OziFleet Tracking Seaplanes

On February 28, 2005 one of Vancouver Islands Air's seaplanes crashed, taking five lives. The initial search never did find the plane or the bodies. Later the plane was found by a private searcher, but no bodies.

So this incident would not be repeated, Vancouver Island Air contacted Quinsam Radio Communications of Campbell River B.C. to inquire about a system to track their seaplanes.

At the time, Quinsam Radio was working with Spectrum Digital Imaging to develop a tracking system using Kenwood vhf/uhf two-way radios and a gps receiver. Spectrum Digital Imaging has the digital mapping experience and is the Canadian representative for OziExplorer GPS Mapping software.

It was an excellent fit, Quinsam Radio set up the communication network and made hardware adjustments where necessary to eliminate dead spots. Spectrum Digital Imaging supplied the digital mapping and Des Newman, in collaboration with Spectrum Digital Imaging and Quinsam Radio, wrote the OziFleet program. Quinsam Radio and Spectrum Digital Imaging did the system testing. The system has been in service for over 3 years with no problems.

To see the working system go to www.vancouverislandair.com, click on Real-Time Aircraft Tracking on the top left corner of the home page.

Flying the B.C. coast at the best of times can be treacherous because of weather and terrain. To see a topographical map of some of the area that is serviced by Vancouver Island Air click on a map download of Bute Inlet. Map produced By Spectrum Digital Imaging.

OziFleet was produced for this type of application, which requires topographical maps, marine charts, air charts, Google Earth georeferenced images, or other types of digital raster mapping.

Most digital mapping data, whether commercial or private, can be converted to work with OziFleet Tracking software.