I posted this to BT, but then realized there are probably more people here who get themselves into significant trouble!

Every winter, I rethink my preheat options. Every spring, I rethink my emergency gear. Once again, I’m looking at my SPOTX and ResQLink, and remembering all of other trackers I’ve spent money on, and fighting the temptation to spend more.

This year, a thought: if I have ADS-B, a phone, and a ResQLink, do I really need anything else?

“Let’s take this from the theoretical to the actual,” I said. “I’ll bet there are plenty of people on BCP who’ve used these devices for real-life help. And if there aren’t, that says something.”

So, what about you? Have you ever had an emergency situation outside of cell coverage and used a tracker? Did it do what it was supposed to do?

Tell the story.

Yes, I got a flat tire at Mineral Canyon (UT75) and no there is NO cell service in that deep canyon. I did not have an inReach. Luckily some environmentalists counting eagles drove past and came to the rescue as they ahd an inReach that I used to text for help to repair a rim that sheared a bolt so the tire would not hold air. I had all the requisite safety and repair gear, but there is no way to put air in a tire on a rim with broken bolts.

Yes, I would never fly without an inReach again. I do fly over some pretty rough terrain in Utah, and especially in Idaho.

I'm not the biggest fan of the texting on the SPOT but it's better than nothing. I think you have to think about a few things:
1) Redundancy, these things don't always work. Some SR guy told me a ACR PLB was activated and the location it was provided was 40 miles from where it was actually activated at.

2) You mention a phone. If they're out of reception, it's pointless.

3) The SPOT X and inReach do both provide an outbound capability. ACR and a phone without service can't do that.

I don't think you can really go wrong with carrying a spot x or an inreach... I suppose if you wanted to ditch the subscription you could buy a airband transceiver for 121.5.

I have had to send for help twice. Both were well before the advent of the 406 ELT and the various “messaging devices” ie: Spot, InReach, Spidertracks, etc.

In the first I broke a landing gear on rough snow on a remote lake. I tried calling in blind on 121.5, but no joy. Turned on ELT (121.5) because it was -35 and the plane wasn’t going to fix itself. CAP flew over in a 185 on wheel skis and asked me if I was okay on 121.5 on plane radio. I tried calling in the blind on 121.5, but no response. Then they left….$18000 of taxpayers money to buy those wheel skis, but they’re not allowed to land on snow. They canceled the search……..It was -45 that night.

I haven’t had a very high opinion of CAP since.

Second case, crankshaft broke on 185 40 miles north of Fairbanks in White Mtns.

Landed, using up airplane in process. But plane was upright and antennas intact. I had activated ELT (121.5) before landing. Tuned radio to 121.5 and called in blind. Japan Air 747 crew responded and served as comm link till an air taxi arrived overhead to comm with me. I provided phone number of Fort Wainwright helitack base, and a Bell 205 arrived in due time.

For many years, I flew regularly over many thousands of square miles of wild country, almost always with a very “loose” flight plan, or none at all. Some of my trips were multi day, and generally out of contact until the advent of satellite telephones, which we promptly adopted.

Man, what I would have given back then for an In Reach device!! SPOT doesn’t work that far north, and my experience with it in lower 48 wasn’t very reliable. I’ve flown with an In Reach ever since they came out.

So, those few bucks you spend on an In Reach may be a real bargain if the you know what hits the fan…….or the fans quits turning.

MTV

A couple of years ago while rafting the Middle Fork of the Salmon I tore a giant hole in my boat. We patched it up and got it to camp but knew there was no way it could finish the trip. A buddy had his InReach along so we tried to text my dad to fly in another boat and haul out the one I trashed. I do not know what went wrong but we never could get a message out. Steep and deep canyon, user error, idk. I ended up getting the boat to Indian Creek where I used a Forest Service sat phone. The InReach not working almost ended our trip. With no time to get a new boat, I had to de-rig, haul everything up to the runway and leave it for a charter to pick up on a backhaul. Thankfully, my buddies made room on their boats for my bare essentials.

My personal choice is GPS-enabled 406ELT, PLB, and a cell phone with an app that leaves breadcrumbs my wife can share with my pilot buddies. I also carry an airband transceiver while out playing in the air, land or water.

Interesting differences between MTV and Whee, both of whom I respect highly. If I'd been paying the top tier inReach subscription and hadn't gotten a reply, I'd be pretty agitated once I stopped fearing for my life. Whee, what app are you using on the phone?

It's very possible that the outfit Whee describes is an ideal, cost-effective combination. It's just so hard to argue with logic like "if your wife were bleeding to death in the middle of nowhere, no amount of money would matter." I mean, it's true, after all. . . .But that's why I'm enquiring about the real world.

FWIW, my son used a SPOT Gen 3 driving from Soldotna to Indianapolis. It worked without a hitch, all the way up to Tok. I know it supposedly doesn't work that far north, but he did it twice. . . .*shrug*

I'm rabbit-trailing my own thread. Really interested in first-hand accounts.

Define anger...

I fly with a ResQLink EPIRB and a Garmin InReach Mini.

I have never used the ResQLink. It's the nuclear option. You can't communicate anything other than "This is an emergency, send everything". It has 406 and 121.5 MHz as well as GPS, so it has functionality beyond an InReach, Spot, or the like.

I use my Garmin InReach on every flight to anywhere my phone isn't expected to work. I check in with my wife and my brother when I land, and I let them know when I'm taking off. I message if plans change. Some of my trips are a couple of days alone in the woods, and having people who know my itinerary and when to call for help on my behalf is as important as having the messaging tools to begin with. Every message I've ever sent has gone through in a timely fashion (within 20 minutes).

I'm not enamored with the InReach Mini. I would have preferred to purchase an Explorer+, if only for the keypad. The InReach Mini can send custom messages tethered to the phone, but it's a pain. The messaging UI is not explicit, in that the message status is not always clear. It can take a while to send a message on occasion, and I wonder what's happening during that time until the message sends. Even after it's sent, it isn't highly obvious.

A satellite phone is the premier option. I'd buy one in a heartbeat if I could find a plan that was mostly fee-for-use rather than a huge subscription. $10 a month and $3 a minute would be fine with me.

Landed out once in a deep canyon and broke the tailwheel leaf spring on my 170. Had old Spot without text capability. Did not want to activate it as I was OK. Broadcast on 121.5 with no reply on multiple attempts. Eventually a USFW cub responded and came to search for me. Unfortunately while I was waiting for him he activated SAR without knowing the details of my predicament. When he arrived I gave him a friends number to call who eventually showed up and we fixed the plane. Unfortunately the SAR activation resulted in me having to splane myself to SAR, the NTSB and the FAA. Had I the ability to text with my spot all that trouble would have been avoided. Now I have an In Reach.

Coyote wrote:Landed out once in a deep canyon and broke the tailwheel leaf spring on my 170. Had old Spot without text capability. Did not want to activate it as I was OK. Broadcast on 121.5 with no reply on multiple attempts. Eventually a USFW cub responded and came to search for me. Unfortunately while I was waiting for him he activated SAR without knowing the details of my predicament. When he arrived I gave him a friends number to call who eventually showed up and we fixed the plane. Unfortunately the SAR activation resulted in me having to splane myself to SAR, the NTSB and the FAA. Had I the ability to text with my spot all that trouble would have been avoided. Now I have an In Reach.

I have the custom button on my spot setup to go to buddies with aircraft. Says "I'm ok but I need parts or help". Send that and it will at least get them in the air to come see what I need and doesn't alert SAR.

I still have the old no texting SPOT, although I will probably upgrade this year, to a texting device. I have never needed to use it in an emergency, I/we do use it fairly often. Most often if I am out guiding a trip with no cell service, to check in and let everyone know we are at a campsite and where. Same for some of our multi day raftng or canoe trips where cell service is either spotty (Pun intended) or nonexsistant. I will send the SPOT along so I know where the group is. It has to this point worked flawlessly. Limited in information for sure. I do have a couple of guides that have an Inreach and it is nice to get a text instead of a pattented message. I also fly with it on track mode with 5 minute pings, so my wife at least has a idea where I am in the event I go missing.

Pete

I have had great luck with an InReach mini. I rafted the middle fork of the salmon last April, I sent texts every night, never an issue. I have used it on every trip to Idaho and a few in Utah. It has never failed me, when paired with the phone, its just like sending a text on the phone.
I am hoping it works just as well when I am in the Grand Canyon the first 3 weeks of April.

If your SPOTX works where you fly I would just use that. The new 406 ELT will bring rescue to the plane especially if tied into a GPS unit. The advantage of having SAT coms is you can call them off if not needed or ask for special gear. Sending message home to loved ones is priceless when you don't arrive as planned. I am a HUGE Garmin in Reach fan but if the spots works stick with that for now. DENNY

I have not hit the button intentionally, but have been on the other end....

I had a first generation spot, actually two. Gave one to a friend and threw the other in the trash. They were obviously not ready for prime time... at least not for a patience challenged individual such as myself... I figured self reliance was a better tool, and swore I'd never own another.

Fast forward several years, I was in the barn working on the cub when I got a text message. It was not only from an odd number, but from a weird prefix, so I almost didn't even look at it, except I caught the word Cylinder...

So after piquing my interest, I opened it, and it said "do you have a spare O-320 cylinder and can you get it to the Grand Canyon.

That was enough to catch my attention, so I replied "Who is this?"

Turns out it was a very near and dear friend of mine. He primarily resides near Wickenberg, AZ but summers in Nampa, ID and runs his exp Cub up there every year to have handy.

This time he was over the Grand Canyon when a cylinder let loose. As luck would have it, he hit nearest, like we all would do, and there happened to be an old mine in his database that he had dropped in on in the past, and it was a mile or so from his location. He dead sticked in, and the landing was uneventful, but the location was not exactly peachy.

His text's came through and as I digested the information, I concluded that although I had a set of O-320 cyl's, and he was surely welcome to one or all, perhaps it'd be best if I just flew up and got him. I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, and I would certainly forget something ? ring compressor, oil, heck I dunno... I was just certain that waiting a day or two to plan it out would be better than grabbing a jug and hitting the road..

Turned out to be a really good call, (totally accidentally though) because G's motor is actually an O-340. And while they are technically O-320 Jugs, the skirts on the pistons are actually clearance for the longer stroke... what a mess we could have made We agreed the best plan was to secure the cub, and return better equipped.

So his track and coordinates came through, and not two hours later I was parked next to him in my 180. This is in a hole in the Grand Canyon!
A night there would have been easy peasy. A few days without water would have been a different story. That weekend he had secured the proper cylinder, and enough tools to build a cub, and we went back. He installed, and I learned. He is an amazingly talented pilot and mechanic, so I knew that trying to help, would yield nothing more than a missed opportunity to learn.

The next time we chatted he sung the praise of the in reach , and while I'm sure he was just trying to put a bug in my ear, he really didn't have to... The events of that trip were enough to convince me... I use mine way more than I would have though. Very handy tool!

Prior to the in reach I always carried a hand held on me. I once cartwheeled a cub on the nelchina. landing on it's top trashed the comm antenna and I wasn't too hip on firing up the electrics anyways, as all the fuel was trickling out of the caps. But with the handheld I was able to talk to a passerby 172, who was heard by a trooper in a cub. Not 45 minutes from upside down to having both a top cub and an R44 parked next to me. Caught a ride to Palmer with the 44 to tend to a busted wrist.
Radio worked, but the in reach is an infinitely better tool.

Take care, Rob

Thanks, guys. I could read these stories all day. It does this temporarily medically-grounded flatlander a world of good. More, please!

BCP is the best aviation site on the internet!

StuBob wrote:FWIW, my son used a SPOT Gen 3 driving from Soldotna to Indianapolis. It worked without a hitch, all the way up to Tok. I know it supposedly doesn't work that far north, but he did it twice. . . .*shrug*

Both 1st/2nd GEN SPOTs worked, they just did so very intermittently, not something you want from a device that was supposed to be keeping track of where you are.
My wife got a little upset on one of my trips from Nome to Anchorage when my position never changed from over the Yukon River after several hours. Unfortunately, i did not "update" my position before i shut it off after landing. I also did not call her immediately, because after all, i had a SPOT. So instead, i got the plane fueled, tied down and squared away, got a rental car and went to the hotel before checking in. So, about 6 hours after leaving, i finally called a very unhappy wife. Needless to say, it was the last time i made that mistake.

slowhawk wrote:My wife got a little upset on one of my trips from Nome to Anchorage when my position never changed from over the Yukon River after several hours. Unfortunately, i did not "update" my position before i shut it off after landing. I also did not call her immediately, because after all, i had a SPOT. So instead, i got the plane fueled, tied down and squared away, got a rental car and went to the hotel before checking in. So, about 6 hours after leaving, i finally called a very unhappy wife. Needless to say, it was the last time i made that mistake.

… So it turns out there’s a learning curve to this stuff, right I mean who'da thunk?You are not alone.

The summer before last our northern travels hit a similar such snag. The way it started was that my better half’s time was somewhat limited that year. Now she has made this trip many times, and her suggestion was brilliant, “ you fly the 180 up, pick me up a few days later at the Millennium, we bomb around for a couple weeks and you drop me off at the airport and come back at your leisure”

What could go wrong with a plan like that right?

A good friend overheard at some point during the planning stages, and being quicker than the average Joe, he piped up “heyyyy…. that means you have an empty seat on the way to AK doesn’t it ? “

Now T, is as close a friend as I tend to have, but sitting inches away from someone for days on end is about as testing an accomplishment as it get’s for me. Never the less I was not terribly worried, because I knew that T had just married, and was reasonably sure our travels wered scheduled around the same time as his honeymoon. I also knew that T was aware that for all intents and purposes my 180 is a 2 seater, so any notion of 3 (bringing his wife) of us sitting inches apart for days on end would be out much less 4 of us piling in at Anch…

Somehow my good buddy manages to sweet talk his bride into hoping a smoker to Anch. solo on their honey moon while we road trip in grand style in the 180 with the plan for me to drop him off when I pick up my gal. I have no idea how sweet you have to talk to get your bride to head out for her honeymoon solo

The trip was a total book worthy adventure, but the leg that ties in to this thread was the hop from Watson lake to Whitehorse, specifically the last little bit. I had spotted several stone sheep along the way, but they were always on my side, and we were running late if we had any hopes of clearing customs that day. Consequently I just kept the hammer down and my poor flying bud wasn’t getting much Nat Geo action.

Coming from that direction there is a fairly benign ridge just before the airport which generally blocks your radio from the tower and if you have any of our bad habits your radar return is lost in ground clutter. Never the less we pop up just enough as we approach the ridge to call the tower with our intentions, and just as he gives us a typical "report xxx” clearance I spy a band of sheep low on the mountain and on T’s side. I’m moving along at a good clip and he didn’t have a chance at a photo op, so against my better judgement I circled left, dropped the nose and skimmed along the lake below at tree top level. Coming around the corner I set T up for a good angle and he gets a few fabulous shots of the majestic beasts.

As he tries his darnedest to get me to come around for another I remind him that
A) the tower is expecting me inbound, which I’ve already totally deviated from, and
B) we are fairly close to a city (These things harbour sierra club types who just might construe circling a band of sheep more than once as harassment) and
C) if we hope to cross the border today at all, we need to get down, file Eapis, flight plan, yada yada yada before the customs guys quit coming out to Northway for the day. We still thought we'd check in at PAOR, which turned into another book worthy mess.... but I digress

So up we pop, over the hill, at pretty much a full tilt run for the numbers to arrive semi close to when the y were expecting us. All works out well, we land hot yet short, make the exit for the tower, shut down at the transient under the tower and beeline for the restaurant, to use the internet.

To qualify why the rush to get through customs on this day, My sweetheart would be boarding her flight to Anch shortly after we made it to Whitehorse, and she was really not hoping to spend any amount of time stuck in anchorage while I was out galivanting around the boonies… So in reality we were pushing the time limit for a controller and a wife or two

Airplane secured we cross the street to stuff pie in our faces and file various border crossing necessities … but now lets turn to my wife…

Coleen has been tracking our progress since we left. While burning the obligitory 2 hrs. in pre boarding at Sky harbour she followed us on the leg from Watson to Whitehorse. Complete with altitudes and speed I get an earful about those two later as she followed us on the Skagway to Yakutat leg… But on this stretch she notices how low we aproach the mountain just short of Whitehorse and just as she is expecting a climb followed by descent to land we begin a descending turn away from Whitehorse and down over the lake… and then the bread crumbs stop. She thinks, well… it must have skipped a beat and in 10 minutes or whatever it will send another. But a few 10 minutes later it hasn’t started back up again. and now they are getting ready to board… Now panic is starting to set in as she finds her seat and knows they are soon going to ask her to turn off the phone Panic setting in she calls G, the buddy that texted me from the bottom of the Grand Canyon with his in reach the year before. G knows the route, and has spent a life employed bush flying in GA surely he’d be able to shed some light on this.

Much to Coleen’s dismay, G had been one of the few I shared my in reach trip with and the first words out of his mouth were “ya know… that just doesn’t look right” and at that moment, Ladies and Gentlemen, it is now time to please secure all telephones and eletronic devices for our depature to Anchorage Coleen is not amused. G says he’ll work on it some and they will touch base again when she lands or can make phone calls. He is convinced that the mountain was shrouded in cloud and we turned away to poke through from another direction, possibly landing out to wait out Wx, but will verify. Coleen wants to know why the last ping is in the lake.

It’s funny how panic can snowball (or not) and as soon as they let people turn devices on, Coleen is looking at her phone screen, which is now showing almost no charge left, and the snowball is growing… In a Hail Mary last ditch effort Coleen snatches the flight attendant and begins her story red from anger but welling up with tears. Stewardess has a soft spot left in her heart and says we have a younger Captian, and he’s a techy one perhaps he’ll look at your phone and help shed some light… it’s probably othing to worry about .

Captain looks at the phone and hands it to stewardess saying… “ya know…. that doesn’t look right" the snowball is getting too big to fit in a flying aluminum tube, but just as it’s about to burst the Capt, sends the stewardess back for a tail number, as his interest was piqued as well. Evidentally he has reached contact with Whitehorse and described the scenario. They haven’t had any overdue, and after giving them teh tail number, they confirm they have visual, as the aircraft is parked right below them in transient.

Yes… in our haste to make customs we beelined from the mountain to the parking and immediately upon landing shut everything down without a quick text to announce our safe arrival, and before it updated with it’s next ping Last one being over the lake.

Tristan made it it a most memorable honeymoon Rob.. well suffice it to say it didn’t start out like one, but great fun was had after bribing the wife back to a happy place again

Do the less than manly thing and read the instructions if you buy one of these things…. Twice


Take care, Rob

Rob wrote: Coming from that direction there is a fairly benign ridge just before the airport which generally blocks your radio from the tower and if you have any of our bad habits your radar return is lost in ground clutter.

I know exactly where you are talking about.

Rob wrote:Do the less than manly thing and read the instructions if you buy one of these things…. Twice

And don't assume they are working the way they are supposed to.

Enjoyed the story.

My last flight down from Alaska was during the Summer, lots of forest fires, lots of smoke, and a tight schedule. Made a couple attempts to get up the hill from Skagway, but too much smoke. Finally, late afternoon, winds changed a bit so i figured i would try again. Texted the wife after updating the various agencies and started up the hill again. hazy towards the pass, but a couple miles vis now and made it over with a few hundred to spare. Customs at Whitehorse and no phone service, didn't have the SPOT either, ouch! Finally stopped at Ft Nelson for the night and got to a hotel to go through the involved process of making a long distance, international phone call, i already new i was in trouble

Man Rob, you should write a book. What a great story. Be great to buy you a beer and listen to some stories sometime. Or next time you head to Alaska you should stop in, I have grass camping and a bed and bathroom in my hangar. That offer stands for any of you guys coming through Alberta.