Both your Garmin GPS 60C and the Garmin Streetpilot 2620 has an input for an external GPS antenna using an mcx connector. You could purchase an external GPS antenna such as the Garmin GA29 to improve the RF gain (requires BNC to mcx connector from Garmin also). This should improve the signal gain so that signal lock will be improved.

Not that I think you should buy one :), but I wonder how the 60CSx would have done?

Justin

OK, I'll buy that the terrain combined with trees obscured the GPS signals. I've seen it myself. If the unit can't see enough satellites, it can't do its job.

Fog, on the other hand, by itself isn't enough to prevent use of GPS. But fog-wetted tree branches or water covered GPS antenna would be especially tough.

Glad this one turned out so well.

I have my scanners all progammed with 121.5 for the entertainment value. Most transmissions are mistakes. Most beacons are mistakes. But sometimes......

We also have MAJOR problems with our 500 MHZ radios once the leaves come back in.

Just curious... was the pilot qualified to use IFR (instrument flight rules), or did he take off in fog using just visuals?

Sue

Susan Asked:

I have no idea.
I don't know much about planes and stuff, just that it was a 1979 Piper something, and on the road I was on when responding, it was foggy, and when the crew was looking for the plane, it was foggy.

Chief Skelton explains it well in this video clip from the news:
CBS New Video

P.S.Can you see me in the pictures of the plane?
Me neither.

I just remembered (and wonder how I forgot in the first place). Back in 'bout '66 or so, I was the only one on duty one night at a little bitty Army Airfield when a U-1A (DeHavilland Otter) took off on a rare night mission. The aircraft broke ground, started to climb, then banked steeply to the left, nosed over, and crashed alongside of the runway. Aircraft burnt to a crisp, but the three on board got out, with the worst injury a broken ankle. Results of the post crash investigation? The pilot failed to remove a clip from the rudder prior to takeoff. So when the engine failed (don't think they ever figured out why), and the aircraft banked to the side, the pilot could not control it enough to set back down on the runway. Which makes me wonder if the pilot in this case missed some part of a checklist...

"Which makes me wonder if the pilot in this case missed some part of a checklist..."

One of my father's pilot friends said one of the most common (at the time, anyway) causes of engine failure was the failure of the pilot to drain a cupful of fuel out of the tank before taking off. If any moisture had accumulated in the tank, it would be in that cupful, as it was drained from the lowest point of the tank and water is heavier than fuel. The same thing will happen to a plane that happens to a car when there's water in the gas. Some pilots will panic when the engine dies, instead of gliding it to a landing. In the fog, of course, you've got visibility problems. Plus, which way is up?

Sue

"...Plus, which way is up..."

The opposite of down, which in this case is the bad way to go.

Sorry, the devil made me do it...

There was a little more info at http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-b1_2plane-3r.5898453jun14,0,6384556.story

"He was flying under visual flight rules..."

That means no instruments, in heavy fog. Dumb.

"...another neighbor who heard the engine 'cut out and said there was no sound after that.' "

Water in the gas. Betcha a nickel.

Sue