This page was created on Tuesday, September 18, 2007
My father received an email from a fellow Ham Radio Operator regarding the search for Steve Fossett. It gives a unique view of what it is like to look for a downed pilot and how everyone pulls together to search for them. Here are some photos and the emails that he received. They are from Bill Talanian, W1UUQ. All photo’s and info in the text are property of Bill Talanian and are reproduced here with his permission.
From: Bill Talanian, W1UUQ
Sent: Saturday, September 15, 2007 1:35 PM
To:
Subject: The Search for Steve Fossett
Hello Folks,
The short story.
The search for Steve Fossett and how I got involved was rather
interesting. My name was brought up as someone who might be able to help
out with a communications problem. A three man team was pulled together
and tasked to solve this problem. A pilot from Chatsworth, a tech from
Fort Worth, and I, each with vast experience in this field.
After days of searching by the Nevada and California Civil Air Patrol
and National Guard the friends of Steve Fossett got together and decided
they needed more assets to expand their search over the 17,000 square
miles of hostile terrain the size of Masschusetts. They called in over
20 helicopters and 30 aircraft to set up operations at Barron Hilton's
Flying M ranch. Barron is heir to the Hilton hotel chain and is now 81.
He is an avid aviation buff and has a Cessna Citation on the ramp for
personal transportation. Barron was there every day to oversee that
everyone had whatever was needed. The ranch is isolated and has a 10,000
ft runway so it was ideal for this type of operation. News people were
not allowed anywhere near the property. The logistics of housing, food,
water, jet fuel, and avgas was supplied by the ranch. Search and Rescue
teams from all over the western states were staged at this location
along with the national guard, and law enforcement. A Citation airborne
command post called Hi-Bird was set up and operational from 15-20,000 ft
to manage the search grids, flight following of air assets, and fuel
range of every aircraft.
Our job was to figure a way to extend the communications range of the
Hi-Bird so he could talk to air assets and the Incident Command Center
at the Flying M ranch. There was no time to build up a system on site
but I did know where one was available at Santa Barbara. So another
flight back to the coast to secure this unit. The next day we boarded an
Army Blackhawk helicopter who took us to Grant Mountain which is 11,300
ft high. The pilot found a small spot where he could set the helicopter
down. It took 20 minutes to mount the antennas and place rocks all
around the equipment to keep from losing everything in the high winds.
This is just one single part of the big story in trying to find one man
in the vastness of the Nevada and California mountains with every asset
available. There were many fine people involved in pulling our part
together. Thanks to all who helped in this regard. I spent 5 days in the
field on this special operation and hope that it helps to find Fossett.
A few snapshots are included.
Bill Talanian
*****************************
From: Bill Talanian
Sent: Tuesday, September 18, 2007 11:16 AM
To:
Subject: Trip photo's Fossett search
Hi,
Don't mind their being posted except they are out of order and without
explanation. There is a story behind each picture.
This episode was a full up Ham operation. Trey Shannon, W5JOT, from Ft.
Worth, brought in 3 Motorola repeaters on GMRS plus 10 HT's. The Hams at
Ft. Worth worked through the day and night to package everything up in
Pelican cases. We flew in the 206 back to LAX and picked Trey up then
found they did not want the repeaters when we arrived at the Flying M
ranch. We tried the airborne command post thing with a mobile Motorola
but the cable got pinched as we expected. So scrub that for practical
reasons.
The whole thing was a disaster until I thought of using the Aspen asset
which was sitting back at Oxnard. This is the one from Diablo peak on
Santa Cruz Island. It was not working. We were trying to cobble up a
cross band unit using the HT and GMRS but we were bogged down with no
schematics or one line diagrams. I thought... what if we could put the
Aspen asset air band asset on the 11,000 mountain with the 463/468 link.
Then they could extend the range of the Citation.
Sent Bruce Gordon down there to pick up the Aspen unit. Then we flew in
to SBA and picked it up. That unit subsequently failed on the first go
around but I managed to find the offending cold solder joints. From that
point on we could do no wrong. Also got into a whole bunch of other
repairs.... all having to do with connectors and cables. I knew this
when I started so I threw out all my survival stuff and brought cables,
connectors, the Anritsu and the Bird plus my small tool box. I was right
because when it comes to interconnects people fall apart. NO ONE can
make up a decent PL-259. Fixed several crappy connections at the base
operations. It's all basic stuff but no one was equipped to do it.
Good thing Bruce was around. He worked thru the night and built up a
second air band with UHF link. That one was given to CAP.
Here are some photos I took while flying. I managed to get the job as
Airborne Command Post (Hi-Bird) for two hours while they were refueling
the Citation. Did a crappy job but working with Mark McKibben our pilot
made things come out right. Handling 30 aircraft was a real bear as I
had not done that before. We peaked 13,000 ft which was quite lower than
the Citation but it worked.
Somewhere in my photos is Mt Whitney which is the tallest peak in the
lower 48.
The 3 jet aircraft you see belong to Barron Hilton, Steve Fossett, and
Johnny Myers. Myers is now 97 and still fly's right seat. Myer's was
Jack Northrup's test pilot on the flying wing back in WWII.
Before I arrived the base communications was all FUBAR but I managed to
find some assets to straighten it all out. It is now working fine and I
can sit back for a bit. The Blackhawk helicopter we flew in was reaching
its peak performance at 12,000 ft with the fuel load we had.
So they will use the Lama high altitude helicopter to change out the
batteries every day or so. I'd stick around for that but the crew can
handle that part. You can see the shadow of the Blackhawk in one photo
with the background silhouette of the mountain peaks. Pretty dicey at
times maneuvering in. Will stay on standby in case they need me back at
base operations.
You can see by the terrain features how hard it would be to try and find
a target which may be smaller than a crumpled up VW. They are finding
aircraft that were not located for the past 25 years.
Bill Talanian