Like many of you, I do a lot of off road or outback exploring in some very remote area's of Nevada, Idaho and some other states once in a while. Many of these remote area's I have noticed get a lot of airline and other GA traffic at high altitudes. I always carry my SPOT, portable GPS and portable NavCom in the plane and ground vehicles when I go exploring.

My question is....... When I'm in my Bronco (or any other land vehicle) and something bad happens many miles away from help and I activated my SPOT and nobody comes for hours or even a day, is is legal or OK to use my portable NavCom to try and reach an airliner on 121.5 to give them my info with a GPS coordinates and ask them to relay for help?

Will most portable NavCom even reach or transmit to airliners up to FL40? I know I can hear them because I often listen to the ATC on my portable NavCom here in Elko, NV when I'm bored and see that there is a major east/west, north/south routes above Elko.

They can write you a ticket after they rescue you. Ask Bumper about rescuing dummys lost in the desert, using aircraft radio with a relay via airliner.

Gump

We carry a PLB now. More so for trips out on the four-wheelers, but lug it along in the Cessna too.

Gump

GumpAir wrote:They can write you a ticket after they rescue you. Ask Bumper about rescuing dummys lost in the desert, using aircraft radio with a relay via airliner.

Gump

I see. I remember that Black Rock incident with that dude that tried to kill himself on that dry lake bed.

I'm also thinking a Sat. Phone would be good to have.

Gump is right on

It's an emergency frequency......if it's an emergency, nobody is going to hassle you. If it's not a real emergency, you MIGHT get chewed out....

MTV

mtv wrote:Gump is right on

It's an emergency frequency......if it's an emergency, nobody is going to hassle you. If it's not a real emergency, you MIGHT get chewed out....

MTV

I would only use it in a dire life or death situation if a NavCom is all I have working at the time.

I believe a handheld comm has limited utility if you're in a real emergency in the middle of the boonie, unless help is already on the way and you need to communicate to the rescuers who are in an aircraft. Whenever I fly (anywhere), or drive to unpopulated areas, my spot and sat phone ALWAYS go with me together with my survival pack. Just being able to call my wife on my sat phone and saying "honey, don't worry, I'm OK but I'm stuck in a snow storm in a dirt road in the middle of nowhere and won't be able to make it home tonight. Don't worry!" is priceless.

Back to using the handheld comm. I have no idea if the Feds can fine you for using it, but if it's a real a emergency, I wouldn't care.

PatínLoco wrote:I believe a handheld comm has limited utility if you're in a real emergency in the middle of the boonie, unless help is already on the way and you need to communicate to the rescuers who are in an aircraft. Whenever I fly (anywhere), or drive to unpopulated areas, my spot and sat phone ALWAYS go with me together with my survival pack. Just being able to call my wife on my sat phone and saying "honey, don't worry, I'm OK but I'm stuck in a snow storm in a dirt road in the middle of nowhere and won't be able to make it home tonight. Don't worry!" is priceless.

Back to using the handheld comm. I have no idea if the Feds can fine you for using it, but if it's a real a emergency, I wouldn't care.

I can tell you from actual experience, having used this method of communicating five different times....three because I was stuck in weather, one because we had a chip light on a helicopter, and one to arrange for a pickup after my crankshaft broke, that getting on 121.5 MHz and calling in the blind may well be the quickest way there is to communicate. Of those, Japan Air answered twice, Alaska Airlines once, Air France once and once "Aspen 08" answered.....turns out Aspen was one of the call signs used by the SR 71. He wouldn't tell us where he was....

In each case, they passed along a message to close or extend my flight plan, to pass a message along to maintenance, or in one case, pass along lat/long coordinates and a phone number so that ATC could call the AFS helitack ramp to send out a helicopter.

Never got any grief from anyone, and not a single case involved "life or death" issues. In fact, three of those, I slept out waiting for weather and flew home when it improved, but I didn't want anyone coming looking for me or worrying.

Just don't be stupid......in a case I'm familiar with, bear hunters on Kodiak's south east side activated a personal ELT (121.5) because the weather was crappy and their air taxi didn't pick them up on schedule. A friend of mine, who was an HH-3 helicopter pilot in the Coast Guard flew down there in really shit weather (and when you use the term "shit weather" in reference to Kodiak, it really is bad) to find these three morons just wanting to get back to their jobs in Anchorage on Monday.....they had not planned ANY weather contingency days at all, and claimed they'd be fired if they didn't show up for work on Monday. Jim ( the HH-3driver) informed them he'd fly them back to Kodiak, BUT all their gear, the bear hides, their guns, EVERYthing had to stay at their camp (Alaska statute prohibits carriage of any hunting gear or hunters in helos).

Interestingly, these guys said they'd stay with their trophies. They asked Jim to call their boss and let him know what was up. Jim did, next day.....and the boss said, no sweat, happens all the time. They didn't get fired.

I suggested to Jim that these guys should have got a serious fine at the least, but the CG doesn't play that way. I got the pleasure when they came in to seal their bear hides, and then drove them over to the CG base so they could apologize to the Ops Officer. In the end, nothing happened to them, even though a really good CG crew risked their lives in that flight.

Don't be stupid. In most cases, they'll thank you for preventing unnecessary worry or risk.

MTV

I think if you're in a life or death situation, use any means necessary to get out.

If I remember correctly, that huge fire in AZ a few years ago was started by someone who was lost - I don't even think he got in trouble, but I don't remember...

Jim