Making the best judgments on PLB activation

not if you're in a hut, if the weather is flyable, one of the first parts of the rescue operation is for all huts around your route will be visited by a helicopter. similar if you're out in the open on your route and visibility is good and your route has been notified to one of your contacts used for the registration of your beacon... you hit the beacon and sar have to assume it could be a life and death situation and will take risks to find you as soon as possible... if they are doing a hut search they will probably wait till daylight and favourable weather, if they know you have a beacon then in theory early on they know theres a good chance you're still ok because you havent set it off. assuming you're not dead.. if you hit the beacon they will attempt to fly at night if they can and push the safety limits of flying in marginal weather. its only because of the immense skill of helicopter pilots in NZ that there arent more helicopter accidents in NZ, in situations where beacons get set off the pilots will really push the limits of their helicopters performance envelope to try and find and rescue missing or injured people in the mountains.... its a very specialised skill that takes years to develop properly, it can be extremely tricky flying in bad weather in the mountains due to issues like major air turbulence.

look at that pilot down Kaikora. Got in a lot of trouble for flying a sar mission without a valid medical certificate. Many other members of that mission stood up in court and said no other pilot could of saved the victim but it didnt sway the judge. I would suggest signalling the pilot by whatever means and that if they are already there then a plb activation isnt going to change much. Might not be the right thing to do but its not going to hurt. That is unless the helicopters are looking for someone else which is something you cant know.

I don't know how fair that court decision was without having been there, but there was more to it than simply flying in the emergency. He'd done it in the past, and (both times) had convinced another pilot to record false information afterwards, in their log book instead of his, about who was piloting. ie. It wasn't entirely about a snap decision at the moment to save a life. It was also to do with lying about it afterwards, and maybe the CAA and the court were taking it into account, possibly to the point of a difference between a conviction and a discharge without conviction. Add to this that although the rescued hunter very probably would have been in serious (fatal) trouble if the helicopter hadn't arrived (which seemed to receive most focus of coverage), the pilot was also flying in a high risk situation for a length of time. He was 63 years old, had recently suffered a mini stroke, and had three other people in the helicopter with him who'd likely have died if he had a momentary loss of control. It's all good until it isn't.

A pilots licence is a priveledge , not a right. civil aviation rules are pretty strict, he broke them. despite the circumstances, the caa decided it warranted a prosecution, they may have been liable to bring a prosecution. if they let the pilot off then you have a precedent that can be used in subsequent cases to try and get off, caa may have prefered to avoid getting into such a potential quagmire and stuck with the law. you could have someone claiming they made a flight for valid reason and they are at risk of a serious health episode, if you're an epileptic for instance i'd imagine you'd be barred from flying. the health examinations they must pass are designed to determine if their health allows theem to fly with consistent uninterupted physical and mental control of a helicopter. like search and rescue, you dont put searchers in a situation there theres a likelihood of something serious happen to them, you dont let a pilot fly and remember there was no copilot, if you dont have a reasonable guarantee they wont loose control of the aircraft and an aircraft crash can cause ore casualties than just the occupants... there have been alot of accidents and fatalities in the past because of inadequate rules around standards for pilots. 80 pilots died during the hey day of deer recovery in the mountains... back then there were cowboys flying who shouldnt have been flying, people flying drunk and stoned, using helicopters to trim foliage to get a view of their quarry...

If you are safe and sound but overdue and the weather is crappy and you decide to set off your PLB please do it first thing in the morning. When a PLB is activated in the late afternoon/evening and the conditions are too bad for a helicopter to fly then a SAR ground team will do it's best to walk into you overnight which as you can imagine in weather that is not suitable for flying in is not a lot of fun.

I always give myself a big margin. If I'm pushing that button, it's for a REALLY good reason!

To answer the original question. If you know there is SAR looking for you and you can hear the rescue helicopters overhead. You MUST set off that beacon, if you have not already. It will help save a lot of time, sweat and money.