Fellow Supercubber found safe.(well maybe not) Nope, SAFE

We had a call last night from RCC (rescue coordination center) in Anchorage that there was a float equipped PA-12 overdue. It was last heard from in the Homer Alaska area on Saturday, heading south through the mountains that separate us from the Gulf of Alaska.

As it would turn out, the pilot is one of our Supercub brothers who is on this site. He had called me a few days before to talk about getting together down here.

We (the local CAP) launched a search mission this morning and checked out his possible route. No dice. Just lots of low clouds and some real butt kicking turbulence.

BUT, as LUCK would have it, a local Beaver Pilot, Jon Berryman, reported that he had seen a Piper matching the description moored in a remote lake on Sunday. He said that we had flown over the correct lake but the plane was almost impossible to see unless you landed there.

Berryman flew back out to the same lake and found the overdue PA-12 and both pilots safe and sound. It turns out that they had run into some fuel leak problems and just needed some fuel.

Beaver Driver Berryman, brought one guy back with him and the Super-cubber PA-12 pilot is staying out with the borrowed PA-12 until the currently approaching storm clears and fuel can be flown back out to his location.

A good happy ending.

Let's hear it for Jon Berryman and his keen eyes, as well as the CAP folks from Homer. It's wonderful that folks are as observant as Jon, and that they look out for one another.

VERY well stated, PA 12, and thanks Alex for letting us all know. Best news I've heard in weeks, and I don't even know the fellers.

Thanks. Cubscout

Have flown with Berryman a few times over the last 10yrs. Great person, nice planes, good to see him being recognized

1 down 1 to GO!

1 found one to GO!
I cannot let this one go you guys I am working on it daily and I have looked and studied till I am blue in the face!
Still missing you guys the Super Cub from Davis California! We need to find this one and bring him home!
I have a great guy from Wendover that has jumped in too assist..He owns a Super Cub and he and I have been coordinating every few days, this weekend he is going to look in some hills we have a real suspicion about!
Just West South West of Jackpot, NV...Here is what we know and this is what I think, Barry Concurs. Our missing pilot was confronted in Jackpot by the Secret Service, it seems he busted a TFR for Cheny out of Jackson Hole Wyoming. Being confronted by SS would scare the pahooies out of anyone! So he leaves Jackpot a bit stressed Daughter in the front seat so she has a better view not looking at Dads back and reports from Jackpot that she was seated in the front. Now family spokesman states that Dad is not feeling well a few days before, irriratable, tired and not himself.
Dad sets out from Jackpot totally rattled from all that has happened, SS, FAA and whoever else. He heads West South West and starts gaining altitude to fly the most direct route he can home to Davis. He told wife he would be home in time for a Costco run on a Sunday when they close at 5pm. So he heads out, gets to 10k or better to clear the highest part of the trip, hypoxia or heart attack overcomes him. Daughter in the back trying to talk to Dad and figure out what is going on, before she figures out Dad is incapacitated he they hit the ground as they were not so far AGL in the first place! Now Daughter in the front seat Dad in the rear seat and they are in very tough mountainous terrain. We all know what this probably is and we have to find this crash.
Now here is the good news we have a Super Cubber in Wendover NV that will fly his heart out on the weekend, he is a school teacher, his name is

Barry Bayorek
1949 West Gold St.
Wendover, NV 89883

Phone is 775-664-4495

Many of you guys offered to purchase fuel for me to look, I did not need to have that, Barry is a bit more limited on funds that some of us maybe, so if you get a chance buy him a tank of fuel, I told him send me reciepts for this search and I will make sure he is re-imbursed for his fuel cost for looking!
I hate asking this but, it is something that we need to have closure on! Guys my feeling that he is no more than 1 to 1.5 hours direct route Reno out of Jackpot, no more than 10 miles either side of course line.

Barry is also joing our membership here and I think he will be a real asset to the organization as he has much Search and Rescue time himself!
Thanks everyone and I appreciate whatever we can do.


Sam

8)

Sam, thanks for the reminder. Some more fuel is in the mail. Tell Barry we appreciate his efforts also!

The weather cleared a little today so we will see if somebody (either Berryman or myself) can get back down as far as Gore Point and take some gas to the stranded PA-12 driver. He has been camped out down there in the storm that blew in from the Gulf of Alaska. It is clear here but I could not see between the mountains across the bay. So who knows what is happening in the passes...

He is on a lake at 59.14.34.75 N and 150.57.36.56 W. Up in the north west corners behind some little islands.

For you out of Alaska folks look on google earth to get a sat photo of that area. It's a cool program.

HEY ALEX PLEASE CHECK YOUR PM

Sam:

I'll contribute to the fuel fund. Let me know what's my fair share and I'll get a check in the mail.

Eric

Well this is not good news.

Jon Berryman flew 20 gallons of avgas out to the lake at 10:00 AM.

As of 4:00 PM the owner of the PA-12, RCC and Homer Flight Service, still had not heard from the missing supercubber.

Jose DeCreft of Homer was going to fly his O-1 Birddog out there on floats and find out what the heck is going on with this plane now.

I have my Cub ready to go for a morning flight if needed.

RCC has not cleared this search case yet and it looks like it was a good thing they didn't....

As soon as I can get on the phone here... I will call around to see if anyone has heard anything yet. I am worried that whatever leak drained his fuel also caused him some sort of major malfunction out there....

OK,, Now we have good news.

Jose DeCreft found our brother Cubber over at the lake near Gore Point. Our brother supercubber had some weather problems.
So Jose had him follow behind his yellow O-1 Birddog and they made it back to Homer around 6:30pm local time. Now he is winging his way back to Anchorage and should hopefully be home soon.

Boy,, this was getting to be a real cliff hanger.

Thanks everyone for your concern, and tanks Alex for posting this! I am now home, safe and sound, dry and warm in Anchorage. When I got up this morning, the weather did not look like it had broken, so I planeed on sticking around a few more days. Then I heard a beaver landing on my lake! I was saved! Jon Berryman brought me the required fuel, but by the time I got the airplane fueled, and broke camp, the weather had moved in again. I felt like I was pretty socked in. Low and behold, six hours later, I'm sitting in the seat of the -12 and I hear another airplane overhead. My first thought was "Who's flying in weather like this," then I thought, Jump on the Radio! I turned on the radio and it was Jose in his bird-dog looking for me. He said the weather was clear above the surface and I could follow him in. After taking off, I did just that, followed him, and once at 1000' it didn't look near as bad! Well, again thanks for all of your thoughts and worries, and Alex, thanks especially for your efforts in the search. I havn't gotten all of the bills yet, but I'm sure this has been one expensive hunting trip! A chartered Beaver, and a chartered Bird-Dog, and I didn't get to ride in either Well, a lesson learned. We will have the plane checked out this week, but I think it was something as simple as a stuck float in the carb. If the fuel valves had only been turned off...Expensive lesson learned.

That's great news. I was worried that whatever was making the fuel leak would cause you to have some sort of in-fligt problem on the way out of there.

Now you know why we say that if you don't care for the weather around Kachemak Bay, just wait 30 minutes and it will change...

Down where you were at, the weather can REALLY stink...





http://www.acsalaska.net/~aclark

-12 Flyer said:

Thanks everyone for your concern, and tanks Alex for posting this! I am now home, safe and sound, dry and warm in Anchorage. Well, again thanks for all of your thoughts and worries, and Alex, thanks especially for your efforts in the search.

I havn't gotten all of the bills yet, but I'm sure this has been one expensive hunting trip! A chartered Beaver, and a chartered Bird-Dog, and I didn't get to ride in either Well, a lesson learned. We will have the plane checked out this week, but I think it was something as simple as a stuck float in the carb. If the fuel valves had only been turned off...Expensive lesson learned.

Click to expand...

PA-12 guy,
Great news, we had you in our prayers down here in hurricane alley (Miami). When you get chance post what you need and I'd like to send a check to help with the costs of the search.
Nancie
for south Florida, Richard's Field pilots

-12 flyer

Great to hear you are back--and thanks for getting on the website and updating. Looked like it could have really been blowing down there.

Just a reminder to anyone that gets pushed around by weather, mech etc... If you have a radio, look up the Center freq for your area. You can always get in touch with one of the high flyers. And if you are busy or low battery don't forget to set up a schedule on the half hour or whatever works if needed. Over the years I have had to do this a couple of times-- for closing 135 flight plans and have always received excellent assistance.

Mark

Mark,
I tried the center freqs a couple of times, but no luck. I was down in a valley with 1100ft mountains all around. No line of sight I guess, unless they were straight over me. In order to conserve the battery, I was doing just what you suggested, and making blind calls on 121.5, and local area freqs every hour. I was also turning on the ELT for 15 minutes at a time every hour, or whenever I heard a plane in the area. I have alot of questions that I need answered before I do this again. I thought I knew it all, but learned quickly that I didn't. How long does an ELT battery last? Is it best to leave it on all the time? I was scared that if I did the battery would be dead in a few hours, and because no line of sight, my signal would not be heard. SARSAT is supposed to pick up any transmission on 121.5 that lasts over 30 seconds. Is this true? Does it work? Is terrain a limiting factor there as well? There are other questions that I will come up with as I debrief myself on what went wrong and what went right. We had the right gear and food for several days longer than our planned outing. We were however concerned that with weather moving in that we might run out of food before it cleared. We had a handheld VHF, but again no LOS. Would a PLB have been effective? As I answer these questions, I will share the answers so that everyone else knows what to do as well. Again thanks for everyone's support.

A sat phone would've been the proper tool. Call home, call a buddy to bring gas, call weather, etc.

SB

SB,
We thought of that as well. As it turns out, the campers that were brought in by Jon Berryman on Monday (when we were 'found') had a Sat phone with them. It would not work on the lake? When I left on Wednesday evening they were on thier way up the mountain to see if it would work up there. Did they not know how to use it? Too overcast for good reception? No LOS with the Satellites? I don't know, but it didn't work on the goround. However my GPS had no problem. Maybe it was a training issue?

Or maybe it was Globalstar. I know that they're pretty spotty up here. My Iridium's worked everywhere I've ever tried it including in deep valleys and bad weather (Kodiak). My wife had it in Germany and it was a little balky, and would disconnect like a cell phone in downtown Anchorage. Otherwise, never a problem.

Your situation probably scared your family more than you. That's always my primary concern, to ease my wife's mind, since I seem to be a day late more ofter than not.

SB

You hit it on the head with that Steve. I was not real concerned about me. I had what I needed to be safe and warm. Plenty of gear, shelter, food, etc. My biggest concern was the worry and agony I was putting my wife through. She had no idea what had happened until Monday afternoon, only that I was 18 hours late. 18 hours is a long time to be making up scenarios in your head, if you don't know anything. She went through everything from a plane crash to getting eaten by a bear. And I was safe and sound, waiting for someone to bring me fuel. Alls well that ends well!

When you decide to trigger an ELT, leave it on. It takes the SAR SAT about 6 hours to verify the signal and the location. The ELT battery will go for two or three days sometimes.

RCC picked up your short signal via satellite but they disregarded it since it stopped. they assumed it was me bleeding over from 121.3

I was in your area at the time, but they could not call me due to the total lack of radio coverage. I was calling on 123.6 122.9 and 121.3 (RCC) and I had the ELT finder set for 121.5. Those ELT finders are not very good in mountains.
You need to have the ELT signal going for a long time to home in by using the wing blanking method and by making all sorts of orbits over an area. Since we were down low that day, the chances of getting a good direction from your signal was pretty slim.
That lake is pretty much in a bowl. If the damned CAP would have had a float plane we would have been lower and out of the winds.

Plus everybody could have used a marine band VHF in this case. Then we all (including you) could have called the Coast guard Air Station at Kodiak. They gave a repeater on the mountain near where you were.

I did find a perfectly good piece of plywood floating in Sunday harbor...

I might have missed the point, but I think 12 Flyer was low on fuel and didn't think he could make it to Homer? Is that correct?
Did you have a fuel leak? Headwinds?
Courious minds want to know.

T.J.
When I moored the plane on Saturday morning around 1030, I had about 12 gallons in the tanks still. When I got ready to leave the next day at about 1300, only 26.5 hours later, the tanks were EMPTY. The carb had a steady drip all weekend, and I hadn't turned the fuel valves off. There was still the gallon or two of unuseable, but upon visual inspection, and inspection with a dip stick, the tanks were bone dry. I was stuck until I got some fuel. No word yet what exactly was wrong. After cycling the throttle and mixture knobs, it seemed to go away. A stuck float perhaps? I'm not a carb guy, so I really don't know. I overloade with fuel, so that if I was still drip, drip, dripping, I would still have enough fuel to make it home safely. I'm not sure if the mechanic looked at it today or not, but it will be looked at soon, to try and determine the case.

Alex,
I had no idea my ELT would last that long! If I had known, I probably would have left it on. I heard an airplane fly overhead about 1000 on Monday which was probably you. I only heard the plane high overhead, and never saw it. I shot up a flare, that apparently went unnoticed. I also turned on my ELT and left it on for about 10 minutes, and jumped on the radio and tried 123.6 and 122.9, but couldn't reach anyone. About an hour later, is when I heard someone land on that lake. I knew it was a big lake, and there was a good chance that the plane would not taxi all the way to the end. I jumped on the radios again, but still nothing. I shot up a second flare, which apprently was right in front of Jon Berryman. I don't know what was up with the radios at that time, but I could not raise anybody from that cove I was moored in.

Hope that answers any questions up to this point. I'm still finding questions of my own...

Safe

Glad you made it guy. This stuff goes the wrong way all too often.

That's mean country in the weather too . I've got pictures taken from a mile or two offshore between Nuka Point and Gore. The surf was hitting the cliffs and squirting about a hundred feet high and the winds blowing it back inland for a mile or so. Lots of wiliwaws in the bays too. Seas were running 25 to 30 ft in the troughs. I hid just inside Port Dick in one of those coves below your lake. Interestingly, my Globalstar handheld worked great from there.

Tough country for a picnic. Were you fishing or bear hunting?

I was actually out there goat hunting. It is in a permit area for goat, and I was lucky enough to draw a ticket this year. I saw a few beautiful animals, however never had a good shot on any. Even with no kill, it was a great hunt, it just turned out to be about three days longer than planned, and a little more adventurous.

-12 Flyer

Got to hand it to you---you sure seemed prepared for what you went through. I sure was disappointed to hear that the center freq did not work for you as the times I tried it---at most a 5 min wait for a reply. That was on the west side of the AK range and once in amongst the Ak range. Anyway, good job and glad to have you back home. Thanks again for posting the story as I am sure many have followed it with interest. That goes for you also Alex.

Mark