Backcountry Pilot

[lowflyinG3 offline]

Got a sat tracker under the tree this morning!
Santa is kickass! We'll have to check this thing out soon.

[Matt 7GCBC offline]

Me too, George!
Let's go get lost later today and see if the wives can find us! Wondered when you were going to get your cool pics posted. Was just visiting the AK Bushwheel site and showing Dad what will be going on 8000Y next year.
Matt

[sheephunter offline]

Santa got me a 296. Just charging up the batteries and will have questions later. sheephunter

[eddie offline]

I've had a G-196 since they came out and it works great. Used it to fly our C150 from Fl. to Northern NY and to fly our pacer from BGR,Bangor to Seldovia,AK this summer past. I think each step up is personal need and the 196 does the basic nav just fine.
I see your from Reno, Just spent a 4 day layout there this past weekend, skiing at Royal Gourge is great., Tom

[Rob offline]

Hi G3,

I've not kept up with all the new emergency stuff, but that thing looks awesome. I really like the features, You'll have to give up a pirep!

[Matt 7GCBC offline]

OK, so here's the initial PIREP on the SPOT unit:
First thought is, will be a useful addition to the gear with most of my flying done out of cell phone range (but won't work for the Alaska folks at this time )

After the initial acquisition of local area (like any GPS), the unit will send a message, when prompted, within 2-20 minutes.

The "OK" button light (or other message button of your choice) will flash until the message is sent, so you get some feedback of success.

Looking at the adds, I had been concerned about the "HELP" and "911" buttons as there didn't appear to be any deterent to inadvertedly pressing them, but now that I have the unit, can see the HELP and 911 buttons are set deeper in the case and the 911 button has an addtional raised ring around it. The buttons are pretty small, so seems effective. But you know ol' Murphy would come calling if you shoved it into a pack with some pointy items to press against it.

When flying, you can't really mark any specific site from the air to show up on Google maps. The unit will send the current location whenever it makes satellite contact, which may be 20 minutes later, but doesn't que messages. I tried to send about 6 "I'm OK" messages on a quick flight out to 45 Ranch, thinking that I was "marking" a trail, but only 3 went through as the unit was apparently still trying to send the earlier message when I was telling it to send the next one. Now I know to look for the flashing light to stop before sending again.

The personalized text message you script is the only "personal identifier" when you send to your friends. The user information you give to SPOT for their records doesn't show up on the "OK" and "HELP" messages which go to contacts of your choice. In addition to George, another BC pilot friend got one of these for Christmas, so it would be confusing as to who I'm going to help if you didn't put your name on your message.

To help speed validation of a "HELP" message to friends, I put mine and my wife's phone numbers on the message. Someone could then immediately call and verify that the message wasn't a mistake.

You can put 10 contacts on the "OK" and 10 on the "HELP" message lists. Each address, whether email or cell phone# for text counts as a contact, so to list my wife's cell and email counts as 2 contacts.

I put people's emails on the "OK" (easier to open Google maps) and used cell phone #'s on the HELP list to ensure more timely notification in case of need. (might really find out who your friends are with this , or at least who's off from work when you need them.)

This was supposed to be an anxiety relieving product for the family when I'm out flying, away from today's seeming "standard" of continuously available communication. Nancy told me, however, that everytime the text message beeped to her phone she felt a slight stress until she opened the message to see that it was the "OK" and not the "HELP". What's a guy to do? If I remove her phone from the OK contact list and it's just on the HELP, Pavlov's dog tells me we might be able to raise her blood pressure everytime anyone texts her.

When you start thinking about it, the HELP message could really be a problem if you don't plan ahead and communicate. I try to be prepared to take care of a situation myself, when in a jam. I can still call an overflying aircraft or jet liner and ask them to call one of the local part 135 operators if I simply need a part to be brought in. You can only anticipate and carry gear for so many things in a small aircraft, and eventually may need assistance when your aircraft breaks and there's no one's around to take a message. My point is that if I call someone for HELP with the SPOT, the prescripted message doesn't tell the details of the situation or what level of urgency. If I have several flying buddies on the alert, I could suddenly have a significant effort launched, possibly including Part 135 operators that I will have to reimburse (what would you do if your buddy sent a distress call and you were at work?). What if you get put on the HELP list of someone who is not a "prepared pilot" and you get called for basic stuff. There is still a big problem with climbers/hikers who carry cell phones in place of emergency gear. Definitely need a "User Agreement". Also shows a reliable Sat phone is a MUCH better alternative.

I will still be carrying my ResQFix PLB. Would I purchase it again, if I already had the SPOT? - that's a harder question. Thanks again MTV for the link to www.life-raft.com for the cheap $550 price on the ResQFix.
Link to our earlier discussion: phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=19897&highlight=#19897


Here's one of the "OK" messages sent yesterday:

Matt is out having fun. He is "OK". Check out where he
is now! (Maybe you should fly out and join him)
Unit Number:
Latitude: 42.5474
Longitude: -117.1971
Nearest Town from unit Location: Fairylawn, United States
Distance to the nearest town: 17 km(s)
Time in GMT the message was sent: 12/26/2007 00:41:01
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&g ... &z=12&om=1

Would welcome any tips that other users have. Matt

P.S. Went out with the kids on Christmas Eve night in the Skywagon to look for Santa Claus. Almost caught him before he ducked into a cloud. Boise Tower was even helping out. And to think, my folks just took us out on the front porch to look for the Man - we pilots are a fortunate bunch. Merry Christmas!

[lowflyinG3 offline]

Merry christmas guys. I haven't gotten out to use my SPOT yet. I'm going skiing/snowmobiling for a few days. Everyone have a good couple of days.

[WWhunter offline]

Matt,
Mucho thanks for your report. I have been looking at these units because we were supposed to be tranfered to Alaska. But that is cancelled and I found out they weren't good in Alaska anyways. I may still get one, most of my flying is in the northern lakes region of Minnesota and there is lots of woods to get lost in. But so far the PLB looks like it may be a better option.
Keith