Search And Rescue Review

Powerful tool for Helicopter Search & Rescue ★★★★

by jpavionics - Version - 1.7 - Jul 1, 2015

I’ve been utilizing this app as a back up to the onboard navigation equipment. Its helped with identifying names and locations of local landmarks, roads, and popular trails such as the Pacific Crest Trail which is well marked within the app. The only downside to this app is that it requires around 2GB of memory on your device to store the 3D maps. But for what I do, I’m more than willing to give up that space on my phone/ipad for that. It would be nice if maps could be downloaded in sections, like maybe by state or region to take up less space. The only reason I give it 4 stars is because there is always room for improvement. I’d like to see an option that lets you calculate distance between two points. Right now it only has the option to calc distance from present position to your objective. For the price of the app and In-app Purchase, this is the best tool for the SAR community that I’ve used so far. I’ve paired my phone with a Bad Elf GPS Rx’r for better SAT reception when the phones onboard Rx’r just won’t cut it. The app eats up battery quick so when using it for extended searches/Nav, make sure you’ve got an external battery.

-Thanks jpavionics! This type of feedback is what inspires me to continue to develop and improve my apps. You may like the new Scenic Map app which downloads the map data by degree and caches it for use when offline.

To calculate the distance between two points while recording a GPS track, tap the info button to activate the compass rose. Move it to the first point. Tap the Waypoints tab and then tap the + button in the toolbar to create a waypoint. Name it whatever you want. Tap on the gold star next to the new waypoint you just created. It will turn red indicating it is the selected waypoint. Tap on a map preset tab to return to the map. Move the cursor to the second point. The bearing line will now stretch between the selected waypoint and the point under the compass rose at the center of the map. The top info bar will display the range and distance to that point. You can optionally create another waypoint for the second point which will allow you to go back to that point again or mark it as the selected waypoint if you want to find the range and bearing to other points. Don't forget to deselect the waypoint if you want to use your current GPS location as the start of the bearing line again.