Hooray… After a 2-month hiatus, I finally committed aviation last Sunday! Let’s face it, December was a write-off with regard to flying. With the near continuous snowfall, the runway had been reduced to a mere 43’ wide. January was a lot better, but the freeze-thaw cycle we experienced turned our already narrow runway into a speed skating track! Top this all off with 3’, ice hard embankments on either side of the runway and we had a recipe for disaster! Even the snowplow started to slide down the ramp of its own accord. Fortunately, the runway finally started to shape up with the warm weather followed by a little snow. It’s still slippery and narrow, but it’s now far more manageable. I made a nice trip up over Gull Lake enjoying a couple of hours of airtime.

Fortunately, this trip gave me an opportunity to try out a Christmas present. Just before Christmas, Spot came out with their new Gen3 Tracker. For those unfamiliar with the product, the Spot devices have a built-in GPS receiver and GlobalStar Satellite phone transceiver. GPS locations can be manually transmitted using the “OK”, “Help” or “911” keys, or they can be automatically transmitted by using the Trace function.

I’ve been using my original Tracker for several years now. Although it has served me well, I’ve always been a little concerned that it only sends out an electronic “breadcrumb” every 10 minutes. In still air, this means a 15 NM granularity for me. If I had an accident and was relying on my Spot track for search and rescue to find me, they would need to search over 700 square miles.

The new Gen3 Tracker allows the owner to select between their basic tracking of 5-minute intervals or to upgrade to the Extreme service with a 2.5-minute interval. This reduces a potential search area to only 20 sq. miles! One issue I’ve had with the old device is that if it cannot contact either the GPS or the GlobalStar satellite, it does not immediately retry. Instead, it waits for another full interval before retrying. At 2.5 minutes, this isn’t as big a concern, but at 10 minutes, this can leave a sizable gap in your track. You can see by the picture of my track that it missed three points: one between Gull Lake and Lacombe and two others on the way back to Carstairs.

All the old functions are still there which includes an “OK” button that will text or e-mail a previously composed message to a list of contacts. The same goes for the “Help” button, which again sends a previously written message to a custom contact list. The “911” button sends an emergency call to the GlobalStar emergency call center. All these messages are transmitted over a satellite phone network from the Tracker and include its GPS coordinates.

Beyond the much better tracking interval, the new Tracker is significantly smaller than the original. It now uses 4 AAA lithium batteries instead of the previous 2 AA. The new tracker also does a much better job of guarding the “Help” and “911” buttons to prevent accidental activation.

The new Gen3 tracker retails for about $170. The cost of the basic service is $99.99 with an additional $99.99 for the Extreme service upgrade. I also bought the RAM mount for the unit for $15 so that I could mount it back where the old one had been.

Personally, I think that this is a great deal. If you are unfortunate enough to have an accident, the ability for someone to find you is greatly augmented over just having an ELT. If the ELT & Spot both fail during the crash, at least there’s a track to follow. Of course, the biggest drawback is that you need to remember to turn it on before the flight!

See you all on Wednesday night for the February Meeting!