What Is Your Most Unusual Find

[rgr84]

This is the rest of the story from one of our ELT searches that we prosecuted. 

From: Russ Hensley
Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 10:50 AM
To: KYWGMISSIONS@LSV.UKY.EDU
Cc: 'Guy Loughridge (guy01@tacticalmapping.com)'; 'kycap4@hotmail.com'
Subject: 07M1891 CLOSED- UPDATE OCTOBER 2007 - Buckhorn, KY



All:



We do not often have the opportunity to circle back and close missions on "unresolved" AFRCC missions.   I have some information to pass along..



In mid-October last fall AFRCC had an ELT in SARSAT that went negative pass which closed the mission. Then two days later was heard by pilots near Hazard, KY and subsequently again received by SARSAT and we went to mission again on this new data.    KY Wing Civil Air Patrol spent a week on the ground and were assisted by Ky Army National Guard with OH-58 helicopter support in the area and Ky Emergency Management supplied assistance with Search Dog teams from the area as the mission persisted.



We closed this mission as unresolved because on the ground a large High Voltage transmission line transverse the area and was overloading the Direction Finding equipment on the ground and there were no missing people, no missing aircraft and no signs of anything from a crash.  We felt we did our best and closed with AFRCC.



Last weekend, the local postmaster in Buckhorn was hunting in the area where we narrowed the search down.   He located the attached ELT.   He contacted the Squadron Commander for Civil Air Patrol and we recovered it last night.   I spoke with AFRCC last night and they had no way to research the beacon.



I sent an email to the manufacturer of the beacon in ENGLAND.   I was contacted this morning by their US rep in TN.     They knew exactly what it was that we have.   A Sikorsky S-92 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikorsky_S-92)  was en-route from PA to TX on some flight certifications and maintenance.   En-route, the pilots started to "flight test" the aircraft.   



The control unit for emergency beacons on the aircraft measure multi-axis G-forces, exposure to water, etc.   Apparently, one of the axis of the units exceeded the G-force rating and the EXTERNAL MOUNTED FLOATING beacon was ejected from the aircraft because of the data inputs that it had on board.   The beacon is intended to be used in flights over water and to escape the aircraft on splash-down.  Hence, the beacon in the woods by itself.



The manufacturer is sending FedEX shipping information to retrieve the beacon since it is valued at over $2000.  They would like it back for lab testing to see what its current condition is and why that no 406 Mhz signal was transmitted.



Statistically, all of these issues and the fact that it was located and actually turned back in are astronomical.



As Paul Harvery would say, and now you know the rest of the story....



Capt. Russ Hensley, CAP

Incident Commander 1 of 3 (that ran this mission)



------------------------
GLR-KY-221
Blue Grass Senior Squadron
4136 Aviator Road, Suite 100, Lexington, KY 40510
Meetings 2nd and 4th Wednesday nights of each month
http://www.kywgcap.org/~ky221/
"First Day, First Find. Ever Ready!"
------------------------

[JC004]

I guess it isn't valued right if it didn't transmit its 406 signal, huh?   

I've had quite a number of entertaining missions - UDF being the most entertaining, in my opinion. 

- I've DF'd from the roof of the airport Marriott at PHL
- located an EPIRB on a Greek oil rig at Sunoco @ Port of Philadelphia (even with the 406 data, the captain still denied it was him for quite a while)
- DF'd from the ramparts at Fort Mifflin in the middle of the night
- Had a couple with two ELTs going off at the same time (one was an aircraft at PHL, with the second signal coming from a boat that was going back and forth all day long, several miles up the river)
- an ELT search the day of the squadron's big move.  The last of the boxes had just been taken off the u-haul truck when the commander's pager went off.  That turned out to be a distress in the end.
- PennSTAR (University of Pennsylvania medevac)
- NBC 10's helo
- some boater's garage in suburbia. The occupants were away.  But we did leave a hilarious pattern of boot tracks in the snow, in a circle around the person's house. 
- a Philadelphia Police helicopter
- an ELT at a small airport, about 2 hours from where we were (at an airshow). Shortly after we found it, the squadron commander at that airport's unit showed up and said "what are YOU guys doing here?" I was wondering the same.
- an ultralight in a trailer, which had just been purchased by a guy who was drunk when we found it.  He didn't know anything about flying, but he wanted to have an ultralight, so he bought it.  It was parked in his driveway.  The "ELT" was actually an EPIRB attached with wire ties.  It was Halloween and we were walking around suburbia in BDUs.  That went well.  The guy was totally dismayed when we arrived, told him why we were there, and told him that we and an aircrew had been looking for him.  He wanted to know how much it was going to cost.  He also offered us candy and his wife kinda handled things because he was a little too intoxicated to deal.  He said a lot of entertaining stuff, but the best was "So that's what that red light was."

There are others, but those are some of my favorites.  I've got a lot of mission time, and lots and lots of ELTs/EPRIBs.  We have the 10th largest airport in the world in terms of aircraft activity and the largest freshwater port in the world.  A lot of little orange boxes float around here.

[JohnKachenmeister]

My strangest was a couple of months ago.

Tracked a 121.5 signal to a house in Sanford, FL.  Carrier signal, no siren.  The owner denied all the usual sources, ELT, EPIRB, PLB, or "I've fallen and I can't get up" button.

We had him turn off his computer, cover his rain sensor with foil, shut off the TV, nothing worked.  Finally, I asked him to disconnect his Dish Network satellite dish.

Bingo.  Signal stopped.  Next 3 passes were quiet.  The Air Force was happy and we were happy.  The dude couldn't watch TV until Dish Network could figure out what was wrong, but hey... 2 out of 3 aint bad!

[Eclipse]

1) In one of the aircraft from the Lima Lima flight team. (#56, actually)

2) In a suburban garage - ELT was in a box of parts from a wrecked plane, the battery date was something like 10 years old.
The owner had "moved the crate with parts earlier", and set off the inertial actuator.
Funny thing was that the wife had no idea and the husband knew >exactly< why we were there and took us straight to
the device.

3) In a barn in the middle of nowhereville.  Owner was building something experimental, but all he had was a bare frame of a fuselage, and an ELT on the shelf.  Apparently his son had been playing with it.

4) On a mechanic's bench after being removed because it was "defective".  He replaced the battery but pinched a wire on closing the cover.  I have a photo of the ELT sitting right next to a scanner which he failed to use.  Since this was my first find,  happened on my birthday, and was my second mission to complete GTM, I didn't mind. 

[SJFedor]

A few months ago at the NIFA SAFECON National Finals in Smyrna, TN. Made the find in a C-152 belonging to the ERAU-Prescott flight team (defending champs). Cracked me up that they had a big sign in the front windscreen that said "AIRCRAFT SECURED". Guessing that it either tripped post-flight, as they were doing their spot landing competition pretty late. Either that or some winds rocked the plane just the right way.

Boy, were they surprised to see myself and my MO walk in and say "yeah, can you please shut off your ELT?" 

I think they gave them a special award at the banquet for it, too. 

[BigMojo]

Last night we found one in an aircraft that had crashed the day before and had been moved to a "holding facility" to be reconstructed for the NTSB investigation. My best guess is that when they dropped it off the trailer into this warehouse, the shock set off the ELT again...

Here's the story on the plane: http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/south/epaper/2008/07/22/0722planecrash.html

By the way...you'll see a hole below the vertical stab., and the ELT antenna just forward of that...had to reach through that hole to get to the ELT, because the access panel and all other access was blocked and in-passable.

Oh, the pilot (only occupant) lived, with only a broken face, some cuts and a concussion...amazing given the wreck.