How Spidertracks' Automated Watch Mode Adds an Extra Level of Safety to Your Operations
We talk a lot about how safe the aviation industry has become thanks to things like new and emerging technology and international regulations and cooperation. But for all that, there’s still some inherent risk to flying a man-made machine through the sky — so why wouldn’t you want to boost your safety and security however you can?
One of the features we provide here at Spidertracks is our patented Spider Watch system: an automated watch mode that adds an extra layer of safety to your operations and bolsters the peace of mind you already enjoy with a real-time flight tracking system. Here’s how it works and how it can benefit your aviation business.
WHAT IS SPIDER WATCH?
When your Spider is active, it can operate in one of two modes. Normal mode allows you to set your own parameters and configurations — meaning the Spider will ping position reports to our system whenever you set it to do so. This also means that if the Spider stops communicating with the system, Spidertracks assumes it’s because it’s happened at a normal stage of the flight (i.e. the aircraft has powered down), and therefore it doesn’t generate any alerts outside of the default settings.
But when Spider Watch is enabled, it sends position reports to the system at two-minute intervals (you can set it to one-minute intervals if you prefer, but we don’t allow you to set it for longer than two) — and if 15 minutes elapse without a position report being sent, Spider Watch sends an automatic SOS message (via both text and email) to your tier-one contacts. (Tier-one contacts can be assigned by any account administrator. They should be people who can respond relatively immediately to any SOS message.)
HOW CAN I SET UP SPIDER WATCH?
You can activate Spider Watch manually or set it up to run whenever your Spider’s in action.
To do it manually, press the blue WATCH button on your Spider’s keypad before you begin your flight. Once you’ve safely landed, be sure to turn it off by pressing the WATCH button again and waiting until the blue LED stops flashing. Once that’s done, you can power down your aircraft. If you forget to turn off Spider Watch, it’ll raise a tier-one alert after 15 minutes of silence.
To have it run autonomously, head to Aircraft Settings in your account and configure the reporting type to Automatic Watch. This will ensure Spider Watch starts up when your Spider powers on — but you still need to manually turn it off when you’ve landed!
HOW CAN SPIDER WATCH BENEFIT YOUR OPERATION?
Spider Watch essentially functions as your aircraft’s guardian angel, silently keeping tabs on its whereabouts and ready to alert you the moment something goes awry. It takes minimal to no manual work on the part of your pilot(s), making it a valuable and efficient addition to your safety firewall.
It’s not hard to see the advantages of such a feature, especially if you’re flying in remote areas where communication may drop out or if, say, you’re a part of an aerial response to a disaster such as a fire or a hurricane. If one of your aircraft were to go down, you’d know exactly where to look for them thanks to Spider Watch.
An automatically generated SOS is also an integral piece of your organization’s Safety Management System.
Interested in learning more about Spider Watch or Spidertracks in general? Schedule a demo now.
