CY13 Missions Continue in Face of Budget Uncertainties

Even as CAP is dealing with budget and funding issues for the current year, ILWG members are still getting mission work. And the typical ‘season’ of recreational flying and boating has begun with a mission that garnered 2 separate FINDs.

Earlier this week, ILWG was assigned a 406 mhz mission that was originally being handled by the US Coast Guard, where the registry information on the EPIRB had it assigned to a tugboat which had been sold or scrapped previously. The Coast Guard was able to isolate the co-ordinates and rough vicinity at an inland location after a day of DF work. They were, however, unable to acquire the transmitter signal near where the GPS data placed it, so there was concern that the co-ordinates were unreliable.

So, on 04APR at approx 1500L, the ILWG was alerted and an IC was assigned. Multiple ground teams and an aircrew responded to take up the search. After some initial phone calls around the large target area, it was identified that an active beacon was being heard on the ground near Waukegan Airport. Ground teams and an aircraft were dispatched to that location and prosecuted a DF search, ending in a successful non-distress FIND. The aircraft was a privately owned US Navy T2B Buckeye trainer that had been undergoing maintenance.

Silencing that beacon did nothing to effect the 406 beacon, as it was still transmitting from ‘somewhere’. The aircraft left the Waukegan area, and flew directly to the site that the co-ordinates were putting it at, but were only barely able to acquire an intermittent signal. They did note it was adjacent to auto malls and salvage yards that may have been likely spots for boats.

The mission was suspended until first light next morning, where multiple ground members arrived in that general area. At the site where the beacon was ultimately found, the signal was so minimal that it had to be located with a ‘home made’ device by a ground team member! Traditional DF gear couldn’t lock the signal even as close as 300 yards away from where it was, so persistence won this battle.

Major Andrew Welch, one of the IC’s on this “2-for-1” mission had praise for those who responded. “I want to express my thanks for all the dedicated and persistent members, over 20 of them here, who gave up their Friday night and Saturday prosecuting this mission.” The mission closed out at approx 1840L Saturday.