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Solo
Champ-Part 2 |
HEADQUARTERS
CALIFORNIA WING - CIVIL AIR PATROL
UNITED STATES AIR FORCE AUXILIARY
Post Office Box 7688
Van Nuys, CA 91409-7688
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
16 January 2002
The Solo Aeronca Champion which flew by itself north of San Francisco late
last year called for help again, giving new meaning to the old saying about
Timex watches.
California Wing members joined by sheriff personnel and a California
Highway Patrol aircrew had found the "Champ" and deactivated its distress
beacon early on 27 December 2001. The beacon is one of the oldest models
still in lawful use, a 1970's era ECB Electronic Locator Transmitter
(ELT). ELTs are designed to activate upon an impact greater than five
times the force of gravity. However, the old models have notoriously easy
to activate gravity switches and are know to activate with lesser impacts.
On 11 January 2002, the Champ's owner had a helicopter airlift out the
wreckage from remote terrain. Less than a half mile from the original
crash site, the ELT bailed out of its mount, hit the earth making a divet,
activated the beacon, and bounced a short distance. The salvage crew did
not notice the bailout but the Cospas-Sarsat rescue satellite constellation
did.
The California Wing of the Civil Air Patrol was tasked to locate the signal
detected by satellites. Initial indications were the signal could be from
a hard landing earlier that day at a nearby airport, but by sunset a CAP
aircrew assisted by ground team members from squadrons surrounding the
search area determined the signal came from Gosling Canyon, the site of the
Champ crash. The search was suspended for the night since there were no
reports of any missing aircraft and the canyon is extremely steep and muddy.
Early the next morning, a CAP ground team hiked into the canyon with the
help of another CAP aircraft. The aircrew in an exceptional display of ELT
location expertise reduced the search area to one mountain slope to help
find the yellow ELT which is about the size of a pack of cigarettes.
Non-distress find awards were authorized for ground team members Maj. Guy
Rasmussen of California Wing, Capt. John Mayfield and 2Lt. Matt Higdon of
Travis Composite Squadron 22; and aircrew members Capt. John Lewis, 1Lt.
Bruce Chopper, 1Lt. Kerry Kurasaki and 1Lt. Kevin McDowell, all of San Jose
Senior Squadron 80.
Wing Incident Commander Maj. Chuck Frank gave a sincere thanks for the
rapid response and assistance provided by the following additional ground
team personnel: Maj. Jan Ostrat of Wing, Capt. Lewis Peterson of Redwood
Empire Composite Squadron 157 of Santa Rosa, 1Lt. David Hosea of Marin
Flight 23; and 1Lt. Alan Lord, Cadet David Cooney and Cadet Ian Lord of
Squadron 22.
For more information about the actvities of California Wing see
<http://cawg.cap.gov> or contact Maj. Alice
Mansell, t: 650.322.2601.
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