Exactly correct. They were probably in "plodding" mode, beating feet back to the vehicle. i quit flashing after a while because I didn't want to cause sunburn or skin cancer, etc.

Tim Gorske, 62, became lost Friday in Colorado while hiking a section of the Continental Divide. He triggered his PLB Sunday AM, and SAR was notified at 10:37AM. They searched that day until 1:30 AM, during which time Tim stayed put. At 8 AM Monday, Tim turned off his beacon, relocated, and turned it on again at 10AM. Around noon Monday, Tim spotted an aircraft, and signaled it with his mirror. The aircraft directed ground SAR to his location.

Search area displayed using Gmap4

News stories below.

The video accompanying the first news story includes a map of the area and a video interview with Tim Gorske. It implies Tim's "PLB" was a SPOT, and mentions the low purchase price of SPOT w/o disclosing the required $150/yr service fee. For a more thoughtful discussion of emergency beacon / messaging options, see:
OutdoorGearLab review of satellite SOS and messaging and OutdoorGearLab Comparison Table

News Stories:

• Hiker Missing Since Friday Uses Mirror To Signal Search Planes
  
  
• Lost hiker uses mirror to signal plane
  
  
• Civil Air Patrol Press Release
  
  
• Grand County SAR Incident Report
  
  
• Search for missing hiker bit of a 'wild goose chase'

Three fishermen in Palau were 36 hours overdue in their motorized fishing boat (engine trouble?) and two of them decided to swim (8 miles) to land.

Fortunately, a helicopter found the boat and learned of the swimmers from the third fisherman.

A Zodiac boat looking for the swimmers saw their signal mirror and rescued them on Christmas, 12/25/2015.

The link below is the only news story on this I have found.

Palau swimmers flag down Zodiac with Signal Mirror on Christmas

Southern California, 7/10/2015

Hang glider ran out of lift and landed at the base of Keller Peak. No cell reception, no response on 2m amateur radio. He triggered his PLB, but after a while, concerned the mountains might have blocked the signal, tried to hike out (with PLB still transmitting). When the helicopter showed up ...

"I continued backtracking as the helicopter flew back out and over my head as I waved in plain sight.
I reached for my glass signal mirror with retro-reflective aiming center and lit up the chopper with reflected sunlight ...
Once we exited the helicopter, the pilot showed me his own, well-worn signal mirror and thanked me for using mine along with the PLB."

Full story here: https://www.acrartex.com/survivors/stories/2015/dietch-long-beach-ca

Good assist to PLB from the signal mirror!

Also, had cell phone, 2m radio and SAR equipment, despite the fact he was <heh> flying light.

One spooky coincidence ... 8 days later, for the Scouting event Operation On-Target, I was at Crestline just up the road from where he launched his glider, exchanging signal mirror signals with a Scout team on Keller Peak, the base of which is where he was stranded!

I am not sure he was justified in triggering his PLB....from his account-"filled with mountain lions, rattlesnakes, coyotes, and..." and he had a "long hike" - oh dear!!

dead link.

The 3/26/2009 link:
http://www.forthoodsentinel.com/sports/f...74435f6b25.html

works for me.

I just spotted a later article – since the original post is closed, I'll add it here. Also, it seems is full name is John Timm Gorsky, hence some articles call him John and some Tim.

There's a nice 2-page article on this rescue in the Winter 2015-2016 "Peaks and Planes",
Official Magazine of the Colorado Wing, Civil Air Patrol, in the article "Steamboat Squadron Aircrew Earns Save of Lost Hiker"
by Lt. Col. Mike Daniels, CAP COWG Mission PIO, pp. 35-36.
About 1" down column 1 on p. 36, it says:


So this was a case of the survivor deliberately targeting the plane. Since both observers saw multiple flashes, he had margin.

Also, I hadn't posted John's account at the ACR Site - it mentions the mirror work again, and that he used a ResQLink™ PLB.

2016/06/12 - "Initial search-and-rescue responders were able to locate the victim’s husband because he had brought a signal mirror on the hike."
Injured Hiker Rescued near Hailey

Hiker dislocated knee during fall in location w/o cell coverage. Her husband hiked to location with coverage, signaled with mirror, provided GPS coordinates. Site was Kelly Mountain, west of Hailey, Idaho.

Only other coverage I've managed to find:
Technical rescue for injured hiker on steep terrain

The link I gave above last year for the 2015 Christmas Rescue no longer leads to the signal mirror news story.

Fortunately, I archived the original news page on the Internet Archive - here's the link: Archived News Story for Palau swimmers signal mirror success with Zodiac