Backcountry Pilot

[electricsnail offline]

Ok Guys This is cool. I don't know if anyone saw this product in the new AOPA Mag but it's called SPOT. It is the coolest PLB i've ever seen and pretty reasonable priced. 169 gets the unit and then there is a 99 or 150 yearly fee. This unit allows your family and friends to see your position on google maps and you can set it up to check in and say i'm ok to loved ones. The unit will text them with your location. Also this unit lets you leave a trail reporting every ten minutes with your gps coordinates on google maps. You can ask for help from friends and family if it's not an emergency and if you need SAR you have a 911 funciton. It's accurate to 5 feet. The website http://www.findmespot.com has a ton more info. These guys were at the outdoor retailer show that i am attending this week. They even gave me a free one. Get one now before they find out how useful this is for pilots and increase the price (everything for airplanes has to be expensive). Sorry for the shameless shout but I think this product is great and will be ordering some to sell in my store. Lots of features that can give you and your family piece of mind and cheaper than flying most planes 3 hours!

Mike

[MarkGrubb offline]

Google "Spot and/or "5Z" on the newsgroup rec.aviation.soaring. The glider folks have been doing some useful and promising field research on this unit.

It does show great promise.

[retired user offline]

Looks like a great idea.

For 269.00 first year and 99.00 thereafter it would be cheap insurance. If SPOT goes buns up after a couple of years, you'll only be out the 169.00 plus what ever was prepaid on your plan. I guess you'll be somewhat married to SPOT and at their mercy for the annual plan, etc. but if they decide to jack rates, for 169.00, you could tell them to stick it. Globalstar sat phones kinda' comes to mind (just add a zero ).

Only downside to these things being so cheap is I could see every exec's wife having one in their beemer and hitting the 911 button when they break a nail or spill their latte' while on the expressway.

[retired user offline]

There is a post from December that Matt and G3 did about their SPOTS.

Yup, and here it is...