Glider crash at Moriarty

Very sad news. Any details on what happened?

By Journal North Staff
UPDATED: Friday, June 5, 2015 at 5:30 pm
PUBLISHED: Friday, June 5, 2015 at 4:30 pm
SANTA FE -- New Mexico State police have identified the deceased pilot of a downed glider aircraft found Thursday afternoon southeast of Santa Fe in the Lamy area as 72-year-old Joseph Shepard of Illinois.

According to police, the glider was reported missing Wednesday, after it left the Moriarty Municipal Airport. Satellite and cell phone data, along with a sighting by a pilot who'd been following the glider, led authorities to the Lamy area.

Starting early Thursday, crews from New Mexico Search and Rescue, the Civil Air Patrol's New Mexico Wing, the Army National Guard and the U.S. Border Patrol made searches on the ground and from the air. At about 3 p.m., wreckage was found and confirmed as the missing glider.

The Federal Aviation Administration will investigate the cause of the crash..

On Friday, June 5, 2015 at 7:53:13 PM UTC-6, Tim Taylor wrote:
Very sad news. Any details on what happened?

Speculation only so far. Perhaps an autopsy will reveal if medical issues were a factor.

What I find most alarming is that in this time of so many electronic gadgets available why it took about 24 hours to locate the crash site. Granted it was in a very remote area but for electronic signals that should not matter.

A SPOT transmits ever 5-10 minutes depending on how the owner sets it up. Even after a crash the spot should keep broadcasting its position. So yes, if moving it can be some distance from its last report, but then the next number of reports will be where the glider is. But someone needs to monitor the spot track or the pilot needs to be registered on the ssa web for spot tracking. Even then, no one may look at it until he is over due coming back. Spot and Delorme can have faster refresh rates.
BillT

On Friday, June 5, 2015 at 9:53:13 PM UTC-4, Tim Taylor wrote:
Very sad news. Any details on what happened?

By Journal North Staff
UPDATED: Friday, June 5, 2015 at 5:30 pm
PUBLISHED: Friday, June 5, 2015 at 4:30 pm
SANTA FE -- New Mexico State police have identified the deceased pilot of a downed glider aircraft found Thursday afternoon southeast of Santa Fe in the Lamy area as 72-year-old Joseph Shepard of Illinois.

According to police, the glider was reported missing Wednesday, after it left the Moriarty Municipal Airport. Satellite and cell phone data, along with a sighting by a pilot who'd been following the glider, led authorities to the Lamy area.

Starting early Thursday, crews from New Mexico Search and Rescue, the Civil Air Patrol's New Mexico Wing, the Army National Guard and the U.S. Border Patrol made searches on the ground and from the air. At about 3 p.m., wreckage was found and confirmed as the missing glider.

The Federal Aviation Administration will investigate the cause of the crash.

Sad News, hat a nice guy.
W

On Saturday, June 6, 2015 at 12:05:08 AM UTC-5, Bill T wrote:
A SPOT transmits ever 5-10 minutes depending on how the owner sets it up. Even after a crash the spot should keep broadcasting its position. So yes, if moving it can be some distance from its last report, but then the next number of reports will be where the glider is. But someone needs to monitor the spot track or the pilot needs to be registered on the ssa web for spot tracking. Even then, no one may look at it until he is over due coming back. Spot and Delorme can have faster refresh rates.
BillT

A few observations. In a situation like this,SPOT will only broadcast its position if:
1. It is on and in track mode.
2. It is intact after the accident.
3. It can see the sky properly.

Joe did have his SPOT registered on the SSA page. The wonderful Press can't spell his name correctly, so if you looked on the registered trackers with his name spelled that way, you won't find him. And from what has been reported, the accident was within just a few miles of the last SPOT report, even though the previous report was 50 minutes prior to the last report (that whole, seeing the sky thing). There was not a series of reports from the same place, indicating the SPOT did not survive the crash.

Joe was a wonderful man and will be missed. He was a friend of my family for over 40 years. His wife, Jane, passed away a few years ago. One of my all-time favorite Jane and Joe stories was related by Jane of a typical landout. When she arrived with the trailer, Joe said "Oh, thank you again for coming to get me. I am amazed at how quickly you got here...." Then, as soon as the plane was in the trailer and they were in the car, Joe said, "Where is the map? There has to be a faster way back to the airport..."

Godspeed to you, Joe!

Steve Leonard

Robert expressed the frustration that many of us felt at Moriarty that we could not find Joe for approx 24 hours. In addition to SPOT, InReach, Flarm files from other gliders, radar tracks (if transponder equipped), cell phone data perhaps, is there any other device or technology out there that we are missing to help find a missing pilot & glider?

PLBs and hand-held radios can work if the pilot is conscious and can hit the "button," but if the pilot is incapacitated that obviously will not work. Steve mentioned that the SPOT (or a Delorme InReach) needs to be operational, in tracking mode and in a location to transmit to a satellite(s), for it to work. Unfortunately, if it is under debris, for example, it will not help and we would have to rely on the last SPOT or InReach transmission (which is what we did in this case).

So, with its limitations, is an ELT the only other possible answer? At Moriarty we hope this never happens again, but if it does, we want to make sure that we are using the proper methodology and every bit of modern technology to help find a missing pilot and glider quickly.

All ideas and suggestions are welcome...

Thanks,
Renny Rozzoni
Moriarty, NM


On Friday, June 5, 2015 at 10:09:05 PM UTC-6, Robert M wrote:
On Friday, June 5, 2015 at 7:53:13 PM UTC-6, Tim Taylor wrote:
Very sad news. Any details on what happened?

Speculation only so far. Perhaps an autopsy will reveal if medical issues were a factor.

What I find most alarming is that in this time of so many electronic gadgets available why it took about 24 hours to locate the crash site. Granted it was in a very remote area but for electronic signals that should not matter.

Spot up dates set at even 5 min. can have a crashed glider quite some distance away from the last update.
At low altitudes in remote areas radar coverage is likely non existent.
A medical emergency can preclude activating a PLB.
What solution remains?

I have been told an ELT is not the answer because in a crash the antenna can be torn off. Maybe, maybe not. The violence of the crash may render the ELT unit inoperative or it may not. Is the chance 50/50? I'll take that over zero percent. At least this is a device that is designed to operate as the result of a crash. What else is there?

The new 406Mhz units may be too difficult to mount in many gliders, that is a big drawback and they are not low cost. I believe rescue organizations can still monitor the older 121.5 Mhz ELTs.

Is there an answer to my question of what device would have allowed this glider to be located in a few hours instead of about 24 hrs?

Robert Mudd
Moriarty, New Mexico

Heartbreaking news. Joe and Jane (and Joe and Shirley Emmons) were very kind in welcoming me into Silvercreek Soaring during a year I spent in St. Louis, and I had enjoyed seeing Joe again in recent years at Fairfield, Nephi, and Seminole. My thoughts are with him, his family, and all of his soaring brethren. Especially you folks at Moriarty right now.
Erik

APRS is a very viable tracking option. It does require you to have at least an Amateur Radio Technician class license. A few hours of on-line study and a fairly simple written exam are all that's required.

You can use anything from a simple transmitter that ties to a GPS to a full hand held that would also allow voice communications. Most of the country is covered by APRS repeaters that would provide coverage on the ground. 1-2,000 AGL and you should be covered in almost all areas. Depending on the model, you can send and receive email and even make calls through a phone patch. Also, the signal is not blocked as easily as satellite.

On Saturday, June 6, 2015 at 9:10:08 AM UTC-6, wrote:
APRS is a very viable tracking option. It does require you to have at least an Amateur Radio Technician class license. A few hours of on-line study and a fairly simple written exam are all that's required.

You can use anything from a simple transmitter that ties to a GPS to a full hand held that would also allow voice communications. Most of the country is covered by APRS repeaters that would provide coverage on the ground. 1-2,000 AGL and you should be covered in almost all areas. Depending on the model, you can send and receive email and even make calls through a phone patch. Also, the signal is not blocked as easily as satellite.

APRS - Cheap, reliable, effective. Any data one wishes can be transmitted at any interval one wishes. Data is fed to the internet for anyone to see.

When I've looked at other pilot's Spot tracking output, the majority are quite unreliable in the sense that a significant portion of the transmitted track points are not being received by the Globalstar satellite network. I think this largely stems from a failure to appreciate what a 'clear view of the sky' really means. It is not the overhead sky that matters. IT IS THE 360 DEGREE VIEW OF THE HORIZON THAT IS IMPORTANT.

Catching a Globalstar satellite is a statistical matter. There are only so many satellites whizzing around in low earth orbit. The satellite that you need at any given time will almost always be very near to the horizon; having a satellite anywheres near overhead is a very rare occurrence. The significant consideration is that a mounting strategy that gives only a partial view of the horizon, will result in a statistically similar proportion of tracking messages that don't get out. To have a view of the 360 degree horizon, the unit needs to be mounted flat and high.

Common practice these days is to mount Spot on ones parachute. There is a certain logic to doing that. But there is also a serious flaw in that parachute mounting is frequently not giving reliable tracking mode performance. The problem relates to signal lose through the human body and surrounding airplane parts and the difficulty in keeping the unit flat to the horizon.

Consider the searcher's paradox when a downed pilot uses a Spot which is not transmitting reliably. Searchers will sensibly examine ones past Spot unit performance. If they see that it is not uncommon that your Spot unit misses two or more 5 minute transmits in a row, then the search area becomes something like a 15 minute assumption; that would be like a 25 mile search radius which equals 1900 sq miles. You may never be found. Spot owners should consider this trade-off carefully. My own opinion is that it is much better to have reliable tracking operation than it is to have the unit attached to my parachute.

The other significant point to be made is that Spot is obsolete technology now. InReach is much superior. Tracking interval can be easily set down to whatever you'd like (and willing to pay for); available settings include 5 minute, 2 minute, 1 minute and 30 seconds. InReach communication is fundamentally more reliable because it is a two-way protocol. InReach reports altitude with GPS position which in a search situation is likely to be invaluable. InReach provides two-way text messaging so you can (hopefully) communicate with potential rescuers regarding your situation.

Of note is the fact that Globalstar has said that they will offer a two-way Spot unit pretty soon too. Hopefully that will result in pricing competition with DeLorme.

My condolences to Joe's friends and family. All of us feel great pain when a pilot is lost. It's a bit incongruous to discuss finer points of technology in the face of such a lose. Yet we do need to sort out the problems when we loose one of our own.