Why did my Spider generate a false SOS?

There are 2 situations where a Spider will generate an SOS.

Situation 1.

The Spider is set up in Automated Watch or the pilot has pressed Watch (the blue button on the Spider) and the Spider has lost power either due to an incident or because it was not turned off correctly.

Firstly, It is important to ascertain what has happened, if you know the alert to be false before contacting Support.

1. Check the Spider settings for the aircraft involved, just in case Automated Watch was selected.

2. Check the track, what colour was it? If Automated watch was not selected but the track is blue, the pilot could have inadvertently pressed Watch.

3. Were there any long gaps between points? This could be that there is a GPS issue with the Spider, or that it is being blocked from transmitting from objects in the cockpit, including electrically heated windows. For more information please visit our GPS troubleshooting page.

4. Talk to the pilot, ask what happened.

• Did the pilot turn off Watch?
• Had the blue LED finished flashing before shutting down?

5. Is our Heartbeat active? 

Check that we are online?

If not, the Spider could have issues turning off and may generate an alert due to the message not being received by the Spidertracks website.

If you feel that you would like our Support Team to have a look into the alert, it is helpful to provide as much information as possible, you will be asked;

• To supply the Spider serial number and aircraft it is assigned to
• A photograph of the installation and position of the Spider
• How is the Spider connected to the power supply, is it hardwired directly or are you using the cigar plug?
• Are the connections between the aircraft and unit securely in?
• Is there any damage to the back of the unit or around the power coupling?
• Do you use any other GPS units or Sat phones in the cockpit?
• Has the pilot noticed anything with the LEDs on the unit, are they lit all of the time?
• What type of aircraft do you have your Spider in and does this aircraft have electrical heated windows?
• During the flights could there/has there been anything placed on top of the Spider?

Situation 2.

The pilot has pressed the red SOS button.

1. Ascertain why he pushed the button, was it an accident?

2. Check what you can do to stop this happening in the future.