Thread: A cautionary tale

Hope your ok mate, timely reminder , could easily happen to anyone,

Thanks @Pixie Z, It was the nudge I needed, I like solo hunting, I bought a PLB after reading your post.

Originally Posted by Pixie Z

Knew I needed to get to the hospital, but didn't want to show up with a rifle in the vehicle, so managed to drive myself home, planning to get the rifle away & then go down to the hospital. But upon arriving at home & struggling for about 15mins I couldn't actually get myself out of the car. Neighbour rang an ambulance for me & locked up my rifle.

Firstly, glad you are ok and still able to write this great story / reminder... S**t does happen in seconds. (been there - still recovering) - I'm really interested to know if this was the only reason you didn't activate the PLB? Having been promoting this gear for over 12 years, volunteer marine rescue for 10 years and been in three rescue centres in NZ, Au & UK. This first thing they all tell me is to activate the PLB when in grave or IMMINENT danger. You may not have hit you head, but a blood clot could have formed elsewhere and bugger!. The rescue centre would sooner know about the problem before weather changes and or your health. The number of owners / users in on the increase and the rescue centres are gearing up with new quicker responsive satellite networks in NZ, Au and globally.

Hiding the rifle has never been a point raised before with me. Please, no attack messages - I'm just tring to understand the reasoning.

Thanks for the story again.

@CooeeBay sorry that might not have been the clearest. The rifle had nothing to do with me not setting off the PLB. By my comment "planning to get the rifle away & then go down to the hospital"- what I meant was after I'd made the decision to drive myself back I didn't want to go straight to the hospital, & leave my car in the hospital carpark with a rifle in the back. At that stage I made that decision I'd already dragged myself back to the car.

When I actually had the fall & was twisted over the rocks my thought process was A) Do I need to activate the PLB? or B) Am I in a state to get myself back to the car?
I was awfully close to setting off the PLB & actually had it in my hand. But at the time I wasn't thinking clearly- likely due to a mix of shock & adrenaline- so I thought that seeing as I could move a little then I was better off not activating the PLB. It wasn't until I was back in town & being put on a stretcher into the ambulance that it occurred to me that I could have had a severe spinal injury & hurt myself even further in my attempt to get myself back to the car. Or that if I'd passed out due to my injuries while trying to drive back to the hospital that I could've crashed & hurt myself further, or worse, hurt others.

Hope that answers your question. The rifle wasn't a factor in my decision not to set off the PLB, but rather that decision came later when I was driving to hospital. Again, in hindsight, I don't think attempting to get myself out of the bush or driving myself back were good ideas, & I should've done things differently & set off the PLB straight away. But in my state I wasn't thinking to clearly.

Cheers.

Originally Posted by Pixie Z

The rifle wasn't a factor in my decision not to set off the PLB, but rather that decision came later when I was driving to hospital. Again, in hindsight, I don't think attempting to get myself out of the bush or driving myself back were good ideas, & I should've done things differently & set off the PLB straight away. But in my state I wasn't thinking to clearly.

Cheers.

Thanks very much for the clarification. You have highlighted some useful information for everyone including designers of PLBs. How do we activate them when you are possibly incapacitated. (A bit like a manual and automatic activated lifejacket - one needs a human action, the other uses water (non human)). Thanks again and I'm glad you're back on track.

The bloke taking the HUET course I attended the other day said the next generation PLBs will receive conformation back from the satellite confirming that it has picked up the users distress signal. I presume this will be an enhanced capability amongst others with the new satellite network.

It would be very gratifying to know your call for help has been heard when in need.

Originally Posted by Moutere

The bloke taking the HUET course I attended the other day said the next generation PLBs will receive conformation back from the satellite confirming that it has picked up the users distress signal. I presume this will be an enhanced capability amongst others with the new satellite network.

It would be very gratifying to know your call for help has been heard when in need.

Yeah flashing red light turns green when they receive it or something

Originally Posted by Moutere

The bloke taking the HUET course I attended the other day said the next generation PLBs will receive conformation back from the satellite confirming that it has picked up the users distress signal. I presume this will be an enhanced capability amongst others with the new satellite network.

It would be very gratifying to know your call for help has been heard when in need.

My spot has this funcion, I reloed on it and turned it off once it had sent the 'everythings ok' message. Turned out it wasnt sending and after 3days they sent a heli in to see if I was ok. Was fine chopping up a deer, made the most of the chopper though and shipped the venny ot

Originally Posted by 223nut

My spot has this funcion, I reloed on it and turned it off once it had sent the 'everythings ok' message. Turned out it wasnt sending and after 3days they sent a heli in to see if I was ok. Was fine chopping up a deer, made the most of the chopper though and shipped the venny ot

That would have been frustrating but at least a good out come and relief for those monitoring your trip.

I was referring to a PLB rather than personal trackers.
Trackers have their own set of idiosyncrasies.
I don't believe they operate on the 406 MHz system, in short I don't think they are necessarily considered a PLB.
@CooeeBay ?

My mate set one off last year (dislocated knee) I thought they would be there within a hour but after a couple of hours I set off for the truck found some signal so dialled 111 & seemly the signal from the plb was on there system but no one had activated it took 4.5 hours before the chopper turned up after speaking to the pilot he said they wernt notified until 3pm which is when I dialled 111 so must have been a bit of a balls up in there system somewhere.

Was the beacon GPS encoded?

Originally Posted by Moutere

That would have been frustrating but at least a good out come and relief for those monitoring your trip.

I was referring to a PLB rather than personal trackers.
Trackers have their own set of idiosyncrasies.
I don't believe they operate on the 406 MHz system, in short I don't think they are necessarily considered a PLB.
@CooeeBay ?

Yeah, am going to get a proper plb... Think this tale is the motivating factor.

I've watched a mate slide down the edge of a waterfall and go bouncing down it for a good 15 seconds. I just closed my eyes and hoped it wasn't going to go pear shape which it didn't with only a nasty graze down one side. The following week I thought bugger that and got myself a PLB. Keeps the wife and family happy and gives you some piece of mind that help is just the push of a button away.

Originally Posted by Moutere

Was the beacon GPS encoded?

you mean was it a gps plb ?...not sure what you mean by encoded ?

Yes, GPS PLB.
Where position is encoded into the distress message.
Response times are meant to be much quicker over a straight 406 beacon.