're required to have a switch within reach of the pilot to turn them on, so presumably a pilot, knowing he was about to go down, could turn it on--then the inertial switch wouldn't be an issue.

Based on my belt and suspenders philosophy, my airplane has a 406 tied to my GPS, and I carry 2 406 PLBs plus an old 121.5/243 ELT which can be manually activated.

Cary

Cary,

Unfortunately, Troy is right. Two years ago, I did quite a bit of research on ELT technology, old and new. One of my concerns was exactly what Troy described.....the miserable performance of the old style inertial activation switches. I asked two of the biggest manufacturers of ELTs if their new generation ELTs were using the same old inertial switches....the response was a groan, and a "yes, we are". I then asked why...surely there are solid state accelerometers out there that would be much more reliable than a ball bearing in a tube with a spring at the end..... Their response, both virtually the same, was that it would probably cost them well over a million dollars to certificate such a device......

They pointed out that it is actually more difficult and more expensive these days to certificate avionics than it is to certificate structures. Go figure.

The reason that the false alarm rate has decreased dramatically is two fold:

1) There are a hell of a lot less 406 ELTs out there still than 121.5 ELTs. The "system" no longer monitors 121.5, so that alone dramatically decreased the false alarm rate. They're still false alarming, but nobody hears them much of the time. If a tree falls in the forest.....

2) First thing that happens when RCC is alerted to a 406 distress signal is they decode the signal, which gives them contact information for the user. A couple phone calls generally resolves the need for a rescue operation.....the owner of the beacon answers the cell phone listed on the registration, and says "nope, I didn't crash, and I'll turn off that beacon". I had that precise thing happen with my brand new 406 beacon, first time I encountered turbulence, just after I passed Fiske waypoint, on the approach to Airventure.....about three minutes later, my cell phone buzzed.....

I BELIEVE that there are one or two VERY expensive ELTs out there that claim to be using higher tech inertial switches, but those are mega buck units, in the thousands of $$.

Many of the later model 121.5/243 ELTs also had a pilot controlled switch on the panel...And, having had the experience of being about to "land" someplace I didn't want to, I did in fact activate that switch just before touchdown.

I bought a 406 box anyway, and connected it to my portable GPS. So, I agree with your strategy, in any case.

MTV