Hi Duncan
Good question. My splash in the North Sea was more than a year ago now. I am
delighted to say I have flown a further 130 hours since in Megg my new Mono
To add to both your and David=99s earlier comments.
Being under a towering object (I.e. cliff) inhibits the signal.
HM Coastguard do have to contend with spurious and false alarm signals. Cons
equently they do, quite reasonably, execute checks on all phone numbers tha
t they have recorded for the pilot as well as contacting other organisations
, home airport, nearby airport before committing resources. Inevitably this t
akes time.
So whenever flying over the sea file a Flight Plan and have appropriate surv
ival kit ready.
The latest technology GPS PLB=99s identify position to within a few me
tres.
The older technology GPS PLB=99s less so. Sometimes many kilometres un
til further satellite passes are possible. If your existing PLB is more than
7 years old it is possibly worth revisiting its specification and comparing
it to the latest models.
Extract from final AAIB Report on GBYSA follows;
The pilot=99s PLB was equipped with a 406 MHz transmitter, which is de
tectable by satellites of the Cospas-Sarsat Programme. In order to determine
an approximate position of the activated beacon, more than one satellite pa
ss was required.
At 1036 hrs, a downlink from a satellite pass alerted the UK Aeronautical Re
scue Co-ordination Centre (ARCC) to the activation of the beacon. A further s
atellite pass at 1056 hrs was required to resolve the beacon=99s locat
ion in the approximate area of the accident. The ARCC attempted to contact t
he beacon=99s registered owner (the pilot) and made further enquiries,
to determine the nature of the incident and decide on the appropriate respo
nse1. At 1108 hrs, a land-based Coastguard rescue team was tasked to the are
a of the accident. This was followed later by the deployment of RNLI lifeboa
ts and a SAR helicopter.
The ARCC commented that GPS-enabled PLB=99s will generally allow much q
uicker location of the transmitter than those without this capability. Addit
ionally, the more information and, in particular, contact details that owner
s include when registering a PLB, the quicker the ARCC can respond and the h
igher the probability of them deploying the correct rescue assets.
Additional information on what happens when a PLB is activated can be found a
t
www.cospas-sarsat.int/en/
Regards
Bob
http://www.theeuropaclub.org/
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