ACR&Artex Vecta3 - Manual (Page 16)

Y1-03-0235-1C 16
APPENDIX A
– EMERGENCY SCENARIOS
1. Lost diver
Scenario: A yacht is cruising the Caribbean. A small group of SCUBA
divers have launched a dingy to a nearby shallow reef for a day of
diving. All the divers have been outfitted with a Mini B™
300
personal
beacon. It is late afternoon, and after a beautiful day of diving, the winds
are starting to pick up. One of the divers has become lost and after an
unsuccessful search of the nearby area, the Dive Master radios the
yacht of the pending emergency.
The Dive Master returns the divers to the yacht as the captain monitors
the Vecta™
3
from the helm station. The Captain hears the beacon alert
from the lost diver, removes the Vecta™
3
from its bracket, and does a
quick “direction find” on the beacon signal. He then points the Dive
Master in the correct direction to recover the lost diver.
Action: The diver, realizing that the current is sweeping him further and
further away from the dingy, activates the Mini B
300
™
ILS, inflates his
buoyancy compensator and waits for the boat.
On the yacht, unable to visually see the beacon, the Captain removes
the Vecta™
3
from the bridge, moves to an open area of the boat,
extends the mini yagi antennas, and rotates the Vecta™
3
360°, finding a
beacon signal. Using the standard SAR search pattern, the Captain and
Dive Master locate the missing diver a few miles down current.
2. ELT false activation
Scenario: A Cessna 172 makes a hard landing at the local airport,
setting off the impact activated ELT. An old fashioned TSO-C91 ELT
does not notify him that it is transmitting. He taxis to his tie down spot,
shuts down his plane and leaves, not realizing that his TSO-C91 ELT is
transmitting a signal to the Cospas-Sarsat satellite system.
Action: The airport manager, (or ATC, FBO, Unicom, etc.) is alerted to
the ELT transmission by the AC power connected Vecta™
3
. Airport
personnel respond by removing the Vecta™
3
remote omni-directional
antenna connector and AC power supply, unfolding the directional
indicating antennas and initiating a search of the airport grounds to
identify the source of the emergency signal and to determine if indeed
there is an emergency, or if the signal has been set off by accident.
Within minutes they identify the Cessna, notify the owner that his ELT is
falsely transmitting, confirm the transmission via the onboard Nav-Com
radio and shut off the ELT.