Just wondering how many here have a Spot 2 or PLB and how much you actually use it? I do 90 % of my flying into rural airports, non tower, 50% have and attendant the others do not. Most of my flying is within 2 hours of home daylight hours, would be nice just for the wife to know where I'm at.

Spot 1 90% and PLb 100% of the time I'm flying,even in the pattern. Also survival vest......Herman.

I have a Spot2, works as advertised so far. I turn it on when I head out of my local area or flying over mountains. The family really appreciates it.

Have a SPOT 1 and the year I got it used it whenever I "remembered" to bring it along which actually was all the time on floats since I had it on my floatation vest. When I went on wheels I would forget the vest at times due to just hopping and and going for buzz around my place since I fly from my own strip. It seemed to worrk most of the time. I would also use it when traveling via car so my wive would kn ow where I was at. There would occasionally be spots where the tracking would not mark my location. When the subsription ran out last fall I didn't renew immediately due to knowing I wouldn't be flying for several months due to surgery and not being around the plane. I didn't renew it this summer mostly due to not going on floats and so little flying here in northern MN this summer ....got a little too much rain.
I will eventually renew because the spousal unit (1 ea.) does like the ability to keep track of her property!!! LOL
WW

Maybe she just wants to know when to chase the UPS man away. That's why I don't have one........like my return to be a surprise.

Spot 1 and 406 PLB. Wife and mom appreciate Spot. SPOT is on during trips over the mountains and long trips. Works great 98% of the time where I have gone, even though I tried to melt it on the defrost vent. DOH

Good day

I have had my SPOT 2 since April and I'm completely satisfied. My SPOT 1 failed me, and after a lengthy discussion with SPOT I was upgraded with the SPOT 2. The few added features make the 2 worth the extra money IMO.

I've had it backpacking on 14ers, dirt biking, Jeeping, and flying over hostile terrain and it's worked great (99%). I always use it flying over the mountains and canyons, but sometimes forget to bring it on local flights (the barren flatland of Eastern CO).

Bighorn wrote:Just wondering how many here have a Spot 2 or PLB and how much you actually use it? I do 90 % of my flying into rural airports, non tower, 50% have and attendant the others do not. Most of my flying is within 2 hours of home daylight hours, would be nice just for the wife to know where I'm at.

I've got the version 1 and it works as advertised .I put it up on the glareshield with velcro . I'd like to see version 3 or whatever have a key pad (or hook up to your cell ) to send a short text to your people on your email list.

We have the Spot 1......it did not transmit in 10 minute intervals as advertised...we turned it in on factory warranty and got a replacement. Most of our flying is back country strips in Montana and Idaho.......the Spot is better than having nothing......but sometimes only broadcasts every 20 minutes.....a lot of ground is covered by aircraft in twenty minutes......the Spot is well named in the use we put it to....it has produced inconsistent performance.....perhaps the Spot 2 is better....

I have the SPOT 2 and it has worked 100% (knock on wood) of the time so far. It's great to let the wife know where I'm at when out fishing out of cell phone range. I also like the fact I can ask for help without declaring an emergency. I also carry a PLB just in case I have a real emergency. Pilots love redundency. I've used the SPOT 2 quite a bit in canyons, and it has worked so far. I'd say it's well worth the money!

I have a brand new SPOT 2 I'll sell cheap, but it doesn't have any packaging or the carrying case. It is a warranty return from the SPOT company - i.e. they sent it as a replacement for one of their faulty units and didn't bother to return all the packaging. Send me a PM if you're interested.

Chrisg, I sent you a PM

Seems as though the Spot 2 has better antenna gain perhaps, because mine is working much better than the first generation model we evaluated at work a couple of years ago. Anecdotal but true. I have a PLB in my vest and my Spot 2 on the glareshield of every flight and it transmits breadcrumbs about 90-95% of the time even here in the mountains of the north. As mentioned you have to have patience and ensure that the "ok" or tracking signal has transmitted before turning it off. Nice thing is the confirmation LED indicator to tell you when it has.

I'm not sure if it has a better antenna or just more juice, 3 AAA's instead of 2 AA's. The SPOT guy told me the battery life isn't as good as the first gen, but I've had about 100 hours of use out of mine and the batteries are still going strong.

My Spot 1 has worked really flawlessly with only a couple of missed sends in countless hours of use. Regarding Spot 2, I still have a problem accepting as an improvement the covering of the 911 button with a flap that needs to be removed, I think, before use. If I ever have a really serious problem and am in the midst of an off airport, unplanned, landing with suspect results, I plan to active the 911 feature with a simple push of the button and then get back to the details at hand. The idea of having to manually remove Spot from my glareshield to flip the cap off the 911 button, then depress it and put it back onto the velcro strip doesn't make a bunch of sense to me. In such a scenario pictured above, all I need to do is key the "I'm OK" button after I successfully land my crippled airplane.

$150.00 for spot 2, plus $99.00 for basic, plus $49.99 for tracking ......am I missing anything?

A lot of people diss the SPOT as not as good as a PLB ... that's like saying a motor home is not as good as a house. It all depends on what you want to accomplish.

A PLB can definitely be a lifesaver, ditto an installed 406 mhz ELT. But neither one will tell your significant others where you're at at a given time ... and neither one allows you to send an "I'm OK" message or at "I'm not in dire trouble but I need some assistance" message as will a Spot.

And the latest generation Spot, sold jointly with the DeLorme PN60 gps, also allows you to send text messages via Sat.

So, if you want a tool that will call in the Mounties when you're in dire trouble (or dead), the most reliable tool for that is either a 406 mhz PLB or ELT. But that's the only thing either will do.

For any other communcation, you need either a Spot or a much more expensive Sat phone.

It's not a matter of "either/or", it's a matter of what it is you want to do, and what you're willing to pay.

If you want to be totally covered, get a 406 mhz ELT for your plane, a 406 mhz PLB for your person, and a Spot, and a Sat phone. However, that's getting pretty expensive.

I currently have a visitor here (N/W Ontario) from the Netherlands. His great desire was to be dropped off in the wilderness for two weeks, to camp out and live off the land. I fulfilled his fantasy, by flying him to a remote lake and dropped him off 1 1/2 weeks ago. He has a Spot device and the program was for him to send me an OK signal every morning and every evening, if he missed two OK's I was to go in looking for him. He missed one OK about mid week, but I got the next one. On Saturday morning I missed an OK , then again that evening, I waited until the time he usually send one out the next morning and received none. I went into panic alert, left immediately and went out to where I had dropped him off. It turned out he was all right, but for some reason the Spot had not sent out the messages. Since then, we have received an OK as scheduled. Not quite as impressed with the Spot now.

As a side note, I took a care package to him, which was much appreciated, as the foraging was not working out so well. Steve

Here's a new product that combines a Delorme gps with the Spot product:

http://shop.delorme.com/OA_HTML/DELibeC ... site=10020

At over $500, I'm probably not a customer, but the one feature that caught my eye was the ability to send text messages. It would be really nice to be able to let folks know of delays, changes in route, etc.

tom

Steve: IF you can afford to fly a 185, you should be able to have a Spot, PLB, AND a satellite phone!!! Otherwise put your wife to work or plant more $$$ productive crops (BC Bud?)