At this point, it's in the cross fingers and hope stage for everyone not in the search. I hope he's just sitting next to his plane cussing himself for being foolish and leaving the satphone or PLB behind.

The impression I got from the NPR report was that he was going to be looking at dry lake beds for some testing he's getting ready for. I know they are usually largish, but how many are there in that area? Every picture of a dry lake bed I've seen looks like a decent place to try land, so long as you miss things like mountains in between them.