TO ASSIST LOST TRAMPERS

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21334, 29 November 1934, Page 8

TO ASSIST LOST TRAMPERS

—♦ —• SYSTEM OF SIGNALLING SUGGESTED EXPERIMENTS TO BE TRIED SHORTLY Tests of a signalling system for trampers and mountaineers will soon be made by Mr J. C. Mercer, chief pilot of the Canterbury Aero CluD, who has given a great deal thought to evolving a means for parties lost or in trouble in the mountains to communicate with air craft sent to search for them. The scheme has already been put before a number of mountaineers and has been received enthusiastically. Mr Mercer's suggestion is that tramping or mountaineering parties should take with them two sets ol three strips of silk, or some other light cloth, each strip to be six feet long and a foot wide. One set should be white, and the other red or orange, the white to be used in bushv or rocky country, and the red on snow or ice. The principle is that a party which has had an accident, could spread strips on the g™ un f.'| n the form of the letter H, indicating that help was wanted. A paity which was overdue, but not. in trouble, could form the strips into the letter K to indicate that it did not need assistance. Assistance lor Airmen Mr Mercer said last evening that the chief trouble in a search by air for a missing party was that an airman often was not able to see the party. It was generally easy to do when there was fuel for the party to light a fire, but in a great deal of the country traversed by climbers and trampers this was not possible. The strips of cloth could lie seen with case from the air, and it should not take a great deal of effort for the mountaineering and tramping clubs to evolve a standard set of signals. Another way they would be invaluable would be their use by parties searching for lost parties. It frequently happened that parties were out for days after the lost ones had been found, and there was no way of letting them know that, the lost people had been found. The scheme is not developed yet, but it seems to offer many possibilities that may eventually .save lives. It would certainly save a great deal of time, because an aeroplane can obviously traverse' an enormously greater area of country in a given time than can a party on foot. The cloth strips would be so small that I hey could he conveniently carried in the corner of a pack or in a pocket. The svstem is soon to be tried in the Franz Josef area.