News Highlights

Student helping search for missing pilot in N.D.

Using highly specialized camera

A Minnesota State Mankato student, 1st Lt. Nash Pherson of the Civil Air Patrol, has joined the search for a Minnesota pilot missing in North Dakota. Pherson is one of only six people in a five-state area who are trained to use a specialized computer system to spot aircraft wreckage.

2006-08-30
By Dylan Thomas, Free Press Staff Writer [published in The Free Press, Mankato, MN, 8/30/2006]

MANKATO — Among the small number of people in the region trained to use an advanced airborne camera system, two area Civil Air Patrol members have joined the search for a Minnesota pilot missing in North Dakota.

1st Lt. Nash Pherson of St. Peter and Master Sgt. John Vanderhoof of Kasota will lend their special skills to the hunt for 60-year-old Bob Nelson of Battle Lake.

Pherson, a Minnesota State University senior, said he and Vanderhoof are two of the six people in a five-state area trained to use ARCHER, a special computer and camera system used to spot aircraft wreckage.

"The Civil Air Patrol is the only organization using this technology," Pherson, reached by phone Tuesday in Fargo, said. "... This stuff is as cutting edge as it gets."

Three other Civil Air Patrol members based in Mankato joined the search and rescue mission, flying to North Dakota in a Cessna C- 172 used in airborne visual and electronic searches.

Pherson said ARCHER scans the ground with a high resolution camera that can detect a range of light about twice that of the human eye. The images it collects are processed by a computer that can distinguish between the reflections that are coming off of natural and man-made materials.

"The way an organic material like grass reflects light is very different from white painted aluminum," Pherson explained.

When the computer detects something out-of-place, either Nash or Vanderhoof analyze the image. The system can only scan a small area at a time, so it is being used mainly over lakes and ravines — areas where it would be hard to spot a downed aircraft with the naked eye.

The two ARCHER operators will remain in North Dakota through the weekend, which means Pherson will miss his first week of classes at MSU. Luckily, his professors have been understanding.

"The ones that responded to my e-mail were," he said. "I don't know — I'll sort it out when I get home."

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