Determining the fine line of activating a PLB

Someone more involved in SAR could confirm or elaborate, but check out the Search Urgency Form, listed at http://nzsar.org.nz/Resources/NZSAR-Forms . It asks a bunch of questions and generates a score to help decide the urgency with which an operation should be launched. Here's another good guideline form, which elaborates on the difference between Urgent Response and Measured response, and what they entail. http://nzsar.org.nz/Portals/4/Resources/NZSAR%20Guidelines/Land%20SAR%20Response%20Guidelines%20%28July%202015%29.pdf

Does being overdue justify activating a PLB? There was a forum topic a few years ago after a group did just that. Late ,and knowing their overdue contact would be initiating a search, they activated a PLB to shorten the search, reduce risk and limit resource usage. NZSAR website described this as appropriate usage (in this case). I remember it because twelve months earlier, I'd put this scenario to AMSA (Aus authority) and they did not accept it as appropriate usage. Following the NZ incident, I forwarded the NZSAR response to AMSA but they reiterated their earlier advise - that PLB usage must be restricted to 'life-threatening' situations only. So, in Australia, life threatening only. In NZ, life threatening certainly. However, if you would be providing assistance to a search already under way, activation would be accepted. Basically, I would activate the PLB soon after the 'drop dead' time (the time set for the trip contact to initiate a search).

Sorry, this is long…. I'm very interested in this discussion as I came close to it a few months ago. Doing the Five Passes in Mt Aspiring Nat Park I was 100% properly equipped, but had overestimated my fitness and therefore underestimated my time to complete it. I was supposed to be on the trail by late morning on the Saturday in February and be out Thursday night for a Friday flight home to Auckland. I had told my emergency contact that Saturday would be a panic date (and listed this with DOC as my panic date with the PLB I hired). So I was prepared to miss my flight before having any searching for me. A few circumstances meant i didn't get to the Routeburn Shelter until about 5pm on the Saturday and so just got up to Sugarloaf Pass and made camp there. My phone was my GPS and I look a battery bank to charge it, but that first night when the phone was almost flat I realised I’d forgotten the cord to connect it to the battery bank. So I was on maps and compass the rest of the trip. It was about Monday night when I started to realise that I just wasn't making the ground I should have been. And to make it worse I just couldn’t get much food down. Maybe 2 BC meals a day. Having read most of the stories already in this topic, especially about pulling a PLB if running over your panic date to save the overall costs, were running through my mind. The thought of SAR and other volunteers going searching when I was just late made me feel sick and embarrassed and was on my mind most of the time just trying to hurry up. Luckily on Thursday I came across the only people I saw the whole trip, a Kiwi and a Brit. I explained to them my thoughts and asked they if I gave them my emergency contacts details they could call/txt when they got out to say don’t worry, if they got out before me. That made me feel more comfortable but they weren’t 100% sure when they would be out so I was still worried. That day, Wednesday, I’d started from camp at the Cow Saddle base of Fiery Col and made it down Fohn Saddle and pitched camp in the dark around 10pm at the river floor below (the very top of Beans Burn). Too exhausted to even think about cooking dinner I just got in bed and tried to sleep. Unfortunately I was up most the night in really bad pain. After getting back and doing a lot of searching online because it freaked me out I could hardly swallow it looks like Esophagitis, which I’d never heard of but explains it exactly. By then was down to probably less than 500cal a day. I could hardly swallow, was just forcing water down and mainly chocolate for food. Couldn’t stomach BC meals. I finally got some sleep between about 5am and 8am. I then got up and lay in the rocks/grass next to my tent for about an hour trying to get the energy to get up, back up and keep going. I dragged myself, sometimes feeling delirious and stumbling around, down Beans Burn and made it to that last clearing that looks similar to Theatre Flat, before you hit the top of the Dart. That next night after again arriving at camp just at dark (9:45pm-ish) I made a BC meal, had one spoonful and couldn’t take any more so just rolled over to sleep. The next morning I raced to make it to the Dart River where the jet boats come up to drop off canoe passengers at 10am. I Got there and asked/begged for a ride down the river which they very kindly gave me as they have empty boats going back after they drop off the tourists who all canoe back in inflatable rafts. Then got a free bus ride with them back to Glenorchy from Paradise on their empty bus. This was Friday midday I got to Glenorchy, put my phone on charge in the shop and txt home to say all was ok. (and ate my first real food in about 4 days which was amazing….) It was really only luck that the guys I met on trail reminded me about the jet boats there, if I’d had to walk back to Routeburn Shelter I would have been late. Should I have pulled the PLB if I was going to be out Saturday afternoon? One thing I’d like to know is how quickly the process happens. This was running through my mind. So if my panic date was Saturday would they start something right away. I was pretty certain I would be back in contact by Saturday night, so would I have been ok to wait to then if the boats hadn’t been there. Or would the search have started Saturday morning? During the horrible Wednesday night just wreathing in pain all night, if I had still been in the same condition in the morning I was going to hit the PLB as I wouldn’t have been able to continue. Luckily it had died away just enough to keep going. All that to say, I hope I never have to press a PLB and would never do so lightly. But running over panic date does seem legitimate. Not just running late for a flight or a meeting, but when you are fairly certain a search will begin before you are out, and the thought of teams of volunteers being sent out when you’re not in life-threatening danger was like a mountain of shame, but still surely better to just hit it…..??? (As it turns out the guys I gave my emergency contact details to didn't txt until another week later so that wouldn't have helped much...)

as I understand it, if you're over a day late, they often send a helicopter over any known route, if the helicopter doesnt find the missing person quickly, ground searchers will be sent in.

My wife knows that if I am not out on due date, that it might be the next day, due to weather 0r rivers. As it takes up to 5-6 hours usually to get out to the road, don't start anything until after midday, the 1st day overdue. Mobile phones often go flat, so cant rely on them, even if there is reception I carry a PLB, and although these arnt much use if your dead or injured so bad you cant activate it, the odds are if something did go wrong injury wise, I should be able use the PLB. If there was no likely weather or river issues, then expect me out on due date. (no tops travel, all rivers bridged) Would I activate PLB if I was overdue, beyond the above, not sure. If I do, there will be a helicopter dispatched. If I don't but am reported as overdue, a helicopter will still be sent to look, first to check huts etc on my intended route. so probably not, if I am actually able to still walk. But I do believe PLBs have become a taxi service. I put this down to a lack of confidence in the mountains, and individuals not having experience to cope. So in their case, perhaps sometimes they are in a "life threatening" situation, because they don't know how to extricate themselves, and they truly believe theyre at risk. or its just not being able to handle the hard going in the backcountry, that is often experienced Either way, they shouldn't actually be there, without experienced companions. Years ago, track marker poles and signs were banned in the Tararuas open Tops, after vigorous opposition from tramping clubs, who thought that it doesn't decrease risk, in fact increases it, with unexperienced trampers attempting trips they shouldn't. It could be argued, that this has proven correct. too many people attempting trips that are beyound their capability

i have a PLB and a SPOT http://www.findmespot.com/en/index.php?cid=100 . the spot shows my location in real time on an internet map, it has options to hit buttons that i can pre setup a text message that gets broadcast from the webservice to designated email addresses and cell phone no's it has a paid subscription service that is required. i set up one of the buttons to send a message to the effect that I"M OK but will be delayed up to 24 hours. connectivity isnt perfect though, but you can see on the device when you have a satellite connection and when the message has been sent. it almost never has connectivity under the bush canopy. one button is an OK button that i hit when i'm finished walking for the day, i'll attempt to get reception at my stopping point and send it before turning the device off for the day. so the OK message indicates that i've successfully completed my tramping for that given day.. the spot also has an emergency button like a beacon but its connectivity is far less reliable than a beacon, so i tend to take a PLB on multi day trips or on day trips where i think the reception could be dodgy.. never go into a big trip without trying out all the food yo're going to eat in advance... dehy meals can be an acquired taste, they have preservatives in them and can have high levels of salt which some people find hard to stomach

@waynowski the dehy meals to me are usually fine, though I am getting tired of them. I just could hardly swallow anything and had lost my appetite from the Esophagitis.

Am looking at getting INReach, similar to Spot but has good reception, apparently this eliminates the overdue bit, that triggers a search

@TararuaHunter Inreach is next on my list of things to get also (already have a PLB). Will carry both. Happy wife, happy life

"Should I have pulled the PLB if I was going to be out Saturday afternoon? " If you're reported as overdue, then one of the first things they'll do is a risk assessment. They'll look at your plans and what you intended, what you're known to have with you. Maybe they'll even look for other people emerging from the area to ask if you've been spotted. It might be decided that by far the most likely reason for you being late is that you mis-judged the time it'd take, especially if your projected times looked unrealistic. It's also likely to be taken into account that if you have a PLB which you haven't activated, then it's more likely that you're okay. If that's the determination then there's a reasonable chance that search services and personnel could be put on standby, maybe a press release goes out looking for other people who've been to the area, but any major operation will be put on hold for another day or two. If I was in that situation and heard a helicopter overhead, I'd be doing everything possible to get its attention, just in case. If there were significant reason to think it was searching, then activating the PLB's probably a good idea. An ironic advantage of deLorme InReach and SPOT compared with PLBs, which I wouldn't recommend taking seriously, is that they transmit on commercial satphone frequencies instead of emergency frequencies. Consequently, if the RCCNZ or Police believe that your emergency signal was not for a genuine emergency, regardless of what you think yourself, you can't be held subject to the regulation which prohibits non-emergency transmissions by 406MHz devices, nor threatened with a "maximum $30,000 fine" from a prosecution (which has happened at least once in the incident referenced earlier). Personally I still think a PLB is best if you want the most reliable signal in a genuine emergency, and by comparison SPOT and InReach have other obvious advantages. The irony is more just a comment of the current fragmented nature of laws and regulations around emergency call-outs.