Search and Rescue mission

[skydvrboy]

Wondering if anyone has used their Mooney for a search and rescue mission.  One of my coworkers is missing (I also work with his mom and brother) and they asked me if we could look for him from the air.  I took his brother and a close friend out yesterday and focused on the surrounding rivers and lakes for a couple hours from 500 - 700 AGL.  He has been missing for 3 weeks and his vehicle is also missing (silver Dodge Durango).  My thinking was that if his vehicle was near a road, it would have already been found, but the rivers are quite winding and there are many nooks and crannies that can't be seen from the road.  He also did a little hunting and a lot of fishing (though generally in the warmer months), so we thought the rivers and lakes would be good areas to search.

For those who have done this or have training in it, is this a sound approach or is there a better way to search for a missing vehicle?  I don't think we have any realistic chance of finding a person from the air, but a vehicle should be pretty easy to spot.  Obviously, with the vehicle missing he could be in another state, or even another country by now, but I want to help any way I can.  Any advice would be appreciated.

[Yetti]

I have tried to find houses and such in a busy municipal area.   We also took it up to find a friends house in the woods.    The wife said she heard us, but we never saw the house.   The Mooney does not make a very good search platform because it is fast.    To get under 90 mph the manual says to have flaps out.   The Alaska NTSB investigators say the "moose turn" is a common cause of accidents.   I have done orbits above sites just to see how well you can stay on station.   It's hard to fly and also look.   Only hope is to have a good spotter.

CAP now has a cell phone team that can search with cell phone towers.  Might try to engage them.

 

[thinwing]

Sorry to hear about your coworker...first of all may I state the fact that Mooney’s are not optimal for search and rescue work...basically they don’t slow down enough and the wing is in the way.Also..please be really careful in your low level maneuvering to avoid ground fixation ,stall spin etc.What I’ve noticed with airsquadron work is there are two sets of skills involved...accurate grid piloting and training for the observer.Our searches involve known last positions either fixed by cell phone or radar return or first person report of last location.You don’t have that..your search is comparable (worst even)than the sept 2007 air and ground search for Steve Fosset.Unbelievable resources were used due to his being a celebrity and his friend Richards Branson s influence and fiances.I flew in that search out of Minden nv and was astounded by the number of search personnel..Nevada national guard air and ground units with their own tent encampment,search and rescue and Sherriff teams from 5 counties and 3 states.Cap units from 4 states...pvt pilots both based and visiting were “invited” to participate by Branson representatives.With all that ,his remains wasn’t found until a year later west of mammoth that was no where near my search grid in the  Pinenuts.This was because of an erroneous report of his  being sighted over the Nevada desert north east of his actual position.Radar evidence did show an aircraft at the correct time headed and ending at his actual crash site but this was never investigated. So point being is what can go wrong in SAR .My thought on your search ...is did he have a cell phone?Who saw him last?Last credit card /gas receipt?Color of vehicle ?..if white it’s going to be impossible to pick out against a snowy background.Since you are personally involved...I would call your efforts good and stand down..sorry I couldn’t be of more help

[skydvrboy]

2 hours ago, bluehighwayflyer said:

 I would go up to at least 1000 AGL personally so that I wouldn’t have to worry about the definition of “congested areas” under the FARs.

Not much of rural Kansas could be considered congested, but we stayed at least 2000' away from any settlements in the area.  We figured if the vehicle was in a town, someone else would have already reported it by now.

13 minutes ago, Yetti said:

The Mooney does not make a very good search platform because it is fast.

True, and the wings keep getting in the way.  I had it slowed to 120 mph as a balance between slow speed and stall margin.  I should have mentioned I had two spotters, one looking out each side, so I could concentrate on flying and not worry about looking for anything on the ground. 

Winter around here is definitely the best time to be looking, as all the leaves are off the trees making it easy to see the ground in even the most heavily wooded areas.  The only evergreen trees around here are cedars that rarely get over 10 feet tall.  Currently, no snow on the ground so visibility was excellent.  Thanks for the tip about the CAP.

9 minutes ago, thinwing said:

My thought on your search ...is did he have a cell phone?Who saw him last?Last credit card /gas receipt?Color of vehicle ?..if white it’s going to be impossible to pick out against a snowy background.Since you are personally involved...I would call your efforts good and stand down..sorry I couldn’t be of more help

I'll ask the family about the cell phone & credit card.   I also agree that my direct involvement is most likely over, unless there a phone or credit card ping that indicates an area relatively close that we didn't search.  I'm just trying to get an idea if there is something obvious that we missed where we might find a missing vehicle.

[Steve W]

In my mind the most important thing about search flying is the guy flying the plane does exactly one thing, flies the plane, they don't look for the target, that's what the other 1-2 people are for. Typically we do search flying at 90kts and 1000 AGL in a plane with the wing on the top, the routes are generally planned in advance with some in-the-field improvisation if needed due to terrain or to go back and check out a suspected target. 

Single pass searches have an incredibly low probability of detecting a target even with excellent visibility. Often it will take several trips with different crews before a target is found. It's helpful to cover an area from different directions and at different times of days to account for shadows, etc. Maybe not so important in KS, but also to cover terrain so on one pass you're looking down from above and on another pass looking in from the side.

Edited to add: After seeing the post below about turns, one thing you don't want to be doing is pulling 2g turns. The folks looking out the sides are going to have enough trouble with balance and equilibrium as it is. If you're searching and decide you need to turn around, fly out of the search path, make a nice gentle turn to let the searchers rest their eyes for a bit, then re-enter the search path. 

Edited February 11, 2019 by Steve W

[skydvrboy]

I don't think I exceeded 20 degrees of bank the whole day.  There was just no need for sharp turns with the terrain being so open and flat. 

One concern was that if we flew directly over a target of interest it might be missed, so I tried to fly to the side of or between areas of interest.

[Yetti]

Like said above, the family should have access to the credit card records which I have seen are really fast at updating.   Cell phone may take a bit more doing.   One thing that I have seen with motorcycles and bicycles is that you have to check the ditches and gullies which for whatever reason seem to be the on the easy corner to run off and hide person in.  

[carusoam]

Please review this thread as well....

There may be a single point of valuable information in there.... there may be more...

Good luck, hope for the best, and prayers...

Best regards,

-a-