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I carry an InReach mini in my airplane when flying over wilderness areas. Unfortunately I don’t think I could trust the iPhone. With the Garmin you can press on

I carry an InReach mini in my airplane when flying over wilderness areas. Unfortunately I don’t think I could trust the iPhone. With the Garmin you can press one button and it’ll send out an emergency beacon without having to aim it.

ar_turnbull 4y ago
To be fair I barely trust my InReach either. Overcast days, canyons, and any kind of tree cover consistently result in delayed or failed messages. And even if they report as "sent" on the device sometimes the recipient doesn't get them. And for a dedicated device, the tracking feature is laughably bad with worse accuracy than my friend's watch. Better than nothing in case of emergency but the reliability leaves a lot to be desired.
- detaro 4y ago
  Are the messaging and emergency functions the same with those? For emergency beacons there is also a ~400Mhz frequency that is monitored independently (vs satellite communication at higher frequencies)
  - GekkePrutser 4y ago
    InReach uses the same 16xx Mhz Iridium frequency for everything. It does not have a 400Mhz PLB transmitter (which usually come with extendable antennas by the way, due to the ~ 70cm wavelength).
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
googlryas 4y ago
Where are you flying out of curiosity? Flying over sparsely populated areas of rockies in Colorado, I very frequently have cell service. Having said that, nothing wrong with being prepared, I'm just curious about your situation. I might start doing that too. I always figured if I actually went down, landing would be the hard part, not staying alive once I landed.
- GekkePrutser 4y ago
  Of course that's the hard part. But if you do survive the landing you'll be very glad you have communications available :)
- oceanplexian 4y ago
  Utah and Nevada, for the most part. There are lots of great places to land, but being stuck in the desert without any way to communicate is a very real possibility (Ironically, even at many small town airports I’ve landed at).
- Gh0stRAT 4y ago
  Those full bars of coverage you had at altitude are probably going to disappear the moment you lose line-of-sight. That said, aircraft have ELTs which are supposed to trigger on impact and can be manually activated as well, so an InReach probably wouldn't make a life-or-death difference very often.
saagarjha 4y ago
I would guess this feature is more for hikers, etc. who wouldn't really want to carry extra things if they could avoid it.

ar_turnbull 4y ago

To be fair I barely trust my InReach either. Overcast days, canyons, and any kind of tree cover consistently result in delayed or failed messages. And even if they report as "sent" on the device sometimes the recipient doesn't get them. And for a dedicated device, the tracking feature is laughably bad with worse accuracy than my friend's watch. Better than nothing in case of emergency but the reliability leaves a lot to be desired.

detaro 4y ago
Are the messaging and emergency functions the same with those? For emergency beacons there is also a ~400Mhz frequency that is monitored independently (vs satellite communication at higher frequencies)
- GekkePrutser 4y ago
  InReach uses the same 16xx Mhz Iridium frequency for everything. It does not have a 400Mhz PLB transmitter (which usually come with extendable antennas by the way, due to the ~ 70cm wavelength).
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

googlryas 4y ago

Where are you flying out of curiosity? Flying over sparsely populated areas of rockies in Colorado, I very frequently have cell service. Having said that, nothing wrong with being prepared, I'm just curious about your situation. I might start doing that too. I always figured if I actually went down, landing would be the hard part, not staying alive once I landed.

GekkePrutser 4y ago
Of course that's the hard part. But if you do survive the landing you'll be very glad you have communications available :)
oceanplexian 4y ago
Utah and Nevada, for the most part. There are lots of great places to land, but being stuck in the desert without any way to communicate is a very real possibility (Ironically, even at many small town airports I’ve landed at).
Gh0stRAT 4y ago
Those full bars of coverage you had at altitude are probably going to disappear the moment you lose line-of-sight. That said, aircraft have ELTs which are supposed to trigger on impact and can be manually activated as well, so an InReach probably wouldn't make a life-or-death difference very often.

saagarjha 4y ago

I would guess this feature is more for hikers, etc. who wouldn't really want to carry extra things if they could avoid it.