Question about stateside SAR. Emergency response using the Archer.

[172rgpilot]

several years ago there was a post about a John Deere System that fits on Cessna 150/172/182 aircraft.  The system was developed by a company, GeoVantage.(see http://captalk.net/index.php?topic=2221.new#new )  Since that post GeoVantage has bought  back the business from John Deere and has further developed this surveillance system.  Including very high res, NIR 7 at 6000 ft, Stereo, and a new thermal variant coming on line.  Any wing/national level guys reading this post are encouraged to contact me for more information or even a demo.  apologies for the gratuitous promotion, but sometimes things that work and are a fraction of the cost of other systems need grass-level promotion from the guys who actually use the hardware.

james@geovantage.com

[Paradoc]

Speaking only for myself as a new mission pilot, I think this looks pretty cool.  CAP does way more photo missions than SAR missions these days.  This would be GREAT for flood/river/infrastructure photo missions.  I suspect the utility for SAR missions is probably not as good unless it had IR and ability to process/display images in flight.  The pictures on the website are way better than most of the pics we shoot out of the window with an SLR.

Question for the other CAP folks... would there be a policy problem with using this on a CAP airplane?  I realize it would probably require massive effort to get CAP national to buy in... but what if a squadron or wing wanted to demo/purchase it?  Assuming it doesn't require any modification to the aircraft other than bolting it to the step.  Is this any different from using a personal camera during a mission?

Jim

[PHall]

Any wing/national level guys reading this post are encouraged to contact me for more information or even a demo.  apologies for the gratuitous promotion, but sometimes things that work and are a fraction of the cost of other systems need grass-level promotion from the guys who actually use the hardware.

james@geovantage.com

Or you could do what normal companies do and contact National directly and make your sales pitch to the Ops folks.
At least that way you would be sure they know about your product.

[bosshawk]

I concurr with Phil Hall, contact NHQ.  There is a section under ops that is called Advanced Development and they are the folks who do this kind of stuff.  In another life, they actually bought and developed ARCHER.  However, the folks who brought CAP that wonderful system are no longer around and I think that the current crew is actually fairly good.

I would be very interested in more data, not that I am active in CAP any longer.  I spent over 40 years in the imagery business, both for government and private industry.  How about a PM with more data?  Can't say that I can cause any sales, but I could point you in the right direction.