Prepared Pilot wrote:
If you want to watch my flying progress as I fly home tomorrow you can see it at: http://share.findmespot.com/shared/gogl ... FOWZ0t1RAd

P.S. If after I depart O69 my forward progress seems to stop and multiple track points come from a place that is not an airport would you please tell the SAR team where to find me.

Rob talked a lot about the SPOT. (Not Monica's). When you hit the help button, I thought he said that an e-mail would automaticly be sent to five places of your choice. If so, could one of them be an automatic post BCP forum with a message along with Lat Lon.

If stuck in the Nevada Desert with a flat tire or somthing of that sort, a post to this forum would automaticly get a large contingent of the Reno and surounding are folks out to lend a hand. An e-mail to Zane would not help cuss he might be skiing in some far out of the way place.

Tim

Tim:

For either the Help function or the OK function you can list up to a maximum of ten e-mail and/or mobile device text message addresses. You can also customize the message sent up to 115 characters, but that must be done from a computer before you leave.

E-mail addresses get the message, the lat-lon and a link to Google Maps that show where the message came from. Mobile devices just get the message and the lat-lon.

I have found it pretty handy and reliable.

375HandH

Tim,
I see where you are going with the email but I think somebody would have to enter the message to the BCP forum. Unless there is a way Zane could figure how to make the email transfer your help message to a thread? I think at this point in time you need to send it to someone who can in turn post it to a thread which is still a good idea. If you set up more than one person the odds are with you it would happen, post quickly and help will be on the way.
Bill

There are many possibilities for how to leverage the Spot information.

Do you want the BCP community to simple get the link to the Spot map? There are ways to automatically display that page in a post. As for posting by email...the feature doesn't exist, I'd have to write it.

We don't want the forum to get overrun with "Spot" posts either, as it's a bit like crying wolf. You might put a link in your signature or profile to your Spot page as well.

Zane and I had briefly chatted about this via email and sort of concluded that a website like BCP is probably not the place to run an automated type of service. The problem would be, everyone has a different idea on what they want their SPOT to say in an ok or help message.

In the mean time, if you or your designated recepient wanted to share your track for a trip, you (or your DR) could always start a new thread and share the info or an image of the map.

If your designated recepient got a help message and was not able to respond, you could start a thread, looking for help from a fellow BCPer, that might be in the area, that would be able to do an overflight or ? and report back.

As jmtgt has pointed out there is also the beta version of a shared page that you can post a link to that is updated continuously until deactivated.

Maybe we should add a SPOT forum and see how it goes...

Like a pregnancy test, accuracy in reporting is paramount !

Testing to see if Rob's shared SPOT page can be embedded with an HTML IFrame. Rob maybe you can turn your unit on and let it report a few times so we can get some data.

Edited N6EA

To insert a link to your shared SPOT page, insert the following in your Signature:

1. Click "Profile" from the above right menu.
2. Find the Signature input area.
3. On a new line, use BBcode or HTML to build a link:

BBCode:

Code: Select all

[url="http://share.findmespot.com/shared...."]My SPOT Page[/url]

- or -

HTML:

Code: Select all

<a href="http://share.findmespot.com/shared....">My SPOT Page</a>

You'll need to paste in your SPOT shared page URL in place of "http://share.findmespot.com/shared...." in both examples.

5. Submit your profile.

I do not think anybody cares what my track is from point "A" to point "B" on some trip. Now if it is an epic trip then most people might be interested. I do not think that my cross country flight from PVD to O46 was epic. A trip to Guam may be epic.

I would not like to see the forum clutered with everbodies trip. But if I am OOC (out of comision) in central Nevada or elsware, I would like to push the help button and have my mesage magically appear on the BCP forum with Lat Lon.

This would be the fastest way to get help. If this is not posible then the mesage would go to a friend that would put a post in the forum.

This would be used for a flat tire etc not for a compound fracture.

Tim

PS any cries for help coming from Burning Man would be ignored

Tim

qmdv wrote:I do not think anybody cares what my track is from point "A" to point "B" on some trip. Now if it is an epic trip then most people might be interested. I do not think that my cross country flight from PVD to O46 was epic. A trip to Guam may be epic.

I would not like to see the forum clutered with everbodies trip. But if I am OOC (out of comision) in central Nevada or elsware, I would like to push the help button and have my mesage magically appear on the BCP forum with Lat Lon.

This would be the fastest way to get help. If this is not posible then the mesage would go to a friend that would put a post in the forum.

This would be used for a flat tire etc not for a compound fracture.

Tim

PS any cries for help coming from Burning Man would be ignored

Tim

This is exactly my sentiment as well. The track log from a gps makes a better "where I been" than a spot log. But I'd be happy to go fly over a SPOT "help" location in my neck of the woods if it showed up on this forum. As a SPOT user, I've been in sort of a quandary about how to instruct family if they get a "help" message, and I'm clear off in the next state.

tom

Ok, stay with us here. You don't have to click the link to see the track in somebody's signature if you don't want to. The track is on the SPOT sight, not here. It doesn't look like the embedded image works too well due to the lag at SPOT so I too would discourage embedding the image.

Does the SPOT send an email with the "Help" mode too? If it does we might build something like this where a thread is automatically generated. It would have be used sparingly though. No crying wolf if it's going to be taken seriously.

Some other concerns:

* How does your volunteer helper get notified that you no longer need help or have resolved the situation? Can you forward contact info like cell phone as well?

* How does the website avoid liability for dispatching an informal air patrol operation?

Lately I have been enduring a now and then starter problem. If I were to be at Grahm field in Idaho for a quirel shoot like last year and the starter crapped out I would hit the help button. All anybody would know is that I was at Grahm and needed help.

If for some reason because of star alignment, the thing cranked up, I could either hit the OK button and my wife would post to the forum that things were fine and to call off the help. Or could you then just check my track and see that I was either flying again or getting a probe on an alien space craft.

Tim

It needs to be as simple as possible. We don't want multiple respondents flying out to take parts to a guy.

If you want this thing posting to the forum, why have the HELP list, and vice-versa: Why post to the forum if you have a pre-defined list of helpers who will receive the email?

A guy who is not on your help list might try to assist you, takeoff, but never get the message that you let the line boy handprop it for you and you made it home ok, so now he's out burning gas to come assist you at the airport where you were, but aren't now.

As for bringing the wife into the mix....I dunno. A second person shouldn't be necessary to belay the call for help, especially if they aren't familiar with the forum usage, etc.

I'm not saying it's a bad idea, just that we keep it simple. Motorcitymaule would have been helped by having a SPOT, not necessarily by having the SPOT report to BCP.

An easy one to follow:

1 Tim is flying to Lake Powell for fun with his old buddied on a house boat.

2 He left too late and decides to camp at Ibex Hardpan.

3 Next morning plane will not start or I discover that tire is flat. The problem will not be specific.

4 I hit help.

5 It shoes up on the BCP forum and everbody sees that I need help at Ibex.

6 Patrole guy is concerned but he is in Ohio so he is not comming to my aid.

7 But alas, Rob Hunter sees the help and is looking for a way to burn 100LL in his thrifty 206, posts a reply and says that he can leave the next morning to see what is the problem.

8 Sombody else sees tht post and says he can leave in an hour and a half. So Rob does not come in the morning.

9 That sombody else shows up at Ibex with a cold drink and we fly back to his home base and get a new tire and tube, tools and more cold drinks. He also sends a post advising that all things are under controle

10 We fly to Ibex, fix the flat and that is it. If it were an on and off problem with the starter and it ended up starting, then I would hit the OK button.

11 Problem is that if I hit the Help, then resolve my problem and hit the OK, there is a posibility that folks could be in the air coming to help while I was sunning myself at Powell and looking at scantilly clad young babes.

Also note that I would not use the help if I was at a civilized place with internet. I would just use a standard post and see if anybody close had what I needed. This happened to me in Utah once at a not very busy airport and I just call a couple of guys, got Rob Hunters Number and he advised where to get the parts and offered to come help.

Tim

I believe you have deduced the flaw.
Airplane will not start, no other way to communicate but press Help button.
Both a txt message and a email will be sent to your selected receiver. I believe this individual has to manage the process?
Otherwise as indicated there could be over kill to respond. Hence Zane's cry of wolf!

The process manager can post the call for Help on the BCP site and manage the helpers. If the situation changes (she starts) you send an OK to process manager who in turn relays message to helpers.
The BCP site can help under certain conditions.

Correct me if I am wrong but unless someone manages the process it won't be of any help to post on the BCP site?

If it is 911 then SPOT takes care of sending the authorities and the process manager keeps helpers advised as to status.

So whats the problem if 5 of us show up to help, your buying beer for all of us.
I don't see a problem I almost always will fly for beer, if we have to do a little work before we drink that's ok too.

If i get there and your ok, that's even better your still buying the beer though and maybe cigars to.

Mr Scout has the right attitude. I need to fly over and see him. If you have ground squirels at your place you need to have a fly in.

Tim

There are a few incorrect assumptions on how SPOT works that are floating around in this thread that I will try to correct.

The effect of pressing the 911 button will not be visible to anyone here. It goes directly to the GEOS Alliance dispatch center. After an attempt to determine if it was an accidental alarm by making a few phone calls they pass on the information to the appropriate Search and Rescue Agency. The 911 messages do not go to any of the emails or phones that help messages go to nor do 911 messages get shown on the "share" feature. This was done on purpose to prevent lots of eager volunteers from getting in the way of professional rescuers.

It is easy to cancel a "Help" message. If your SPOT is in "help mode and sending help messages you press and hold down the help button for 5 seconds to send a cancel message. The green led will turn red and start flashing to alert you that it is sending the cancel message. The same people that received the help message will then receive a cancel message.

Right now the share feature only shows where the person has been for the past 24 hours. I've been in communication with the man who makes those kinds of decisions at SPOT and the time will be extended to one week beginning in June and later to 30 days.

The link to my shared page that is quoted in the top message has been changed. I deleted that share page. Sorry. My current one is: http://share.findmespot.com/shared/gogl ... kVpI3UzOeD

qmdv wrote:Mr Scout has the right attitude. I need to fly over and see him. If you have ground squirels at your place you need to have a fly in.

Tim

Mr Scout is now on my list of people to come to the aid of first...

Prepared Pilot wrote:There are a few incorrect assumptions on how SPOT works that are floating around in this thread that I will try to correct.

The effect of pressing the 911 button will not be visible to anyone here. It goes directly to the GEOS Alliance dispatch center. After an attempt to determine if it was an accidental alarm by making a few phone calls they pass on the information to the appropriate Search and Rescue Agency. The 911 messages do not go to any of the emails or phones that help messages go to nor do 911 messages get shown on the "share" feature. This was done on purpose to prevent lots of eager volunteers from getting in the way of professional rescuers.

It is easy to cancel a "Help" message. If your SPOT is in "help mode and sending help messages you press and hold down the help button for 5 seconds to send a cancel message. The green led will turn red and start flashing to alert you that it is sending the cancel message. The same people that received the help message will then receive a cancel message.

Right now the share feature only shows where the person has been for the past 24 hours. I've been in communication with the man who makes those kinds of decisions at SPOT and the time will be extended to one week beginning in June and later to 30 days.

The link to my shared page that is quoted in the top message has been changed. I deleted that share page. Sorry. My current one is: http://share.findmespot.com/shared/gogl ... kVpI3UzOeD

Rob,
Thanks for the input on how to cancel a call for help I for one was not aware of that feature.
Does the insurance feature cover all the beer, scotch and cigars I will need to buy?
How about that new vest you are designing, availability? and suggested sale price?
Thanks