c152 missing between Hamilton and New Plymouth NZ POB1
 

It's pretty mountainous 35km's west of Te Kuiti and it's now night time.
Hope he ok:eek:

3 News > Home > Story > Search launched for missing plane

CLD AREAS SCT ST 1200 DEVELOPING IN EXTREME SW.
AREAS BKN CUSC 2500 TOPS 7000.
AREAS BKN ASAC ABV 7000 SPREADING FM SW THIS AFTERNOON.
WX ISOL -SHRA, WITH SCT SHRA/RA DEVELOPING IN WEST.
TURB OCNL MOD DEVELOPING, MAY BECOME SEVERE, SIGMET
POSSIBLE.
ICE ISOL MOD ABV 6000 DEVELOPING WITH ASAC.
REMARK TROUGH FROM SOUTHWEST VC NZNP 12Z.

Updated news
 

From the 3 News article:
I hope that's just bad reporting and they didn't actually find the beacon lying on it's lonesome in the bush :ugh:

According to the NZ Herald website, the pilot holds a commercial and is completing an instructor rating.

406's
 

Ain't these compulsory newfandango elba's/eperbs suppose to emit via satellite the a/c's lat & long?

Would have thought they'd know exactly where it is and be hovering over it hours ago (wx permitting).

Very sad news, hopefully he's alright and will be found.
:(

Lineboy4life

As you stated, the weather certainly was'nt suitable.

Anyone else confused by this?

1850 he is overhead Raglan heading to NP but at 1930 the beacon is activated well inland??

So at night, in average Weather, the plane left the coast and flew inland??

Edit: Just saw the news and see the aircraft was found on the coastline near TT not inland.

Not good news :(

Pilot of missing Cessna confirmed dead | NATIONAL News

Condolences to family and friends...

My previous weather statement was in regard to flying into the crash site, not the conditions around the time of the crash.

Only if it is GPS capable. If it's not, then it's up to doppler triangulation, which give something like a 5km radius area.

wx was not permitting in this case, they tried several times

Picture here:

Police name dead pilot as Ben Israel Gaastra | Stuff.co.nz

Only if it is GPS capable

I'm sure he's referring to the new 406.025 beacons

Quoted from the supplier's website.

Condolences to his family and the NP Aeroclub, this is just awful. :(

Codolences to Family and friends
I believe these 406 are obselete shouldnt all aircraft be carrying either TRac Plus or Spider track much superior

Spidertracks is a privately owned company - it is up to the operator to run it in the plane. It has nothing to do with the ELT

406 is the new standard - you can choose to have one with an external GPS input, at extra expense, otherwise the 406 is just more relaible, and more accurate to home in on, the the 121.5/243 ELT

What was a fresh CPL pilot, training for a instructors rating doing flying over pretty rough terrain( or any for that matter), at night in bad weather conditions? To go from North shore to his destination in these unstable weather conditions would be interesting enough during the day let alone in failing light.
Sincere condolances to the pilot, his family and friends and colleagues.

Hughsey I was wondering exactly the same thing, but wasn't sure who was reading this and didn't want to upset anyone.

Will be interesting to hear the outcome. (Apologies to any friends or family, but this is something we can all learn from and lest take heed)

Threeblader - are you a new pilot?

To be fair he wasn't a 'fresh CPL'. Still the choice to go in those conditions will no doubt be a focus of the accident report.

A very sad state of affairs and all the more real when you actually know the person.

RIP Ben.

Getting off topic, but...

406 beacons can be of two types, the first basically just shouts "help". The second uses a GPS feed to say "help, here's where I am".

Without the GPS the position can not be determined as accurately, nor as fast, as it relies on triangulation of the beacon's signal using the doppler shift of the signal as the satellite(s) pass by it. More readings, better accuracy, smaller search area, but it takes valuable time.

The GPS equipped/capable versions are more expensive - but not by much in the scheme of things.

More to the point, why was he doing it at low level, whilst clearly uncertain of his position, and with no radio calls for navigation assistance? It looks to me like CFIT (as no mayday call for a failed engine which you would expect a new-ish CPL studying for an Instructor's rating to have got off).

Being lost at low level in adverse wx is bad enough, but to do it at night...

Yeah, I know, wait for the report... :rolleyes: