Remote WA Crash, 25km walk for help

[tunagirll]

Broken EPIRB, wild dogs checking you out... not a great day.

Pilot who crashed in remote WA 'stalked by dingoes' on trek to safety - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) (http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-06/flight-crash-survivor-stalked-by-dingoes-on-trek-to-safety/6676130)

[YPJT]

good outcome to what could have been a very sad ending.

[Capn Bloggs]

Looking at the wreck, would a fixed EPIRB have done the trick?

[no_one]

Looking at the wreck, would a fixed EPIRB have done the trick?


Are you sure that he didn't have one? The article mentioned a broken epirb but didn't mention that is was fixed or portable. Perhaps it was a fixed one that was damaged in the crash....

[Popgun]

The story doesn't mention a GPS tracker...so I'm assuming he didn't have one.

It still astounds me that we have pilots flying remotely (or anywhere) without trackers. EVERY general aviator should be carrying one of these:

SPOT SATELLITE MESSENGER :: HOME PAGE (http://au.findmespot.com/en/)

To do otherwise is selfish to your loved ones...and irresponsible behaviour towards the taxpayer that will spend many more $$$ than necessary trying to find WTF you are!

PG

[onetrack]

He ought to buy a lottery ticket, that's some tiger country out there. What would have been the result if he hadn't been able to get a phone signal from the hills he knew about?
Nothing said about carrying water or survival equipment (it can go below 0 deg C out there, at nights, at this time of year).
What would have been the result if he'd been injured badly enough to stop him from walking? I have to agree with Popgun - even though this bloke was obviously experienced in the W.A. bush, the whole episode could have easily been another aviation fatality, with a couple of less-favourable events during the forced landing.
It's time for him to be a little less casual about the chances of disaster striking in remote areas.

[Aussie Bob]

To do otherwise is selfish to your loved ones...and irresponsible behaviour towards the taxpayer that will spend many more $$$ than necessary trying to find WTF you are!


Pure garbage!

[Pontius]

Old habits and all that but I pop my PLB in my pocket when I take to the skies or the seas. The boat obviously has a pucker EPIRB but this acts as a back-up and really isn't noticed, whereas I'm sure the EPIRB in my pocket would attract some attention. I don't fly too remotely but I don't think $350 is a bad investment, especially as you can use it in your car, boat, aircraft, rucksack etc etc.

This or something similar (http://www.gme.net.au/media/79204/MT410GAUS_d.jpg)

[Fred Gassit]

A portable beacon is probably not a bad idea, I've seen the fixed ones fail to activate (antenna cable torn away, inverted, outright destroyed) and activate on their own many times.
Of course the assumption is then that you would have time to set it off before you crash, or you are still physically able to afterwards.

[poteroo]

Probably lost the COM aerials in the crash, and maybe was a bit leery of switching the master back on. A hand-held VHF COM unit is something I always carry. Plenty of high altitude traffic on centre frequencies or 121.5 if you like.

My guess is that his external ELB aerial was also torn off by the bush as he scraped through it - and he didn't have a portable one carried inside the cabin.

The outcome was good, but leaving the wreckage and walking off that distance goes against all the advice on survival.

happy days,

[Derfred]

Meanwhile Australian taxpayers are spending 8-9 figures looking for a B777 which would have been located instantly if they had a $250 spot tracker on the dashboard.

[aldee]

Exactly :D

[Aussie Bob]

There is no doubt that Spot can be a useful thing. What stuns me is that the above posters think it would locate an aeroplane that was already full of million dollar electronics. Send Airbus a resume boys, they need your advice.

[Captain Dart]

Trouble is, Captain Cuckoo would have turned the spot tracker off or pulled its CB along with the other gear's.

Unless it was hard-wired 'on' and inaccessible of course.

[Squawk7700]

Meanwhile Australian taxpayers are spending 8-9 figures looking for a B777 which would have been located instantly if they had a $250 spot tracker on the dashboard.



There is no doubt that Spot can be a useful thing. What stuns me is that the above posters think it would locate an aeroplane that was already full of million dollar electronics. Send Airbus a resume boys, they need your advice.

Million dollar electronics? Really???

Do you know how few years ago that Qantas were still using non-GPS equipped 737's from Melbourne to Canberra and other short sectors? :oh:

The Malaysians were too tight to pay for any kind of tracking. A Spot tracker would have left a breadcrumb for MH370 that would have led searchers straight to it. What's so hard about that?

[601]

"There was no clear brakes at all," he said.

Maybe the ABC should send there staff back to school:=

[LeadSled]

A portable beacon is probably not a bad idea, I've seen the fixed ones fail to activate (antenna cable torn away, inverted, outright destroyed) and activate on their own many times.
Of course the assumption is then that you would have time to set it off before you crash, or you are still physically able to afterwards.

Folks,
The documented failure rate for fixed ELT (or whatever you want to call them) in actual practice is better (worse, really) than 95%.

Bloggs, before you dispute it, CASA figures. If you want them, go search them.Does anybody in their right mind think something with a 95%+ failure rate is likely to save your life, compared to a portable in your pocket, where the failure rate of the actual box is absolutely minimal.

Indeed, I always carry two, one in a pocket, the other a small marine EPIRB, it will float.

I guess that is why our old mate Bloggs is effectively supporting fixed beacons, as ever flogging dead horses.

Folks, please, whatever expensive dud might be fitted to an aircraft, have a portable in your pocket --- not in your flight bag, in your pocket.

Tootle pip!!

[4forward8back]

Folks, please, whatever expensive dud might be fitted to an aircraft, have a portable in your pocket --- not in your flight bag, in your pocket.

Absolutely and where possible activate it before touchdown/impact*

*After 4 engine failures I know this is much easier said than done. In two of them I certainly had time to do so (brain space is a different matter), but this was before affordable EPIRBs.

[tunagirll]

What would have been the result if he'd been injured badly enough to stop him from walking?

While the article says dingos, I'm more inclined to say it was wild dogs, there are precious few pure dingos around any more and they are timid even in a pack. Wild dogs can look just like large dingos but unlike their pure counterparts are far more aggressive in numbers.

There are plenty of stories of injured people in the outback with dogs nearby; the happy ones are rescued in time.

Very lucky to walk away; I wonder what happened to the engine.

[tunagirll]

Article from the local rag has some more photos and info:

https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/regional/gascoyne/a/29199367/miracle-pilot-thought-of-his-boys/

[Ultralights]

Thats the beauty of something like spot, i activate its tracking before i take off, so, in the event of an emergency, if i forget to activate the SOS feature, there will still be a breadcrumb trail to me. if its damaged or destroyed in an accident (i also carry mine in my pocket) then there will be a last location at a maximum of 15 mins away.

[Squawk7700]

then there will be a last location at a maximum of 15 mins away.

That's good; so in the Savvy they will have pinpointed your accuracy to around just a few miles :ok:

[Ultralights]

That's good; so in the Savvy they will have pinpointed your accuracy to around just a few miles

hahah yes, but even so, its not hard to estimate a pretty accurate position, given a breadcrumb trail will give a pretty good indication of track and speed. so, given the last know position at a said time, you know the aircraft track across ground, and its speed. not hard to figure out where to start looking for it. even if you dont know its track after the last point, at least you will have a circle of a given diameter to look in.

[kaz3g]

He ought to buy a lottery ticket, that's some tiger country out there. What would have been the result if he hadn't been able to get a phone signal from the hills he knew about?
Nothing said about carrying water or survival equipment (it can go below 0 deg C out there, at nights, at this time of year).
What would have been the result if he'd been injured badly enough to stop him from walking? I have to agree with Popgun - even though this bloke was obviously experienced in the W.A. bush, the whole episode could have easily been another aviation fatality, with a couple of less-favourable events during the forced landing.
It's time for him to be a little less casual about the chances of disaster striking in remote areas.]

I had a cattle station in the Upper Gascoyne in the 1970s. The country around Cue is dry and isolated; bloody hot in summer and the nights can be cold for a few hours before morning comes around in winter.

But it seems to me that this guy was a bushman and would therefore not only have water and rations with him but would think it so normal as to not warrant mentioning. He navigated himself on foot over a fair distance, including at night, to hills that he knew were there. Pretty good effort I reckon.

If you know the area at all then this will give you a laugh...

"The Upper Gascoyne local government area includes around 52 cities, towns, villages and localities including Coolingbah Outcamp, High Range, Koolyin Hills, Boonwarrah, Carrandibby Range, Coondoo Outcamp, Coondoo, Tallangatta Outcamp, Deathtrap Outcamp, Black Range, Coonantha, Pells Range, Priathanna, Wigemburna, Bigina, Doordwoordoo, Kylietharra Outcamp, Coongarracoodoo, Coyerbooroo and Gascoyne Junction."

The whole shire has a total population of only about 330!

Local government area for Gascoyne Junction in Western Australia - Bonzle Digital Atlas of Australia (http://www.bonzle.com/c/a?a=p&p=3134&d=l&cmd=sp&c=1&x=115.20935&y=-25.04963&w=40000&mpsec=0)

Kaz

[Duck Pilot]

Failure rates of ELTs are extremely bad, I had to research this last year and the results weren't good. The ATSB have some good statistics and data on their website about the topic.

The pilot did extremely well to get through the whole event, good airmanship and survival techniques kicked in by the looks of it.

[onetrack]

The Geraldton Guardian has done an extended story on the crash, with added details.

"Miracle pilot" tells more of his crash story (https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/regional/gascoyne/a/29199367/miracle-pilot-thought-of-his-boys/)

He's definitely an experienced local with adequate bush knowledge - but one does wonder what would have happened if he hadn't been able to get a phone signal?
He must have had some familiarity with the Telstra coverage map - because mobile phone coverage is pretty much non-existent in the area he came down in.
There's obviously a cell tower at the mines in the area where he departed from (Gidgee Mine) - but apart from that tower, there's a lot of tiger country with no phone coverage in that region between Cue, Sandstone, Leinster, Meekatharra and Wiluna.

The primary advice to all, which is wise advice, is never to leave your aircraft/vehicle in the Australian bush, if you're in trouble.
SAR people can spot an aircraft or vehicle much more easily than a person - even if the person is in a clear area.

It's obvious he took a calculated gamble that he could speed up the search - but the police still had trouble locating him, even after he made his initial call.
I don't think he really helped himself much at all, the aerial searchers would have spotted the Cessna within a relatively short time after he was reported overdue - it's not like it's dense vegetation with a thick canopy out there.

[LeadSled]

Folks,
Looks like another one to chalk up to a failure of a fixed ELT, keeping up that better (worse) than 95% failure rate in the real world.
Tootle pip!!