Contac: Alexia Retallack, Office of Communications and Education (916) 653-8124

Years of experience using wireless communication systems while flying planes helped a Fish and Game warden locate a missing U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) officer March 2. Flying a Department of Fish and Game's (DFG) Cessna 185 Sky Wagon, Warden Robert Morgan headed north to Sierra County to assist in the search for Jim Kincade, a USDA tracker who had been missing for 18 hours.
"We knew that Kincade, as an experienced officer, always kept in communication when he was traveling," said DFG Warden Lt. Richard Vincent."His failure to report in made everyone worry that he had an accident or was injured."
Reports indicated Kincade had been retrieving his dogs after a mountain lion depredation training exercise in Nevada County Thursday but had failed to meet his check-in times. Concerned, the USDA contacted the DFG the morning of March 2, for help in the search.
Morgan was also contacted in the hope that his years of flight experience using telemetry, (a wireless system of identifying inaccessible locations), could help locate Kincade. Morgan planned to use the radio collar frequencies of Kincade's dogs to find the missing USDA officer.
"With a few calls, I found one of Kincade's associates who knew what frequencies Kincade had for his hounds," said Morgan, who has been flying for DFG since 1989. "I took off from Sacramento Executive Airport, punched in the frequencies and headed to the area."
When Morgan arrived on the scene, he immediately picked up a signal from the dogs' collars and began looking for signs of Kincade. He saw what he suspected to be human tracks in the snow and radioed his findings to the command post where ground teams were coordinating their search efforts.
"This stuff is something we do everyday," said Morgan. "We fly telemetry operations easily two to three times a week, so to us, it's no big deal."
Ground telemetry triangulated with Morgan's readings indicated that the team was headed in the right direction. A California Highway Patrol helicopter joined the search, and Morgan guided them to Kincade's location.
"It was something to see that they were there for me," said Kincade who had no cell phone service to let coworkers know of his situation. "It's great to see how organized they are, and to know that if I'd been hurt, they would have gotten me out alive."

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