search and rescue.

ahah...heh heh...now i hear everybody thinking:"this guy's obviously smoked a strange sort of cigarette"well...to be absolutely honest:i didn't.i just like to step away from my beloved DC8 flightdeck every now and then(as they say here:a change from food makes hungry,or something like that...ah ferget it ;-) )and when i do,i love to fly...good guess!..search and rescue,and now i had a question about that(or maybe even a couple of questions)1:how does one go about searching in a plane(and i don't mean ones lunch!)?...i mean,surely -like the coastguard for instance- one doesn't start his aircraft,and starts flying around,so,how exactly is one supposed to do this?i myself just make a(n) (imaginary) square,and then fly long(sometimes boring) sectors in that square by flying quite low,and then every set time changing course 180 degrees.is this a good way?all going out of the fact one does not have the exact position,only an approximate indication like "between here and there" or "25 miles southeast of there",so one starts at the most likely position,and then works from there,by timing the legs,and ensuring each leg is like 2nm apart or so.or2:do these guys(and ofcourse girls,they're equally good) just have a handy little gizmo,in which they can at once find the spot where a plane crashed,or something like that?i know one thing for sure:they must have some plan,or else i'd be doomed every time i got lost out on the ocean(and,when one is lost,one tends to not know where one is) yet they found me quite fast....HOW?appreciating answers(and the guys and girls of the coastguard everywhere in the world->good to have you,for dumb#### like me ;-) )regards