SPOT USAGE AT 2009 NATIONALS By Phil Plane, introduction by Jill McCaw
At the Nationals in January quite a number of gliders were using the SPOT system for tracking and position reporting. Personally I wasn’t particularly interested. To start with, I wasn’t flying in the contest and secondly, here was another piece of musthave new kit. There is always another piece of must-have new kit. By the end of the contest my views had completely changed. The McCaw family will be getting one of these next season and any members flying cross country will be using it.
Why did I change my mind? There were three reasons.
Firstly, I relieved Sue Wild in the radio room for several days. The
wanted his 300k and a
workload of the radio operators during a contest is high. There is a
diamond
lot of energy involved in not just correctly organising start and finish
meant that we could watch
procedures but in taking ops normals calls, being aware of where
his progress and know
the whole field is and noticing and acting appropriately if calls haven’t
which side of which ridge
been made within the prescribed time frame. Gliders carrying SPOT
he was on. We could see
do not need this service. Gliders carrying a SPOT have their posi-
he was soaring Mt Cook
tion relayed to a web page every five minutes. If they stop moving
and cheer, even as we
a colour change on screen will alert the folk in the office and the
groaned a little because
pilot’s crew that a retrieve needs to be organised. The position of the
sometimes he seemed a
landout is instantly known. Because the trace is overlaid on a google
long way from home. To
terrain map the people in the office can tell if this is a good landout
Alex’s embarrassment his
on an airstrip or potentially something more serious. This is a very
father who was back home
good thing.
in
height.
Christchurch
SPOT
Radio Operator Sue Wild and Roy Edwards
knew
Secondly, the web page of traces was projected on the wall
exactly what he had been up to because he could log on to Phil’s
in the Terminal Building so that crew and hangers on could watch
SPOT website and follow him. Alex accused his father of spying.
progress. It was a rougher and much cheaper version of the high
John was fine with that. We felt much happier knowing where our
speed flight following of the Grand Prix and every bit as popular.
young pilot was.
Everyone with an interest could watch how the SPOT gliders were
The following is a transcript of the talk given by Phil Plane at
doing. Anyone with web access anywhere could follow the racing. It
tje AGM on how he turned a simple search and rescue device into
was certainly well received by crew and families at Omarama.
a flight following service useful to glider pilots and their supporters.
The third reason I became a SPOT convert is because my son Alex carried a borrowed one. Seventeen year old Alex set out to achieve the goals he had set at the beginning of the summer. He
20
August 2009
Phil has done all this work voluntarily but I think the SPOT people should be paying him for adding value to their device.
Jill McCaw
