Find Today - Was a Boat (Revised)

[etodd]

Interesting afternoon in the plane chasing a ELT beacon. Becker took us right to the area and we had it narrowed down to a few hundred feet. Circled while the ground team headed our way, looking down through the trees for any sign of a crash. Scattered homes about. Directed the ground team to the location where we thought it would be. Turned out to be in a boat, sitting on supports in a salvage yard with a few dozen other old yachts. It was one of those floating kind, with beacon, and also white flashing light at the top. You just never know what you'll find a search. LOL

Best part, we had nine Cadets on the ground team, getting real world experience and a successful Find.

[Fester]

"one of those floating kind"

Shouldn't you know what they're called?  Being an SET and all....

[baronet68]

My first find, we were sent out on a windy, stormy night to "go find a boat".  AFRCC was getting a signal on 243MHz from the vicinity of a well-known boating community surrounded on three sides by water and marinas... and the Coast Guard was tied up elsewhere so we were the only asset in the area. 

No problem, we headed to the first marina and found the signal was coming from the north, in the direction of another marina.  So, we headed over there but the signal was now pointing toward the southwest in the direction of the third marina.  We go to the third and final marina but the signal was now coming from the east...

Pulled out a map (for the first time that night) and realized all three signals crossed perfect at the AIRPORT located in the middle of the peninsula.   

Our "boat" ended up being an old T-6 Texan that had been bumped too hard in the windstorm.  Lessons were learned that night. 

[CAP9907]

You just never know what you'll find a search. LOL

Yes, we do know what we can find.. because we train for it.  We have a large coastline and 33% of our searches result in EPIRB finds.. this should not be unusual for Wings with water in their vicinity. But good work for your successful prosecution of that tasking.

~9907

[etodd]

Yes, we do know what we can find.. because we train for it.  We have a large coastline and 33% of our searches result in EPIRB finds.. this should not be unusual for Wings with water in their vicinity. But good work for your successful prosecution of that tasking.

99% of the boats within 150 miles of me, are bass boats and jon boats. Very few off these guys carry around a ELT of any kind.  The boat of our search was hauled from the coast awhile back, and placed in a salvage yard. LOL

But anyway, the best part of the whole deal, as I said above, was watching all these Cadets, most on their first real mission, getting some real experience, and finding what they were called out to do.  It was a great day for them.

[Eclipse]

And I'm sure all those cadets were fully qualified and / or the teams were configured properly to comply
with the trainee-to-SET ratio, right?

etodd, here's the problem with the "aw shucks, I'm just in it for the mission and the kids..." and the "what did you
fellers call the noisey-maker thingy on a boat? A reverb?" posture, it calls into question the credibility and capability of
everything you post, including your beloved UAV stuff, not to mention the organization itself.

One minute you want to be treated as an "insider with up to the second info" and the next you're posting like
a slick-sleeve new member with "getinthegameitis", despite the fact that you claim to be an MP and ESO (among other things).

You gotta pick one vector, seriously, or just don't bother posting.

[NIN]

Exactly how was he supposed to know that, Bob?

Unfortunately now I picture etodd sounding like Jeff Foxworthy on the FM from the plane:

" Hey, there, 'scuse me, Ground Team Leader fella. While we're circling around up here wait'in on y'all to get over to this here place, just want to confirm all y'all are ground team qualified and got your 101 cards on ya, right?  An' and there's enough adults fer the kids, right?  When you guys git over here where we're circlin', after you get out of the van just hold up your 101 cards and we'll fly kinda low so we can see 'em from the airplane, just to make sure."

The guy is trying to say "hey, we did a good thing today, and people got trained and learned some things."

Give the guy a break. Not every mission in Alabama looks just like one in Illinois.

Try to remember that.

[Eclipse]

^ Um, proper training?

Boats have EPIRBS and people have PLBs. Trainee ratio is something anyone purporting to be an instructor
should have tattooed on the back of their hand, and no one with common sense should be launching
a ground team with 9 cadets - that basically means they didn't have enough GTLs or their TTS ratio
was broken.

Do I know for sure?  Of course not, but the 20 on my RSR says "more then likely".

As to training ratio comment, my >point< was that the general "aw shucks" attitude about uniforms,
regs, and anything else he's decided to be "no big deal man" means a lot of people reading that
post didn't go to "cool story bro", they went to "dude doesn't know what's on a boat, and 9 cadets on a GT?  Guarantee that sortie was wack..."

You can't tout numbers like that, without also raising the questions, even if only the "that guy" types will raise the issue.

[NIN]

You're being pedantic. THE GUY WAS IN THE AIRPLANE, NOT ON THE GROUND.

Also, maybe the term of reference in his part of Alabama is "the ol' radio thingamajiggy."

Once again, the ENTIRE REST OF THE WORLD DOES NOT LOOK/FEEL/ACT/SMELL OR DO CAP LIKE NORTHERN ILLINOIS.

Give it a rest, or take a 24 hour "tactical pause" on your posting. Your choice.

And you say "aww shucks" and make me think of Jeff Foxworthy again, and I might make it longer.

[etodd]

... 9 cadets on a GT?

Call went out and 9 hands were raised. Enough Seniors to handle it. Why in the world would we tell any of those Cadets to stand down? A chance for real mission experience ending in a successful non-distress find.

Stand down? Nope. Not our Squadron. Bring them on. Teach them, and let them go for the ride.

[PHall]

... 9 cadets on a GT?

Call went out and 9 hands were raised. Enough Seniors to handle it. Why in the world would we tell any of those Cadets to stand down? A chance for real mission experience ending in a successful non-distress find.

Stand down? Nope. Not our Squadron. Bring them on. Teach them, and let them go for the ride.

You stand down if you don't have enough qualified Ground Team Members and a Ground Team Leader to accomplish the sortie and to train the trainees.

[NIN]

Whole lot of assumptions going on here, guys.

https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/the_benefit_of_the_doubt

Unless you were the GOBD or IC on that mission, you're speculating.