Please Help us Find our Father..

[Garrett Power]

My father has been missing since October 23rd. He was enroute from Revelstoke to Qualicom Beach. There was a radar hit @approx. 4:30 pm 7 miles south of Spences Bridge going WSW climbing through 5900 feet. He left Revelstoke @ 2:30 pm. We have been doing our own search since the military called off the search and we are looking for some pilots with mountain experience to take a few minutes and look @ the VNC and put yourself in the situation. He was flying a standard 172 the winds were reported to be 58 knots at 10,000 feet and dark is at 6:00?
We have done our own search by helicopter and are doing alot on foot due to the thick bush.
We will go to any length to find our father and any insight would be so appreciated. You can PM me if you like. Or e-mail me at helpfindronboychuk@hotmail.com.
Thank You in Advance.
GP
P.S. If there are any military or CASARA people reading this we thank you with all our hearts for the effort you gave the search.

[invertedattitude]

Well, I'm not much help being on the east-coast, but I wish you the best of luck, and you'll be in my prayers... best of luck!

[bmc]

My heart is with you and your family right now. Tough times.

[neechi]

Best wishes to you in your search. Wish I could be of more help.

[CYQMer]

I wish you luck Garrett. Must not be an easy time for you.

[CJ3PILOT]

We watch everytime we fly west.We are always on the lookout.

[Justwannafly]

My heart is with you and your family right now. You'll be in my prayers
Best of luck

[Widow]

BC Flyers please keep eyes open ...

[canwhitewolf]

pm sent garrett nov 17

[canwhitewolf]

Weeks ago Karma: 3
this is an edit because although i feel the below information has some valdity, i am now beinning to look at the track from last radar positon to boston bar as well and particularly from lytton down the fraser river valley and applying the same kind of flight analysis, when i have completed this i will post my opinions on this as to possible locations for this downed airman in those areas.

I am of the opinion the crash site will be not a great distance from lytton
maybe less than 20 miles


whitewolf


************************************************************************

i do have an opinion on it all for what its worth

there was a radar blip (unconfirmed by squawking ident of course) and some variance of the time of that, but was observed by a border patrol aircraft (out of wyoming possibly) and ties in very well with his estimated time south of spences bridge whichever way he flew there, through the passes and canyons, or direct from cyrv. (I have 2 radar positons south of spences bridge I dont know which is correct,


whats most significant from my perspective is the fact there "wasn't another radar blip" contact after that ,despite the fact he was sopposedly climbing to higher altitude, (perhaps he didnt climb)


"that's important"



now there could be other reasons as well, the position and flight path of the radar plane , its altitide and distance as well.

But we are only talking here of several minutes in time, enough time for the cessna to climb from about 5900 ft to 8000 ft or higher for perhaps a direct flight to cat 4 ( or towards boston bar)or towards lytton....(lets say 300FPM for 7 mins approximately to get above the terrain in that location so he could be spotted)

during that time the most distance the radar plane would travel in 7 mins assuming 5 miles per minute( for an average guess) would be 35 miles further on, so he probably could well have been able to track that cessna at his "higher altitude"

"There was NO other blip that i know of"....

that leads me to some very serious thoughts that the plane went down between the time at radar contact point south of spences bridge and within the next approximately 15 mins or so or "past lytton in fraser river valley".... there was a sighting of a plane similar in color passing north to south at lower altitude at lytton at 1605 hrs approixmately, perhaps that is another clue as the last radar sighting was at approximatly 1557 hrs some 13 miles ESE from there

from my perspective this is a high probability area south of lytton at keefers, if he was in trouble then it would make sense that he would try and make Keefers grass airstrip to land, keefers is about 18 miles from lytton in close proximity to blue lake
this area surrounding should be searched at low altitude and slow as the plane will be well hidden ,....or great photos of the area taken and imagery specialists look at it very carefully. allowing for wind drift,,winds at altitude and so on,

a polygon or rectangle could easily be constructed of the search area and the area around that grass airstrip particularly south of blue lake, winds being what they were that dayIn regards to my trying to figure it all out and as expressed here, I feel that Ron Boychuk could be in this area, Ive also pondered another location for the track of 195 degrees as seen by the radar plane ( if indeed it was valid as his flight path and not just a temporary diversion of track) that could have been towards boston bar or abbotsford/chilliwack but is far less likely in my opinion

I believe Ron Boychuk was a well qualified pilot and for 250 hours had lots of good experience..far more than the average sunday flyer thats for sure.

Ron Himself had a career that probably required to him to pay attention to detail and that would carry over to his flying as well, it was said he was a great pilot and not one to take unnecessary chances.

I believe he flew that day in full confidence that the weather was ok for the flight, the very fact he left so late was because he was probably checking right up to the last minute to be sure, and when confident he took off from springbank for CYRV and CAT4


I suspect a Birdstrike could have brought the plane down, the man was a biologist so an eagle flying would have been of great interest you see, an eagle weighs upwards of 8-15 lbs and flies at 75+mph and thats a lot of potential kinetic energy when it hits something. or perhaps a goose

something happened and a birdstrike could do this , particularly if it hit the cockpit windscreen or even he propellor causing a flight and power problem

plane well hidden probably.

whitewolf

[Garrett Power]

We just got this image from the search on the internet sar site. We will be heading in as soon as the roads are clear.

[Widow]

Best of luck ... I've thought a lot about you and your family these last months.

[canwhitewolf]

dltd

[Ogee]

I did an exercise with Google Earth placing the Sceptre on the border directly south of hope at 20,000 feet and putting the 172 at 5400 feet. It was just barely visible and when it moved two miles it disappeared. The hit may have just come in an updraft and then line of site was lost and the target disappeared. It moves, the Sceptre moves, and its not seen again.

The winds were 50 knots at 10,000 feet that day. It would have been living hell in a 172 at Lytton at that time. Generally nobody who knows the story goes by Lytton when the surface winds are much above 20 knots and certainly not 30. There can be enormous downdrafts just northeast of the Lytton airport, some of the worst I've seen in 30 years of mountain flying.

One of the best mountain pilots in BC was scheduled to fly out of Pemberton that day exactly where Ron's track would have come up on the Pemberton River. He stayed on the ground.

You simply cannot expect to survive travelling through the high mountains between Lytton and Squamish with 50 knot winds in the peaks.

I agree with your estimate of the most likely area of wreckage, but it is also possible the aircraft never made it to Salmon Arm.

That jpg does look promising and I hope for the family's sake that it proves out, but its odd to see an aircraft hung up in the trees so high up.

[rum-runner]

What is it in the picture that has your attention? The clearing beside the road?

I dont see anything other than the clearing.

Where is the picture from?

[Ogee]

There is something up in the tree tops at the right of that clearing that is the same color as the missing aircraft. I think that is where the interest is, but could be something else I haven't seen.

[canwhitewolf]

post deleted


ww

[MyMeowCat]

Hi CanWhiteWolf:

See if you can get a GPS coordinates on that image if possible.

Maybe zoom the pic out a bit and show us the relative position to the Highway and post it up. If anyone recognizes a particular bump/turn in the highway they might decide to just take a hike though that area.

MyMeowCat

[Four1oh]

there's never a shortage of student pilots wanting a reason to burn some holes in the sky... maybe someone might make a cross-country out of it and do a flybye?

My 2 cents on the photo. Something about it was bugging me, then I realized that, the 'plane' seems out of scale to the trees around it, and it does seem to be off the ground, which makes me think it may be a fallen tree(or 2) that are leaning on the trees around it. I still think it's worth a look, especially with a road so close by.

[canwhitewolf]

Hi CanWhiteWolf:

See if you can get a GPS coordinates on that image if possible.

Maybe zoom the pic out a bit and show us the relative position to the Highway and post it up. If anyone recognizes a particular bump/turn in the highway they might decide to just take a hike though that area.

MyMeowCat

********************************************************************

unable to do that as it's not my picture or post or image and so have no idea where the image came from other than whats stated, sorry

whitewolf

[canwhitewolf]

I did an exercise with Google Earth placing the Sceptre on the border directly south of hope at 20,000 feet and putting the 172 at 5400 feet. It was just barely visible and when it moved two miles it disappeared. The hit may have just come in an updraft and then line of site was lost and the target disappeared. It moves, the Sceptre moves, and its not seen again.

The winds were 50 knots at 10,000 feet that day. It would have been living hell in a 172 at Lytton at that time. Generally nobody who knows the story goes by Lytton when the surface winds are much above 20 knots and certainly not 30. There can be enormous downdrafts just northeast of the Lytton airport, some of the worst I've seen in 30 years of mountain flying.

One of the best mountain pilots in BC was scheduled to fly out of Pemberton that day exactly where Ron's track would have come up on the Pemberton River. He stayed on the ground.

You simply cannot expect to survive travelling through the high mountains between Lytton and Squamish with 50 knot winds in the peaks.

I agree with your estimate of the most likely area of wreckage, but it is also possible the aircraft never made it to Salmon Arm.

That jpg does look promising and I hope for the family's sake that it proves out, but its odd to see an aircraft hung up in the trees so high up.

**************************************************************

radar tracked a plane out of revelstoke that ties in with his departure time after he exited the valley outside of 3 valley gap and onwards, and are reasonably sure it was him ,and did in fact have track on a plane beyond that and in all probablilty was Mr boychuks plane , so yes he probabaly did make it past salmon arm and beyond

[Catmando]

We just got this image from the search on the internet sar site. We will be heading in as soon as the roads are clear.

Give us the coordinates for this image...see what we can do?
We have a very good image analalyst.

[Garrett Power]

Thanks for the help people, it is very much appreciated. I just got back from checking the spot in the image...... It was deadfall and two large rocks....
The search continues...........
Thanks again all.

[girl in flight]

I will pray for your Family.

A vision: Search the waters.