Plane down in Montana

[Short Field]

FYI - CAP's Mountain Flying Course is based on Imeson's book on mountain flying.

Anyone in CAP working on this?     


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Force joins search for missing Helena airplane and pilot
BY MARTIN J. KIDSTON
Independent Record

UPDATED 1:45 p.m.
A search and rescue crew from Malmstrom Air Force Base arrived in Helena shortly after noon today to join the hunt for a missing Helena pilot and his plane.

Sparky Imeson's Cessna 180 disappeared from radar in rugged terrain roughly 18 miles northwest of Bozeman around 2:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Search crews with the Montana Department of Transportation's aeronautics division spent this morning searching the east slope of the Elkhorn Mountains, where a cellular tower picked up a signal from Imeson's phone shortly after the plane dropped off Bozeman radar.

"For the phone to receive that call, he'd have to be in that general location," said Mike Rogan, aviation support officer for MDT. "It was the closest tower. Someone tried to call him, but no one answered."

http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2009/03/18/news/state/16-missing.txt

[tarheel gumby]

Asheville Composite Squadron conducts a Mt Flying Clinic once a year, called Mt. Fury.
There is information about on the Squadron web site @ www.ashevillecap.org
The information is listed under the emergency services section.

[Short Field]

^^^Sparky is mentioned on page two
http://www.ashevillecap.org/Downloads/Mountain_Fury.pdf

A few books by Sparky Imeson
Mountain Flying, 1970
Mountain Flying Bible, 1998
Mountain Fury - Mountain Search Pilot Course Guide with CAP, 1999
Mountain Fury - Search Pilot Qualification Course with CAP, Ground School Handout, 1999
Mountain Fury - Search Pilot Qualification Course with CAP, Course
Mountain Flying Bible - Expanded, 2001
The Shirt Pocket Mountain Flying Guide, 2003

[Short Field]

Does anyone know if CAP is involved in the search???  I know there were a lot of search flights conducted today but don't know if CAP was flying.  He was carrying SPOT.

[RiverAux]

It seems they've got it narrowed down pretty well based on cell phone and radar data, which is probably why they brought in an AF helicopter. 

Not a particularly good sign for Montana Wing if they weren't called in, but it looks like the state likes to do these things themselves. 

[ltcmark]

He was carrying SPOT.

What is SPOT?

[es_g0d]

More likely a helicopter was sent because they're a Rescue Flight stationed there as missile support for Malmstrom AFB.  They were likely the closest with the, quickest response time, so CONUS AFRCC likely called them first.

SPOT is a handy little device.  Read about it at www.findmespot.com

[sardak]

What is SPOT?

SPOT is a handy little device.  Read about it at www.findmespot.com

And in at least a half dozen threads here on CAPTalk, with some good discussion comparing SPOT with 406 MHz beacons.

CAP is involved in the search.

Mike

[Short Field]

No mention of CAP in the news releases.
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Massive search to begin again at Thursday morning
By MARTIN J. KIDSTON
Independent Record

UPDATED 7:45 p.m.
HELENA � Despite a massive search, mountain flight instructor Sparky Imeson and his Cessna 180 remained missing Wednesday night. The effort will begin again Thursday morning.

"It's difficult to look for something so small in a big forest that's white," said Ken Wilhelm, an air mechanic with the state aeronautics division, who flew a search mission early Wednesday.

"We're looking for an airplane either in the trees or in an open area," he added. "But the snow makes it very hard to find a white plane."

The plane piloted by Imeson, who survived a plane crash in the Elkhorn Mountains just two years ago, dropped off radar at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday after taking off from Bozeman.
The search for Imeson's Cessna began around 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, even though Bozeman radar lost contact with the aircraft at 2:30 p.m., shortly after it crossed the Horseshoe Hills about 18 miles northwest of Helena.

A cellular tower in the Elkhorn Mountains outside Helena picked up a signal from Imeson's phone after radar contact was lost, leading rescuers to believe he had traveled beyond the last known point of radar contact.

"For his phone to receive that call, he'd have to be in the general location," said Mike Rogan, aviation support officer for MDT, who piloted a search mission Tuesday night and again Wednesday morning. "It was the closest tower. Someone tried to call him, but no one answered."

Officials pored over relief maps of the area at the state aeronautics building, trying to track the pilot's path.

Jeanne MacPherson, the bureau chief coordinator who helped organize the search, said two planes launched from Helena early Wednesday, along with two out of Bozeman. The pilots traced the mountainous terrain, flying a low, zigzag path to gain a better view.

A search and rescue team from Malmstrom Air Force Base arrived to assist, followed by a team with the U.S. Border Patrol. Members of the Broadwater and Lewis and Clark county sheriff's departments carried out searches on the ground, along with the Montana Highway Patrol.

"We're just kind of moving into Lewis and Clark County and checking along the airway," said Lewis and Clark County Sheriff Leo Dutton late Wednesday.

"It's all an effort to rule things out, to make sure we're not missing anything," he said. "We're checking north of Helena and south of Helena just to make sure."

The snotel station at Tizer Basin, at 6,880 feet in the Elkhorn Mountains, showed a snow depth of 38 inches. Officials feared the snow would make it difficult to locate Imeson's white plane.

The snow and rugged terrain, which rises to nearly 9,000 feet, also made a ground search nearly impossible.

"You're looking for an airplane that could be in the trees," Wilhelm said. "It's all snow in here. You've got standing lodgepole trees. You've got downed trees. You've got short trees. Anything that looks straight on the ground, you look at it again and you see two trees lying at 90 degrees."

The search headquarters at the state's aeronautics division was a somber place Wednesday. Most of the searchers know Imeson. They said the veteran pilot had not filed a flight plan before leaving Bozeman.

Montana pilots, however, only need to file a flight plan if traveling more than 250 nautical miles. Radar suggests that Imeson was flying a direct route between Bozeman and Helena, a distance of roughly 60 miles with a course that would have taken him over the Horseshoe Hills near the Big Belt Mountains.

He was flying at an altitude of 6,700 feet when his plane disappeared from Bozeman radar. That, one expert noted, didn't necessarily mean he'd gone down at that location, but rather that he had entered a radar shadow cast by the terrain.

"Sparky is a great guy and I'm hoping for the best," said pilot Chuck Flynn, who flew Wednesday morning. "He's an active member of our local �hangar' of the Montana Pilot's Association."

Sheriff's offices around the state received a teletype message Tuesday saying a plane with one occupant had left Bozeman at 2:30 p.m., but failed to arrive in Helena.

Imeson, who authored the "Mountain Flying Bible and Flight Operations Handbook," survived a 2007 plane crash in the Elkhorn Mountains with another pilot.

Jon C. Kantorowicz, of Great Falls, was practicing canyon flying with Imeson at his side when a downdraft caught the plane. Kantorowicz said he tried to turn away from the hillside after the plane lost altitude but the engine stalled.

In that accident, Imeson suffered a compression fracture to his back, along with broken ribs, a broken toe, and cuts to his head. He attempted to walk out of the mountains before being located by search crews and rescued by helicopter.

[Gunner C]

It sounds like they called out everyone except CAP.  Any Montana folks on here for comment?

[RiverAux]

Plane found (no survivors) by AF helicopter.  http://www.montanasnewsstation.com/Global/story.asp?S=10031842&nav=menu227_2

[Gunner C]

Tragic.  The mountains are dangerous places, even for the best.

[Mustang]

His body was found in the wreckage of his C-180 Thursday morning. He had departed Bozeman, MT enroute to Helena, Montana Tuesday.

Sparky was one of the primary contributors to CAP's Mountain Fury mountain flying course.

http://www.aopa.org/aircraft/articles/2009/090318sparky.html

[Eclipse]

http://captalk.net/index.php?topic=7489.0

[Flying Pig]

Was he a CAP member?  Or just a big contributor because of his mountain experience?