TomD wrote:....I remember an incident where the guy took off and disappeared (don't remember all the details). Had not told anyone where he was planning to fly since it was just local. I think it took two years to find the wreckage and that was in the fairly densely populated Puget Sound area.

You're probably thinking of the T-Craft that took off from there at Harvey's a few years ago.
Allegedly headed to Hoquiam or Ocean Shores, but never came home.
Local guys were flying unofficial search missions along the route to the coast, but it was a year or two later that
a deer hunter or brush-picker found the wreckage, on the Skokomish reservation near Hoodsport.

A1Skinner wrote:

TomD wrote:If you are doing an "out and back" flight telling someone near your campsite or departure point where you plan to fly and when you plan to return. Very low tech flight plan. Good idea to tell someone where you are planning to fly in any case.....TD

Very good point. My problem with local flights is I easily get sidetracked and go off route and end up in 5 other spots before I get where I was going. This is where a SPOT or InReach is great. My wife just follows my SPOT tracks and always knows where I am.

There was a recent thread here about a guy flying home from Anchorage to Kenai (?), who took a little scenic sidetrack & ended up upside down. Don't recall if he had a spot or just how he was found (maybe cellphone or satphone?), but as pointed out was not where he would have been expected to be. Luckily it all turned out OK, except for the airplane damage.

NunavutPA-12 wrote:

whynotfly wrote:

NunavutPA-12 wrote:Because my home airport is within an ADIZ, I'm required to file a flight plan. That's my primary. Then I carry an InReach, a PLB, a 406 ELT and an Iridium sat 'phone. Overkill, perhaps, but I'm usually very far from help, over country where overland travel is practically impossible during the summer months, and where winter environmental conditions can kill very quickly.

The only down side to the flight plan is that I have to have a big sign on the door of my cabin: "DID YOU CLOSE YOUR FLIGHT PLAN?".

When I used to file flight plans, I would stick these little red stickers on the back of my hand (about the size of a dime) which were a constant reminder to close my flight plan. After landing you couldn't help but wonder soon enough what the heck that red dot was for on the back of your hand.

Great idea! Thanks.

Another reminder (I don't use it, but I know people who do) is to move your watch to the other wrist. When you're on the ground, wondering why your watch is on the wrong wrist, maybe it'll dawn on you to close your flight plan and move the watch back where it belongs.

I haven't filed a VFR flight plan in many years. When I'm traveling (not in the mountains), I usually file IFR for any flight over 50-60 miles, or if not, I use flight following, even for much shorter flights. In the mountains, I monitor ATC as much as possible, and perhaps now with ADS-B, they may be able to "see" me where radar coverage wasn't possible so that I can use flight following--don't know on that idea. But in any event, I have a 406 ELT in the airplane and 2 406 PLBs plus a still working portable 121.5/243.0 ELT, plus a survival pack that is good for several days of survival. And hopefully I'll never need any of that stuff.

Cary

Thanks, all, for your insights.

My plan is to stick with my plb + inReach combo. I'm also gonna make the plunge for a 406 ELT upgrade this year.

-chris

I just learned something today that fits this discussion. If you are a Foreflight user and file a VFR flight plan through Foreflight, it will give you a warning on your iPad screen if you fail to close your flight plan within 20 minutes after your ETA, and if you don't react to that one, you'll get another one at 30 minutes after your ETA. You can close your flight plan either through the Foreflight app or by calling FSS (1-800-WX-BRIEF, 800-992-7433). I don't know when Foreflight started doing that, since I haven't filed a VFR flight plan with Foreflight, and with IFR flight plans, the closing mechanism is automatically done by tower at towered fields and with ATC, either in the air or on the ground after landing, at non-towered fields.

Foreflight keeps adding functionality, without making much ado about it. Here's another one: A week ago, I flew down to KBJC to have new com antennas installed. As I usually do, I wrote down the applicable frequencies I'd be using, because it's easier to glance at my kneeboard than to look for them on an approach plate when I should be looking outside, and I sure can't memorize them these days. I was just about to look on my kneeboard for the ATIS frequency, when I heard something like "your destination weather frequency is 126.25", and an orange warning window popped up on the screen which said "KBJC ATIS is 126.25". Then on the way back, the same thing happened for the AWOS at KGXY. It happens at 20 miles before the destination below 5000' AGL, so there's plenty of time to listen to the weather and plan the approach to the airport. Pretty cool, right?

Cary

A1Skinner wrote:

Very good point. My problem with local flights is I easily get sidetracked and go off route and end up in 5 other spots before I get where I was going. This is where a SPOT or InReach is great. My wife just follows my SPOT tracks and always knows where I am.[/quote]


Same here.
I've been sidetracked so many times over remote areas that for backcountry flights I now just turn the tracking on for our Inreach when departing, and off upon arrival. Yeah, it costs more to do that but, jeez, it's better than trying to hump out of the sticks busted, broken & bruised.
The other aspect is that it's not a risk-free endeavor. I'd rather them find me no matter my condition so my family has closure.

In 2004 I filed a round robin with McMinville for McCall to Pittsburg/Hells Canyon to Wilson Bar to McCall arrival by 10pm. Didn't arrive, was bleeding on Wilson Bar drinking the end of a 12 pack of brewskis sewing my own skin up. The local sheriff checked out the McCall tarmac, no plane of that N#, and initiated a search at 11pm to start at 7am. They found me eating figs off the trees at Wilson Bar next to my tent drinking instant coffee. The ELT was picked up by two different freight aircraft during the night.
I got a PLB my next Cessna 185 and still had the ELT. And I filed flight plans until I quit flying. The system worked to find me, but I will admit I was about to grab a big log and float down to the lodge below Wilson Bar and see if I could get some real coffee and a clean rag for that head injury. Fly remote, get all the findomatic stuff you can get.

Used the shiny side of a CD / DVD as a sewing mirror as I recall - from McCall.

Stay in Trim

hotrod180 wrote:There was a recent thread here about a guy flying home from Anchorage to Kenai (?), who took a little scenic sidetrack & ended up upside down. Don't recall if he had a spot or just how he was found (maybe cellphone or satphone?), but as pointed out was not where he would have been expected to be. Luckily it all turned out OK, except for the airplane damage.

I was at the Kenai airport when his friends were out looking for him. Based on what was reported he didn't have the required survival gear for himself or his passengers. They were reportedly found by a Pave Hawk helicopter that detected a faint 121.5 ELT signal across the Cook Inlet, not even close to his intended track. He did say that he realized that they might not be found in time. Also said that he was considering upgrading his ELT. He unnecessarily put his friends and other rescuers at risk, as well as his passengers of course. Luck was on his side this time.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk