-----Original Message-----
From: Roger ]
Posted At: Sunday, December 03, 2006 10:31 PM
Posted To: rec.aviation.ifr
Conversation: Fixes provided in routing for IFR flight plans - VFR
waypoints okay?
Subject: Fixes provided in routing for IFR flight plans - VFR
waypoints okay?

....

You are making an optimistic assumption that SAR is going to be
initiated a 1/2 hour after you don't arrive.

Real case in point. I arrived at Lee Gilmer Memorial (KGVL) NE of
Atlanta around 11:00 PM. The phones weren't working. It was
something line 2 or 3 hours later before I actually was able to
contact FSS (I could have driven in and knocked on the door faster).
to close my flight plan. I apologized for being late. The comment
was something to the effect of "Late? Oh, yah, I guess you are a
little on the late side".

IOW in some cases SAR may not even be alerted unless some one calls
and wonders where you are.

....

Before we all invested in ELTs and the system began to rely on that
technology, the practice was to start a communications search 1/2 hour
after the flight planned time of arrival. Of course that pre-supposes a
flight plan. The communications search went on for about 3 hours before
Air Rescue and Recovery Service (ARRS) was notified. ARRS then would
make another set of communications checks to the phone numbers of the
airport managers along the route of flight. That pre-supposes they had
the managers' contact information. Finally, about 6 hours later a Civil
Air Patrol wing would be notified and they could typically mount an
operation within 3 hours -- at least an initial route search.

The ELT has improved on all of these times and flight watch is more
popular now to the point that the alerting practice can get quite
protracted. The sense of urgency isn't there unless accompanied by a
failure to report to flight watch or an ELT signal -- which had to be
done to live with the staffing reductions promised by the new ELT
technology...

It's almost a Catch-22 situation.