SPOT Report

Short version: convenient and incredibly accurate if it can get a gps lock.

Long version:
SPOT is a nifty little device sealed in safety orange plastic and rubber intended for hikers, off-roaders and the helpless. It does have a place in general aviation, but the "Help" button needs to be re purposed as "I'm being delayed". Soaring pilots and balloonists might use it for, "I'm here and there's no cell reception." The "911" button should be used for honest to goodness emergencies when you want to activate Emergency Services. There just aren't that many GA situations where someone on your email list can help you better than you can help yourself except in cases where you should be calling Emergency Services anyway.

SPOT has four buttons, Power, OK, Help and 911. It seems like a nice balance between having a texting keyboard (which would hard to make rugged) and just the OMG emergency button that you see on other systems. And all the buttons are independent. There was a story about a guy who was out on the mountain when they had a problem and were too far from civilization to walk out, so he hit 911 to get Search and Rescue out to get them home, but he could also signal his wife with a later "OK" so she knew he was alright without cancelling S&R.

Another nice feature of SPOT is that it has user replaceable batteries - in this case, two AA lithium cells. They should last for a year of ON and gps tracking, 19,000 Help or OK messages, 14 days of tracking or 7 days of 911 alerts every 5 minutes. The lithium cells should probably still be changed bi-annually like your ELT.

I would feel better about it if I could connect an external antenna. When they say the unit needs a clear view of the sky, they aren't kidding. My first test was while sitting on my neighbor's porch, which is covered, but narrow and only cuts off an additional few degrees of sky -- my southern and western skies were clear and it never locked a gps location. In its favor, it was still able to transmit the "Help" notification -- "OK" doesn't transmit without gps coordinates.

When it does get a gps fix, like when it's sitting on the dash of my car, it's really accurate. When I sent a "Help" test message to myself after parking, it was able to accurately locate the exact parking space in a big lot. My plan is to use the "OK" function at the start of the flight and every 30 minutes thereafater when I need to switch fuel tanks* and then finally, once again when landed.

For an extra $50/yr, you can have SPOT track you every 10 minutes (when activated) and assemble a google maps page so that friends and family can follow your progress. It just seems to me that 30 minute updates are fine. It's always something I can add later.

The additonal $8/yr upgrade for GEOS emergency response insurance covers up to $100,000 for rescue costs including helicopter extraction. This seems totally worth it. GA is very safe, but there is the possibility that you'll end up perfectly fine (or even injured) and have to climb down a mountain you never climbed up. Your sectional map is not going to help as much as you'd like.

There is a further $28/yr upgrade for road-side assistance, which seems to assume that you have no one you can call and are maybe afraid to change a tire.

Considering satellite monitoring of 121.5MHz has ended and the new 406 MHz ELT's aren't required by the FAA (and are still quite expensive) -- having this as a backup in your flight bag seems like a good idea. They keep promising inexpensive 406 MHz ELT's with GPS location transmission, but so far these are still in the $2000 to $3000 range plus installation. Maybe not much for aVLJ owner, but for someone with a 1963 Cherokee, this is huge.

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* - For you Cessna drivers, the Cherokee doesn't have a 'both' position for fuel. They also have a somewhat complicated schedule in my 1963 POH -- I just switch every half hour. There's a nifty timer function you can activate to have your Garmin hand-held pop up a reminder.