Help needed to find missing cyclist

[Stiggy]

Hi guys.

My wife uses a Namola, looks like a garage remote. It has a live track feature as well as a panic button.

I get notified if she pushes it as well as an operator will call her asking if she needs assistance. If there is an issue, a notification is sent to nearby police, ambulance or security vehicles to help. It's a great added safety feature

[ChrisF]

5 minutes ago, Stiggy said:

Hi guys.

My wife uses a Namola, looks like a garage remote. It has a live track feature as well as a panic button.

I get notified if she pushes it as well as an operator will call her asking if she needs assistance. If there is an issue, a notification is sent to nearby police, ambulance or security vehicles to help. It's a great added safety feature

 

Seems they have moved on ....

[Eddy Gordo]

My phone(huawei) has a panic button option and sends out location to anyone you ad in the list. 

Only gripe is, having to get the phone out and press the button 3 times. I also use strava live location.

[ajnkzn]

2 hours ago, Dexter-morgan said:

This AA thing is also looking like a great option, I think its like R65/month though.

For the cost of 2 x coffees seems like a bargain

[Martin PJ]

The Strava App leaves a bread crumb, can share it with group of people, also forward the link to anyone. It's a URL that you generate.

[Shebeen]

a lot of suggestions here on what to do in case of emergency.

All cool, but rely on the GSM network*^.

Going on assumption here, he probably had told his wife his intended route and that was that. No live tracking or anything as suggested, and for 99.99999% of bike trips that is totally fine and it never requires a full scale manhunt and makes national news. My thumbsuck is he tried going here

Once he got lost, he could have been out of the GSM network for ages. so none of this really would have helped. Since he was out for 48 hours, we can assume he had a phone on him and the battery died. He might have tried to climb to higher vantage point, we don;t know. A lot of these suggestions here are cool, but they will chow your battery like a boarding school kid on half term, especially when out of GSM range and the phone continually boosts the radio power trying to find signal.

Time will tell what exactly he did, but it seems that following the river down worked. if he had a proper 1:50 000 map which you can have on your phone (or just google offline maps) - then self rescue would have been easier)

*to be safe for sure, Garmin inreach seems to be the cheapest currently, go play around here and see how pricey that still is!

^having a whatsapp/strava/iphone tracking shared with your wife/family is great, but it comes with requirements. if you go out of GSM range and don't ping for 90 minutes is she going to call Mountain Rescue to launch the chopper? You still need to have a plan, it is just a tool.

 

 

[tinmug]

So what actually happened to Alan? Full recovery likely?

[Prince Albert Cycles]

Would be good to get some info on what happened to him 

[Danger Dassie]

Okes only just been found, sure the details will come out in good time. 

[Shebeen]

16 hours ago, Trail-Blazer said:

It is cellphone signal dependent. Or get an iphone 14, with a direct link to satellite in case of emergency. These days, there's no excuse for getting out of touch and causing so much concern amongst friends and family.

 

this intrigued me so I had a deeper look, mainly because I didn't believe a phone had the hardware capabilities to make this possible. turns out you were half right. But the half bit you were wrong is probably dangerous advice for someone locally.

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2022/11/emergency-sos-via-satellite-available-today-on-iphone-14-lineup/

 

so to be perfectly safe DO NOT rely on your Iphone14 as an emergency satellite device locally. I'm not sure what geostationary network this would be running on, but wouldn't hold my breath it will come here anytime soon. the SPOT network issues earlier this year show we are not a bang for buck region

 

 

[dave303e]

39 minutes ago, Shebeen said:

this intrigued me so I had a deeper look, mainly because I didn't believe a phone had the hardware capabilities to make this possible. turns out you were half right. But the half bit you were wrong is probably dangerous advice for someone locally.

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2022/11/emergency-sos-via-satellite-available-today-on-iphone-14-lineup/

 

so to be perfectly safe DO NOT rely on your Iphone14 as an emergency satellite device locally. I'm not sure what geostationary network this would be running on, but wouldn't hold my breath it will come here anytime soon. the SPOT network issues earlier this year show we are not a bang for buck region

 

 

 

The most fool proof solution is a SPOT tracker. But that doesn't fit most people's budget.

You can also get an alzheimers/kids tracking watch for R800 at makro and get a relatively good job done but a bit like insurance- you never really understand why you pay so much until it saves you. When you buy a tracking device- ask yourself- would you rely on it for an atlantic crossing? That kills all GSM based solutions...

 

It is a bit like carrying a .22 derringer, it may give you a great sense of confidence and security- right up until the day you end up facing off against someone with an AK...

[wolver]

Crazy story! Very close to home and makes you realise how easily this can happen.

Worth a listen: https://www.bikeruntri.co.za/post/alan-broderick-s-tale-of-survival

[Shebeen]

17 hours ago, wolver said:

Crazy story! Very close to home and makes you realise how easily this can happen.

Worth a listen: https://www.bikeruntri.co.za/post/alan-broderick-s-tale-of-survival

very cool interview Paul Ingpen.

My takeaways from this as my only real source of info, and coming from the perspective of someone who does adventure racing, has put on adventure races and deals with maps/offline navigation (and is actually sending some rookies into the mountain this weekend). I've also done that trail both in the knysna mtb and just riding and some AR racing within that forest.

Context is that the "this could happen to any of us" mantra doesn't fly with me. He made some decisions that put himself in this situation and they were all avoidable. I'm not fingerpointing at Alan here, he did plenty right to get himself spotted but there should always be lessons to learn from these scenarios, myself definitely included. 

a)doing a metric mega ton of mtb races doesn't make you a navigator in a forest

b)when you get lost, and you don't have a map you go back to the last place you know where you were right. I figure he bombed down a forestry road or just a loose trail, backtrack when it runs out. 

c)don't be stubborn about your mistakes, so often people convince themselves they are right way before they know it for sure they are wrong.

d)look after your phone. He was lost and the battery died, this is your get out of jail free card so don't just let it die. Turn off wifi definitely, put on airplane mode while you find higher ground to get a signal. The phone will hunt for signal on full radio power constantly, so just toggle on to check then toggle it off. While he said he did try this, I am not convinced he wasn't that far from a spot that could have punched through an sms with details. moving on to

e)sms is king, old school but from when phones were crap but effective., The way the network works is that sms is a simple 140character burst of data that doesn't require a signal back to the phone. You can send an sms and not even know it got through. Everything from voicecall to anything internet based (ie. whatsapp) requires a solid 2 way communication channel. SMS also works effectively on lower tech 2G/3G signals that have higher ranges than whatsapp on 4g/5G(when available).

 

Some of these seem obvious now. I guess after 24hours he had no clue where he was or where to go so following the river was the right thing to do. heading dead south would have got him to people eventually if possible.

Using the gps co-ordinates he gave 33' 57' 22" as the position he left his dead gps unit on the sunday lunchtime in the river puts you on the blue star, and he probably went north somewhere into the river on the blue arrows before then to get to this point. if that's the case then starting from the red pentagon it shows that he never even started the Petrus se brand trail (orange). Assuming that's correct then he missioned on a long way before getting lost, He said he has done the trail before. it's marked and is easy to stay on once you've found it. Speaks to A, B and C here.

 

 

 

his takeaway is to get a GPS unit with livetracking - I assume that means basemaps. you can have that on you phone already. I highly suggest avenza if you are into this sort of thing. or the offline paper trail map is always handy, here is the one in question

 

 

secondly, I dunno about taking boating flares cycling as a good idea. If you really want to hail down a plane then a waterproof cigarette lighter probably more useful.

 

I hope this doesn't come across as condescending, mtb and exploring is cool fun and I want people to push boundaries and enjoy it. Oh and to repeat an earlier post a whistle could have been lifesaving cheap grams here. Secondly, not really for a 3 hour ride, but a space blanket in your camelback is a winner too. 

[Shebeen]

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Avenza

Fyi, this yes the screenshot of the area in avenza. The government issue 1:50000 maps that your taxes have paid for are free to download. Your phone GPS will put your pin in on the map.

I download the right maps and then it works in no signal. 

[Jewbacca]

Also, to add to what Shebeen has said, higher ground is king. Ridgelines over river beds. The foliage is usually less dense, you can more often than not see the sun and you have more chance of seeing a land mark or something to aim for. You also have more chance of getting cell signal.

Also important to have a look on google maps/a map to see where the nearest service road is and where it goes 'in case' you run into trouble. That way you know it's always going to be due East (insert direction) and can follow the sun or the compass on your fancy watch.

Glad this didn't end differently, but it's a good opportunity to learn for those going away with their bikes to places they don't know.

(I might not have the same credentials as Shebeen but I have successfully navigated with a compass and a map in places/countries/mountains/deserts I had never been to before.)

Edited December 9, 2022 by Jewbacca

[Scary Rider]

42 minutes ago, Shebeen said:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Avenza

Fyi, this yes the screenshot of the area in avenza. The government issue 1:50000 maps that your taxes have paid for are free to download. Your phone GPS will put your pin in on the map.

I download the right maps and then it works in no signal. 

With this I must totally agree! I'm a bit oldschool myself and ordinary topographical maps along with knowing your north, etc will go a long way in getting out of a sticky situation. Been there myself.