406 MHZ

[russfarris]

That accident would be the loss of the C-310 flying from Anchorage to Juneau in 1972. Aboard were Congressmen Nick Begich (D-AK) and Hale Boggs (D-LA). At the time, this was the biggest search in the history of the country, involving 40 military and 20 civilian aircraft. Everything from Coast Guard helicopters and cutters, to Air Force spy aircraft, as well as numerous private aircraft. After thirty-nine days the air search was abandoned. His son Mark Begich is the the current Mayor of Anchorage and is taxing the town to death. Tie down fees at Merrill Field have gone up dramatically since he took office, to say nothing of property taxes. He is one reason I left Los Anchorage for Wasilla.

Bruce

Actually, the ELT story started much earlier than the Boggs disapearance.

In March 1967, a Cessna 195 with a family of three went down in Northern California. They all survived the crash in good shape, but with no survival gear (in itself another subject.) After one month, the father tried to walk out, but didn't make it. The mother and 15 year old daughter
eventually starved to death. The young girl, Carla Corbus, kept a heart-wrenching diary of their ordeal, which was found that fall with the wreckage. She had lived almost two months after the crash. They were only 8 miles from U.S. 299.

The story appeared in the Saturday Evening Post, and Colorado Senator Pete Dominick introduced a bill to make ELTs mandatory to help prevent this kind of tragedy in the future, to be effective in 1970. Technical issues
kept pushing back the mandatory date, until the Boggs accident brought the issue to the front burner. The ELT law went into effect in 1974.

Incidently, Bogg's pilot, Don Jonz had an article in Flying magazine about
how managing icing conditions was no big deal - it appeared after the disapearance. Also, Alaska state law mandated a portable ELT be carried on all cross-country flights. Jonz had left his in the airport office. Russ Farris

[4583C]

I stumbled on to this NOAA site which which tells more than I really wanted to know about ELTs both old and new. Insert emoticon for confused here! When I click on it with the cursor where I want it goes to the end of the link.

http://www.sarsat.noaa.gov/

[Lucky]

I’ve participated in several aircraft searches, and I can tell you that a 121.5 ELT signal is of absolutely no value unless it’s accompanied by a secondary alert, such as an overdue flight plan. When ELT signals are received without a specific missing aircraft, the “search” comprises of nothing more than alerting local law enforcement of the location of the receiving unit when they picked up the signal. No actual search occurs. That, combined with the notoriously poor record of ELT’s actually activating during a crash, makes the ELT the least important piece of equipment in my airplane. I could care less whether 121.5 is satellite monitored or not.

I rely on a 406 PLB, which is cheaper than a ELT, and which can be easily transferred to any plane, boat, etc.. While I guess there are occasions where an impact activated mechanism would summon help to me when I’m unable to push two buttons together, I think that the chances are at least as good that the impact-activated ELT will be destroyed in a post-crash fire or sinking after I’m out of the plane. My PLB rides in a vest, so if I make it out of the plane, the PLB should, too.

This doesn’t do anything to satisfy future legal regulations, and it’s getting to the point that you can buy a FAA certified 406 ELT for about the same price as a PLB, but I wouldn’t worry a bit about the 121.5 system being fazed out…without a flight plan and frequent position reports, it probably didn’t do anything for you anyway.

[GAHorn]

I consider a 121.5 ELT to be less useful than one of those little necklaces on TV that transmit "Help! I've fallen and I can't get up!"
They're required by FARs so I have one, but I wouldn't go out and buy one if it weren't required.
So..... if the gov't is going to require an ELT on light aircraft, then they certainly should create/support the infrastructure to utilize any broadcast signals from them. Since the 121.5/246 units are notoriously unreliable, and since the gov't is not inclined to UN-require something they've already become convinced by industry is indespensible.... the 406 units are at least a more useful and soon-to-be better supported system. If I have to have an ELT I'm going to wait until they're so commonplace they're more affordable and then I'll buy one.
Until then, I don't plan to lose any more sleep over it. (Of course, I'm not planning any trips into the outback. If I were, I'd think more seriously about this matter.)

[Robert Eilers]

I agree with Lucky regarding the fact that an ELT is only useful if it is associated with a missing aircraft, i.e., overdue either as a result of a flight plan or relatives alerting authorities. Once searchers have some idea of a planned or discussed routing an ELT can be a very valuable search tool. I believe the value of the ELT was predicated on filed flight plans to begin with. Irregardless of the erroneous ELT activations over the years, ELTs have saved a number of lives. The ELT signal is affected by terrain and other factors, but when search crews are adequately trained, and information is available regarding the missing flight, finding a downed aircraft through an ELT search can occur relatively quickly. I have become convinced the 121.5 ELT is better than champagne wishes and cavear dreams.

[GAHorn]

To my great disappointment*, I recently learned from my mother that she grew up in Arkansas with a Caddo Gap, AR school-mate named James Williams. She occasionaly corrsponded with him as he was a childhood chum and she was friends with members of his immediate family. As a teen-aged girl, he once befriended and defended her against bullies at a bus stop in Hot Springs.

Anyway, he recently died in a plane crash. He was about 80 and still active in aviation. He had picked up his C-210 out of annual inspection and was flying it home with a planned fuel stop at Hot Springs. (He owned his own strip near Glenwood**, about 30 miles SW of HOT.) It was an evening flight and he never made it home.

It took several days to find him, despite the reception of his ELT by local aircraft in flight. Days later, the CAP finally located the aircraft WITHIN THE AIRPORT BOUNDARY at Hot Springs airport. He had suffered an engine failure at night, and attempted to glide to the airport but ran out out altitude in the dark, and hit rising terrain just yards short of the runway. Since he was inside the airport security fence, but below the runway surface, and in an un-kempt brushy area, the ELT was apparently disregarded as one emanating from a local hangar.

So much for ELT's.

*Mr. Williams was one of the founders of the Confederate Air Force along with Lefty Gardner. I cannot imagine why my mother never mentioned this to me. I would have loved to have met the man.

** A few miles NW of Glenwood, AR where I used to visit my grandmother.

[jrenwick]

I think there were two things fundamentally wrong with the ELT rule we have now:

1. Congress enacted it, instead of the FAA, and they did it for emotional reasons, not technical ones;

2. It wasn't a scalable solution -- meaning that ELTs probably worked pretty well when just a few aircraft had them, but not so well when every Joe Bagodonuts with a pilot's license is using one.

The 406 units are a little better, in that the signal they emit says who they belong to, and it allows more accurate location via satellite. That goes a long way toward scalability because it helps screen out and stop the false alerts; and it should speed up SAR as well.

But the price is prohibitive at the moment, and we're still stuck with the problem Congress left us with, which is that not everybody really needs this thing.

I really like the SPOT idea, where you contract with a private party to alert SAR services for you -- and it's a whole lot cheaper right now.

[c170b53]

Latest COPA paper suggests FEB 09 as the date all aircraft operating in Canada must be 406 equipped, including foreign aircraft operating in Canada.

[blueldr]

There was a really good article on AOPA On Line last week about a guy who ditched a Piper J3 seventy miles at sea in the Caribbean when his engine failed.
(It was probably a Lycoming Cub!) At any rate, he had a PLB and they found him and picked him up in a helicopter within two hours. This included time used to check with the place where he bought the PLB and with his wife in the UK. I sure in hell am going to have one of these before I start flying in isolated back cuuntry again.
Last year a guy and his wife ran out of sky in a C-170 in the Idaho back country near Big Creek while trying to out climb the terrain. He died after about twelve hours (if I remember it right) in the wreckage. His wife survived and did manage to activate the ELT. It was a couple of days before a passing airplane happened to pick up the signal. Fortunately, she was saved and they got her out by helicopter.
Thats a hell of a different story compared to being down in the ocean seventy miles from land and being located and picked up in two hours.

[flyguy]

There was a really good article on AOPA On Line last week about a guy who ditched a Piper J3 seventy miles at sea in the Caribbean when his engine failed. _-----------------------------------------_

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_XNM__V ... re=related

BL, the guy that went down in the ocean was Kirk the Flying Vet and his trip was youtubed with several videos of what it was all about. He was just goofing off, flying round the Caribbean making his home videos. He was mugged and robbed during his stop-over in Havana Cuba, treated to "free fuel" in Kingston Jamaica, and had his J-3 Cub (stock engine) treated with an injection of styro-foam peanuts for flotation, just in case such an emergency as engine failure over water happened. His PLD was, according to his own words, only partly helpful in his rescue. The loss of his equipment to the sea water was of more concern to him than his J-3. It seems like it floated for a while -tail out of the water - but I didn't see any videos where they were able to recover the Cub.

On the issue of 406MhZ - - Did anyone pick up on the fact that this thing is also going to be an invasion of privacy? It is "Law" according to the NOAA that each unit has to be registered and it will give out a discreet signal so they will know where evry one of us "terrorists" are, any time our planes move. Think big brother ain't watchin ? GO HERE!

http://www.sarsat.noaa.gov/

""" NOAA is proud to announce that the National Beacon Registration Database is now available online! Emergency beacon owners can now register and update their beacons directly via the internet.

If you purchase a new or a used 406 MHz beacon you MUST register it with NOAA as required by law. If you change any information on your registration (such as phone number, address, bought a new boat, etc.) you MUST update your 406 MHz beacon with NOAA. Also, if you sell your 406 MHz beacon, make sure the buyer re-registers the beacon. Otherwise, you may be contacted by rescue authorities if it is activated! Please provide the new owner our phone number or this web page so they can register the beacon. """

https://beaconregistration.noaa.gov/rgdb/login.jsp Who woulda thunk it?

[Charlie170B]

I am not an expert in this arena, but I have formed some opinions about flying in the Seattle / Puget Sound area. First, a plane crashed between two airports in a very populated area locally and it took over a week to find the wreckage. The plane ended up in a stand of trees a short distance from the destination airport. I think that a good elt could have saved the mans family some suffering while waiting for the wreck to be found.

Additionally, I recently participated in a limited 'dunking' in a 90 degree pool, which exposes a pilot to some of the disorientation of a ditching. I was well prepared, un-injured, expecting it, and had been briefed on egress. With that said, it was an eye-opener. It is very difficult to get out of a plane when you are upside down, in water, can't see, and are holding your breath. It would be very easy to drown in the 50 degree water in this area if you ditched. Furthermore, if you are not wearing your 406 personal locator and your manual inflating life jacket before you take off, it WILL sink with your airplane because you will not have the presence of mind to reach into the back seat to get it. I wear my life jacket and my 406 PLB on every flight because most are partly over water.

I do not fear Big Brother, because the 406 PLB only transmits if I extend the ant. and press the 'come get me' button. It also can be moved from plane to plane, and can go hiking or hunting with me.

If you don't have shoulder belts, and think that the $1,000 for the BAS is too much money, save your dollars and buy term life insurance. Your face will be crushed on impact and your 406 elt will help the searchers locate your body.

The 406 PLB was $615, the manual inflating life jacket was $125, and BAS belts were $1,300 installed. Less money than my Garmin 496, but equally as valuable. I still have my 121.5 ELT in the plane to meet the FAA requirements.

I hope to NEVER use the 406 PLB, the life jacket, or the BAS belts.

Ok, maybe I have a strong opinion on this issue.

Hope it helps add to the confusion,
Bob

[GAHorn]

... Did anyone pick up on the fact that this thing is also going to be an invasion of privacy? It is "Law" according to the NOAA that each unit has to be registered and it will give out a discreet signal so they will know where evry one of us "terrorists" are, any time our planes move. Think big brother ain't watchin ? ...

...I do not fear Big Brother, because the 406 PLB only transmits if I extend the ant. and press the 'come get me' button. It also can be moved from plane to plane, and can go hiking or hunting with me....Bob

I agree, Bob. Besides, I think Ol' Gar will eventually figger out that he can save a LOT of money and worry by his NOT buying any kind of PLB..... What in the world makes him think that if he goes down anybody is going to bother to go looking for him!!!???