ELT's are a joke

Earlier, Buck Wild wrote:

...There's gotta be an elt available that
sends one short burst with your exact
GPS location to a satalite...

Sorta off-topic, but sorta not:

Last year, me and a couple of friends sitting around
the table at Air Sailing had a big ol' discussion about
that. One of the controversial ideas that came out
of that was that perhaps the best predictor of accident
survival was how long it took emergency crews to reach
the accident site. What we figured is that glider pilots
need something like the OnStar system that they put
in Cadillacs and such.

What we hashed out was a GPS-enabled system capable
of sensing a crash impact, and further capable of determining
the proximity to civilization and the nature of the
surrounding terrain. With that information at hand,
the box would assess the impact energy and location,
and place a satellite call for a MediFlight helicopter
or ambulance as appropriate.

Just some into-the-box thinking.

Bob K.

Sorta off-topic, but sorta not:

Also a bit off topic but this summer (July), a club member made an
"off-field landing" in a forest in an LS4-b. He was slightly injured and
was trapped in the aircraft. He radiod his GPS cooordinates to a club
tow plane, 20 miles away. The plane landed at the gliderport, loaded an
oberver with a portable GPS and set off. Even though they had the exact
position, it took several minutes to spot him though the forest canopy.
They circled over the crash site and guided rescuers until help arrived.

The police later credited the tow plane crew for significantly reducing
the rescue time.

Tony V.