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Attention CAP members:
As I made my way to work Friday morning I was all too aware of the gloomy, cool weather conditions. I hadn't even gotten my first cup of fresh decaf coffee before the phone rang and the caller inquired as to the whereabouts of the elper and other emergency services equipment. Soon I learned that we were in the middle of a distress signal (ELT) that had been the subject of a Thursday night search. Two ground teams traced a strong signal to a residential area in Bloomington. The location and weather precluded a CAP airplane from assisting in the search and isolating the signal's location.
As a result, we took the clues from Thursday's ground teams, connected with Cpt. Geis and Maj. McLawhorn and went ELT hunting in south Bloomington. We quickly acquired the strong signal just off Old Shakopee Road. We worked the area by taking readings on the alper and attempting to triangulate the signal. This proved to be a frivolous pursuit as we could not isolate the signal and map out where it was coming from. We took readings from parks above the river, in neighborhoods and from school parking lots. The signal was strong and seemed to come from everywhere we checked. We worked our way back to the general area where we started and decided to try some unorthodox methods to try and find the source of the elusive ELT. We were about 95% convinced that we were in the right location when we took to the streets with a mounted/walking search. The old trusty "rubber duck" was pulled out and used to narrow the search down to a few houses. At this point we were looking for any clue that might indicate that a resident might have an airplane. One of the cadets noted a long flatbed trailer in a driveway. Cpt. Markegard decided to ask a resident if anyone in the neighborhood owned an airplane. This seemed unlikely in a very densely populated Bloomington neighborhood. As Cpt. Geis and I listened to our alpers and walked toward the house with the flatbed trailer, Cpt. Markegard received confirmation that there was an airplane at that house. We all approached at once and the homeowner saw us coming and came out to greet us. He invited us into his garage where he had the dismantled, damaged airplane. The owner said the airplane was "dropped" off the trailer Thursday, which likely set the ELT off. When Cpt. Markegard asked him to silence it, he crawled into the back of the airplane and reported that it was "off".
There were more than a few awkward moments as we then questioned if this was the source. Lt. Sommer (the smallest member) then crawled into the confined space and took pictures of the device so we could determined how to handle it. The owner then suggested looking for an on/off switch on the dash. He quickly located it and silenced the stubborn ELT. We all sighed with relief and maybe even let out a brief cheer, I can't recall.
Once again we learned a great deal about what our equipment is telling us. More importantly, we relied on good old-fashioned human intuition and interaction to find the needed clues. Thanks must go to the Thursday night ground teams and incident commander who established the search area. Having that saved many hours of ramp searches and dead ends. Thanks also goes to Cpt. Geis and Maj. McLawhorn for working with us and utilizing their new, digital alper. I can't ever say enough about the dedication of those in St. Paul who answer the call every time asked: Cpt. Markegard, Lt. Niemann, Lt. Sommer, Cadets Hannigan and Niemann, this time you deserve a really big thank you!
Jeff Leif, Captain, Civil Air Patrol
Emergency Services Officer
St. Paul Composite Squadron
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