PeterO wrote: "Night time conditions could explains a protracted search or maybe the beacon didn't have GPS capability and they were trying to find a kayak within a km or two radius rather than a 100m radius that beacons fitted with GPS are said to offer." ----- A long time ago -- just after they invented lift -- I was a CSAR helicopter pilot in the U.S. Navy. For all kayakers who count on "beacons" -- even the most sophisticated GPS-capable EPIRBs out there -- as our last line of defense: think again. Yes, basic EPIRBs can triangulate to a pretty small piece of water, and GPS can get down to meters, but those rescue pilots and aircrew still have to identify you from a lot of choppy, busy water. From 100 meters up, it ain't easy. Yes, thermal imagery can do amazing things and night vision goggles can be the playmaker for Coast Guard and Navy helo crews, but not all search aircraft or vessels are going to be equally equipped. It's very hard to separate a lot of confusing background from a human head or a kayak hull -- which may be periodically masked -- with the Mark I eyeball. It's like with the right-of-way discussions we have occasionally: guess what, to most ships and larger vessesls, we ain't there! So, while we review the advantages of different kinds of EPIRBs, let's not forget that the "last mile" of SAR is the human in the cockpit or the cabin identifying the survivor from the "noise" and maintaining visual contact on him/her on a sustained basis to affect a rescue. How we make ourselves visually viable is a subject for another thread -- and anyone who remembers the old days of PaddleWise will remember my rants on visual signals and passive visibility -- but it sorta lines up with our discussion of EPIRBs and the tragic loss of another kayaker. Did I ever mention the time I had to airlift an injured crewman from the deck of a nuclear submarine on the surface in hazy early morning light in the Med? It wasn't the crewman we couldn't see -- it was the bloody submarine we were in radio contact with that we couldn't find! Joq *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Wed Jul 07 2010 - 13:35:38 PDT
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