Prepared Pilot wrote:I'm sorry it took me so long to respond to this post but I wanted to have the facts before I did.

Coyote Ugly wrote:Got a call yesterday from the local Sheriffs Office, ...
They also told me that they had no officer on duty, and no one was available to drive the ambulance, and if I knew where Peterson Station or the hot spring was, and I would drive out there to see what's up.

Good job Coyote Ugly! I'm glad you were there. With no officer available and no one to drive the ambulance it sounds like they would have been in a world of hurt with out you!

Coyote Ugly wrote:I was just wondering about a couple of things...
What if I hadn't know where the hot springs were? Would a deputy have recognized that 40 year old name, if he was on duty? What about how to find him with Township and Range....Does Spot wait awhile before calling the local S.O. or did the S.O. sit on it for awhile?

I do not know when the injured person first pushed the 911 button on his SPOT but GEOS (the SPOT call center) received the first 911 message from the messenger at 1757 gmt which I believe would have been 10:57 am local time. Here is some more of the time-line.
10:58 GEOS called the first emergency contact phone number listed for the messenger but did not reach anyone
10:59 They called the second emergency number and left a voice mail
11:01 They called the third emergency number and reached a person. They collected as much information as possible that could be pertinent such as where the person was going, what they were doing, description of the person, pertinent medical history etc.
11:03 GEOS called the local sheriff dispatcher for the county where the distress call was coming from and gave all the collected information as well as the GPS coordinates to the dispatcher.

So within 6 minutes of receiving the distress call the appropriate responding agency had been notified of the emergency.

At 12:15 GEOS called the Sheriff department for an update and was told there was no update available yet.

At 12:49 GEOS called the Sheriff again and was told that the injured party had been picked up and was being transported in a private vehicle.

I do not know what happened between the time GEOS first alerted the Sheriff Department of the emergency and the time Coyote Ugly was notified. This would not be a normal situation for the Sheriff Department to deal with. More often dispatchers are given a street address or intersection for deputies to respond to. It probably took some time for the dispatcher to determine where the the GPS coordinates where as well as figure out the place names and township and range coordinates. It probably took some time to determine that there was no officer available and no one to drive the ambulance. Maybe it took some time to come up with the idea of calling Coyote Ugly.

Coyote Ugly wrote:It really occured to me, that we fly in some really out of the way places, and even with this new technology, it may take quite a while for help to arrive, even after everyone knows where we are. I'm thinking that really, in most of the places, it will be at least a day or more.

Excellent point. I have been on many SAR missions where even though we had well trained rescuers and knew the GPS location of the injured person it took many hours to get to them. If the weather or terrain prevents flying it can take a long time to hike to some locations. It is exactly the more rural and remote parts of our country that have the fewest resources to deal with emergencies like this. They just do not have the funds to keep a large well equipped rescue team on standby and instead rely on volunteers.

Another poster mentioned that a PLB may have gotten help quicker. I doubt it would have changed the time line very much. Instead of GEOS calling the Sheriff Dispatcher it would have been the AFRCC. Other than that it probably would not have been significantly different.

Thanks again to Coyote Ugly and all the other volunteers out there that help keep us safe!


Rob Hunter
Prepared Pilot

qmdv wrote:After reading all of this I think that a Spot is going into my Stocking at Christmas. I will have used it a few times by then though. Also I am ging to stock my flying vest with snacks etc.

Does Prepared Pilot have a BCP deal going?

Tim