JoCoSAR Blog

Solution For Map Problem For Compass

The original problem is here.   Exercise by Brian O'Connor

The problem was to locate your approximate position on a map after having taken a bearing of Eagle Mountain (13 degrees) and another of Fiddler mountain (92 degrees).

To start the process, you'd set your compass to 13 degrees (Eagle Mountain).  Secondly, you'd align the north south lines in the compass's capsule with the north south UTM lines of the map with the direction of travel line aimed towards the north edge of the map.  Third, you'd run the compass up or down the map until Eagle Mountain was on one of the compass's edges.  Your location would be somewhere along that line.

Then, you'd repeat the sequence for Fiddler Mountain:  dial in 92 degrees, align capsule's N/S lines with those of map with direction of travel line pointed generally towards the west map border, and slide the compass up or down the map until one of its edges intersected Fiddler Mountain.  Your position would be somewhere along that line, and your best guess would be where the two lines intersect.  This process is called rectification; it is more important to know how to do it than it is to remember the term.

Given the 1:100,000 scale of the blog map and the difficulty of dealing with a computer monitor, this was a challenging exercise, and it's hard to be absolutely precise.  But you certainly should be able to place yourself somewhere in the ball park.  If, for example, you'd been on the trail (to your east) and gotten off it and didn't know where it was, east or west of you, you could easily find it by using this technique on a paper map.

By my reckoning (and your mileage may differ a bit) the lines intersect at roughly:

0431760 mE
4676825 mN

In this problem, I wanted you to notice that other than orienting the map in order to properly identify the landmarks (Eagle Mountain and Fiddler Mountain), you didn't need to worry about either the orientation of the map or the compass's magnetic needle.  Once you'd dialed in the bearing of the two landmarks, you were simply using your compass as a protractor.

Again, you can click on the map to enlarge it and then click on the magnifying glass icon for additional image boost.  You should be near a summit and a bit left of the dotted line trail.

 

Mock Search: Posse Perspective

Eight dollar mountain,  November 7, 2009
 By Laura Harmon

The morning started with a detailed briefing conducted by Shari Friebus with Logistics officer, Bruce Baron and Safety officer, Sheriff Gilbertson.  As the specialty teams arrived and we gathered under a couple of tents with a small amount of rain coming down all around us, we were given descriptions of three subjects and handed maps for the 13 individual team search areas.

The Mounted posse team had a great presence with Don Fasching, Larry and Bridget McStravog, Donna Vest, Laura Harmon as team leader and Keri Wu as our logistics officer.

Our search area started at a dirt road and up the side of the mountain, a very rock filled mountain side.  We proceeded down the dirt road and found multiple foot tracks matching the description of the subjects. We continued to the end of the area, we than spread out into a line with about six feet in between us and proceeded with a grid search while calling out the names of our subjects.  The mountain side became unsafe and we decided to head back to the road and do more of a visual up the mountain side. Laura Harmon spotted a white plastic bag up the side of the mountain and Don Fasching volunteered to climb up and investigate. It was determined that the bag was a clue, so Laura Harmon climbed up to take map co-ordinance and radio back to base. The two made it back down to their horses and continued the search with the team. Several times the team attempted to go up the side of the mountain but to no avail could this be done safely. Laura’s horse Chester suffered a three inch deep cut on his front left leg, Laura and Larry preformed first aid and wrapped the leg and the team continued down as they radioed back to base of the situation.

Although the team was unable to complete the search, command informed them of how close they were to the subject.

Chester is doing well and the wound is healing great.

The Mounted Posse team learned how important it is for every member, to have a GPS and be trained on how to us it.  The four team members Jed Hart, Keri Wu, Cris and Ron Usher are trained, however, they were not available for this search and thus we found our team with little knowledge of the GPS.

                                        

CORSAR: Posse

Approximately a dozen horses and riders participated in the big mock search held on Saturday.  Some teams were in the field searching and some carried lunch and water out to the searchers who were in the remote field.  Unfortunately, I did not photograph most of the horse and rider teams, but I took the shots I could and isn't getting to see some horses infinitely better than seeing none?  So, apologies to those who worked hard, but aren't getting any screen time here.  Send me your pictures and I'll post what I can.  Horses are highly sentient and insightful searchers are using cues from their horses to extend their human search capabilities.  For more about the use of horses in search and rescue go here and here,

SAR's Mounted Posse on Display

Two members of the Josephine County Sheriff Patrol's Mounted Posse brought two of their horses to the Ray's Food Place (Merlin) field yesterday to show the interested public two of SAR's special animals.  

The event provided a great chance to talk about search and rescue, to encourage kids to get up close to the neat stuff, to learn how some of it works and to get adults aware of all the special training that goes into SAR.  (See yesterday's post on the event.) 

Back to the Posse:  Ron and Chris Usher brought "Birdy" and "Holly", two SAR horses, to the Saturday event and rode them around the field.  Kids and adults loved getting close to the horses and finding out more about them individually and as posse horses.  Horses are invaluable during difficult searches because of their sure-footedness, their carrying capacity, the viewing-height they give the rider and because of their sensitivity to their surroundings. 

 It is not generally known that horses are capable of tracking scent and through their excellent noses and ears pick up the presence of another animal or human long before another human will register that presence.  A well-trained rider cued into an alert, trained horse adds to the search capabilities of SAR teams in the field. 

Horses and K9s have complimentary as well as overlapping skills that help in searching for a missing subject.  For more detail on how horses are contributing more than strength to search tactics, see the excellent post on Horse Awareness by Keri Wu here.

Horse Awareness

Keri Wu "rode" into the SAR classroom Thursday night on 

her obedient  "horse" Trigger to present a powerpoint training session on Horse Awareness for SAR ground pounders.  

As good speakers do, Keri kept the information relevant, reinforced take-home points with slides and used gentle humor to keep the audience enthralled.

Wearing a cowboy hat, sporting a pony halter at her waist and riding a palomino stick horse she took her subject seriously, but herself lightly. Everyone left the meeting informed and entertained.  You had to be there....  ;-)

Bummer- if you missed it, but she prepared a detailed handout that you may be able to still pick up at SAR or get her to email to you.  Easier yet, read Keri's excellent Horse Awareness blog entry here.

Ann McGloon will be presenting this Saturday's training session on Search Tactics at 9 AM.  This will not be the same presentation she made to the OSSA academy in January so you won't want to miss it.  There will be a field exercise that will NOT be line-walking to find brass gun casings or poker chips.

Horse Awareness

SAR uses horses (mounted posse) on search and rescue missions when appropriate.  Non-riders especially need to know horse etiquette so neither the horse nor the human induce an avoidable "misunderstanding".  Keri Wu has written an excellent summary of how horses react to their environment (which may include you) with specific suggestions for ground pounders.

     Horse Awareness       

By Keri Wu

Horses are big fast nervous creatures.  They embody characteristics developed through 50 million years of evolutionary changes adapting them to their surroundings and insuring they survive pursuit from predators.  They are animals who are constantly on the alert always watching out for danger.  This alertness is programmed into a horses mind and guides their every action.    They are very reactive to their surroundings due to this hyper vigilance, spring suddenly to startle their prey and in self preservation are given to galloping off first than thinking about it later.