sar Archives - The Rotary Wing Show Podcast

Dave Blackwell, CEO of Spidertracks has a freight industry and engineering background. The company's tracking units are installed in over 5000 aircraft around the world. — Dave Blackwell, CEO of Spidertracks has a freight industry and engineering background. The company’s tracking units are installed in over 5000 aircraft around the world.

Spidertracks is a New Zealand company that produces a real time tracking solution for general aviation allowing owners and operators to know exactly where their aircraft are and to greatly increase the speed of rescue if something should go wrong.

Dave Blackwell is the CEO of Spidertracks. In this episode he talks about the technology behind real time tracking and Spidertracks including the Iridium satellite network. Dave was a managing director of a US freight business for 7 years before returning to New Zealand and formalising his qualifications with an engineering degree. He was hired on as the operations manager at Spidertracks, then chief operating officer and now CEO.

The event that triggered the idea and development of Spidertracks was a 2005 EC120 helicopter crash in New Zealand. The helicopter crashed mid-morning but the search was not started until that evening. An ELT was fitted but the antenna was broken in the crash. The SAR effort lasted 15 days and cost over NZ$1,000,000 before the wreckage was found.

[Tweet “With nightfall coming on & absolutely no idea of where to start the search the RCC launched a SAR effort”]

The company has clocked over 5 million flight hours of flight following since 2007 and have their products in 99 countries around the world.

Plug & play setup of a Spidertracks unit. The device needs 12V power from the aircraft and then can be mounted with adhesive strips in the cockpit. Once paired with the operator account through the website setup is complete.

Podcast: Subscribe in iTunes | Play in new window | Download

In this week’s episode:

01:00 Heliexpo
02:10 Listeners in 118 countries
03:00 Competition for custom aviation drawing
03:45 Dave Blackwell bio
04:32 Spidertracks real time tracking
05:45 Who is using it and market growth
09:10 2005 EC120 helicopter crash in New Zealand
11:40 Creation of the first product – GPS receiver and Iridium modem
12:40 Early take up of Spidertracks – first 100 units
14:10 Office locations and core team of 13 people
14:40 What Spidertracks looks like and installation
16:20 Iridium satellite constellation – 66 satellites
18:08 Alaska charter flight case study
20:10 Use of Spidertracks in accident investigations and ownership of the data/privacy
22:00 Aircrew interface on the units – 3 buttons – SOS, Watch, Mark
29:30 African parks use of mark feature
30:20 Web/phone app display dashboard
31:25 Insurance rebate possibility
32:50 3rd party integrations and data feeds
35:45 Future features planned
38:20 Real time tracking doesn’t have to be complicated
39:50 SpiderTxt new feature for messages through satellite update
40:40 Opensignal.com mobile phone coverage around the world
41:30 Kayla – winner of custom drawing, a Hiller 12C
42:45 Episode Sponsors trainmorepilots.com – Instagram tip
43:50 AHIA Rotortech2016, Sunshine Coast, Queensland May 2016

Links from this week’s episode:
Spidertracks website
Marc Philipp Veenendaal’s Instagram account with aviation drawings
Opensignal.com – mobile phone coverage areas worldwide

[Tweet “Pole to pole coverage, always a satellite within view, 100mins to orbit the earth”]

Video – Spidertracks unit sent into space.
[leadplayer_vid id=”56D2E339B89A0″]

Dashtop screen showing flight tracks of paired spidertrack units.

Congratulations to Kayla Segerstrom Perez from Texas for winning the random draw from Episode 39. Her Dad is a dual rated CFI and taught Kayla’s 2 brothers to fly helicopters with Kayla to finish her training sometime soon too. Her first helicopter flight was in a Hiller 12C that her dad still owns. Kayla is the owner of an aviation industry marketing and airshow production company – Rotorwash Media

Kayla(Right) was the winner of the competition from Episode 39 and has won a custom drawing of a Hiller 12C owned by her Dad (Left)

Marc Veenendaal has drawn a Hiller 12C for Kayla and that will be in the mail to her shortly. Thank you to everyone that entered.

A photo posted by Marc Philipp Veenendaal (@marc_mpv) on Feb 27, 2016 at 4:42am PST

Have you used a Spidertracks unit or have a comment about the episode? Be part of the conversation below.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Jerry Grayson was a RAN SAR pilot flying Wessex helicopters before starting his own company and later moving into film flying.

As a Royal Navy SAR pilot Jerry Grayson was involved in a number of high profile rescue missions along with the crews of the Wessex helicopters he piloted. He has written a book – Rescue Pilot – that captures many of the stories of this part of his career.

Jerry decided early on in life that he was going to fly. He ended up at a very young age in the Royal Navy flying Sea Kings, Whirlwinds and Wessex machines. In this interview we cover several of the tales from his Navy career including his time upon the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal.

[Tweet “I’d had enough of school, its time to go flying”]
[Tweet “The deck of a carrier is THE most exciting place on earth”]

This of course only gets as a few years into Jerry’s career. After leaving the Navy, Jerry started a commercial helicopter company which saw him involved in a wide range of operations and flying a variety of helicopters.

One incident that we spend a little time going into depth on is a tailrotor driveshaft failure that Jerry experienced in an Augusta 109. It’s our hope that listeners might be able to draw in some small way from this experience should they ever find themselves unlucky enough to be in a similar situation.

Jerry has since gone on to significant success and renown as a helicopter film pilot with contracts on several high profile films (including Blackhawk Down with past guest Dennis Kenyon), Formula 1, Soccer World Cup, Olympics, Commonwealth Games and even written, directed and flown for an IMAX film.

There is a lot more to Jerry’s career and achievements so you’ll just have to listen to find out.

Podcast: Subscribe in iTunes | Play in new window | Download

In this week’s episode:

00:52 Rescue Pilot – book by Jerry Grayson
02:40 Book background and media appearances
07:06 BBC Fast Net Yacht Race reunion radio show
09:38 Finding old Whirlwind/Wessex airframes – firefighting training props, paintball field targets
11:50 Air Force Cross – highest award for gallantry in the air (UK) – Greek Medal of Honour
15:47 Meeting the Queen
16:40 Selection board for Royal Navy at 16
18:30 Flying scholarship to civil PPL school and running errands for Micky Lauder, race driver
19:55 British aircraft carrier Ark Royal
20:50 PlaneGuard role to pick up fixed wing aircraft ditching off carriers
22:45 Seaking stranded on the surface with one engine at night
26:35 Navigating overwater before GPS
30:30 Losing map out the window
32:40 Flying the Whirlwind/Wessex
37:30 Film flying and division of cockpit duties
38:50 Tail rotor failure in an Augusta 109
48:15 Airborne external inspection of tail rotor by S76
50:55 The last mile to the runway down to 60kts run on
56:10 Some advice on flying
58:50 What is next for Jerry Grayson
1:01:36 Video of Jerry talking about the Wessex helicopter and the book
1:02:00 Feedback on the show, leave a comment

Links from this week’s episode:
Episode Sponsors trainmorepilots.com
Rescue Pilot – book website
Helifilms Australia – Jerry’s Aerial Filming Company
World Helicopter Day

Jerry talks a little bit about the Wessex helicopter and rescues at sea in this promo video for his book.
[leadplayer_vid id=”555079860B909″]

Jerry is flying in this photo of a Wessex at a base display day. A marine pulled a smoke grenade in the cabin putting the cockpit into IMC on departure.

[Tweet “The airflow in a helicopter is specifically designed to take your map out the window”]
[Tweet “So macho to climb up the side and mount your trusty steed (Wessex Helicopter)”]

Be part of the conversation and get involved in the comments section below. What questions do you have about Jerry’s interview?

Tag: sar

RWS 42 – Spidertracks Real-Time Tracking with Dave Blackwell

RWS 29 – Ocean Rescues and a Tail Rotor Failure with Jerry Grayson