Hi all, long-time follower, first-time poster. While I haven't started my KR-2S project yet, I thank all of you for your dedication to this ongoing resource. I have read many great ideas and hints and will be doing frequent searches when the building starts.
I work as a Sheriff Deputy in California and am assigned as a pilot to our Air Support Unit. Having been in the unit for 7 years now, it is safe to say I have worked my fair share of downed aircraft and beacon alerts. The APRS discussion has been great and many folks have made some great points. >From my viewpoint, the 121.5 system was extremely unreliable. Easily, at least half the searches we conducted for downed aircraft were without any ELT activation - at least by the time we made it on scene. Generally, an aircraft was reported overdue. Authorities were notified and a search begun. This generally started with origination and destination airports. Then expanded to known course. Sometimes, the search was delayed hours or even days. Unfortunately, pilots have a habit of not filing flight plans anymore, so more likely than not the notification comes from friends or family. Even if we were lucky enough to pick up a signal, the 121.5 system required a very complicated search of the "alert area" because of the omni-directional signal and no equipment to zero in on it. As for the 406 system - it looks promising and will be a huge help for searchers because of the GPS reporting. I have had only one experience with the system so far - that being a camper in the Sierras experiencing chest pain and made notification via the "Spot" unit he had for the trip. We received instant notification and coordinates that were right on the money. Flew to the location and hoisted him out without searching or delay. As for APRS, let me just say that I was so impressed with its capabilities that I studied for and received my Technician license so I can operate one. My plan is to make one or two portables to carry while flying at work. We generally operate in remote terrain and without a flight plan or flight following (just the nature of the business). If we had a mishap, it could literally be forever before we were located if I was unable to activate my portable PLB. The interesting thing is that the APRS is a free version of commercial flight tracking systems that are becoming very popular and quite expensive. They offer everything APRS is capable of. The benefit is the live flight tracking. Even if the unit fails in a crash, the last point of contact is a much better place to start than pointing to a random place on the map. As a rescuer, I hope that someday one of my searches involves the APRS system. It would be of great benefit to pull-up an aircrafts flight before I begin a search. I know it would greatly assist in the location and can be nothing but beneficial. While I don't condone anymore gov't regulation, I would hope that all airmen see the benefit of this equipment and move to a volunteer adoption of installing and using it. By my experience, it is likely to be your friends and family that make the overdue report anyway, why not give them the tools and ability to track you and narrow the search information for the authorities. Think of it as a redundant system - when it comes to aircraft, you can never have too much of that. Oh yeah - I guess I would recommend a "Spot" also if you are of the outdoor adventurist type. Tim Caughron KR-2S plan holder caugh...@bak.rr.com
