ELT Upgrade..?? ...or Not...??

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flyboy122
Posts: 324
Joined: Mon Apr 21, 2014 2:30 am

Re: ELT Upgrade..?? ...or Not...??

Post by flyboy122 »

I had my 406 ELT out of the plane for maintenance and on my bench in my garage with no antenna when it inadvertently went off. First indication was a call from the Canadian Coast Guard (turns out it was their turn to monitor the satellites for North America that day.) I didn't recognize the number and was with a customer so I let it go to voice mail. Two minutes later I got a call from Florida, which I sent to voice mail as well. Turns out this was the US Air Force. This was followed by a call from my wife, who had been called by the Canadians. Finally the Canadians called me again and I excused myself from the customer to take the call. Total time up this point was less than 10 minutes. Upon realizing what they were calling about, I immediately informed them of no emergency, hung up, and called my confused and scared wife. Then I called them back and asked them to verify the location (thinking maybe there was code screw up and some poor guy was dying on a mountain somewhere). They narrowed it down to my house! This is with no GPS interface, no antenna, 1 sweep (according to them that's all they got.)

There is a lot to take away from this. A cynic will probably point out that my ELT went off inadvertently and is therefore unreliable. It's an Ameri-King unit so that may be true. However what I took away from it was the awesome performance of the entire COSPAS/SARSAT system. The location accuracy was impressive. They called down the list just like they were supposed to, AND THEY DID NOT QUIT until they got an answer. I have no doubt had it been a real emergency help would have found me as quickly as possible.

These things work. I'm shopping for one for Dad's plane and Artex makes a unit for $550 which is pretty reasonable. Batteries weren't outrageous, and Artex has been around a while with a decent reputation. For this it's kind of a no brainer.

DEM
hilltop170
Posts: 3481
Joined: Sat May 06, 2006 6:05 pm

Re: ELT Upgrade..?? ...or Not...??

Post by hilltop170 »

On a flight between Fredericksburg and Dallas I tested my 406 ELT at the top of the hour for about 3 or 4 cycles with the remote switch on the panel and noted everything worked properly. I landed about 45 minutes later and noticed I had several missed calls and a message on my cell phone. About that same time the phone rang again with someone in Florida, if I remember correctly, asking if I had an emergency since they had received my ELT signal earlier. I assured them I was ok and explained I was testing the ELT and it only went off a few times. The person said they had received the signal to confirm it was working and were relieved there was no emergency. So, they do work as advertised and someone is paying attention.

I also had ADS-B installed last October and have enjoyed watching traffic come and go around me. Thankfully it has not saved me from any close calls yet but there has been a lot of traffic I would have never seen without it. I always file IFR between Fredericksburg and Dallas if there is any chance of weather problems but I don't always activate the IFR flight plan if conditions stay good.

After one actual IFR flight, I looked up my N-Number on FlightAware to see how well I had flown the trip and to my surprise all of my previous flights whether I had filed or not and whether I activated the flight plan or not were recorded on the flight tracker. So, when ADS-B is working, the Feds are recording your flights and can see exactly where the ADS-B starts and stops working. On one flight I landed at Cleburne for gas, later circled member Bob Jolly's ranch, and then landed at another friend's ranch strip for the night. The flight tracker for that flight clearly showed where I deviated to get gas, circled Bob's ranch, and where I had landed at the other ranch. Even though I landed for about 20 minutes before I continued on, the flight tracker recorded it all as one flight. The flight track ends before touchdown so it probably can't be used to identify the exact spot where you land but it gets pretty close.
ADS-B Flight track with stop at Cleburne for gas, circle Bob’s ranch, land at another ranch strip, no flight plan filed. It also shows the next day’s IFR flight on down to Fredericksburg which I did activate.
ADS-B Flight track with stop at Cleburne for gas, circle Bob’s ranch, land at another ranch strip, no flight plan filed. It also shows the next day’s IFR flight on down to Fredericksburg which I did activate.
Richard Pulley
2014-2016 TIC170A Past President
1951 170A, N1715D, s/n 20158, O-300D
Owned from 1973 to 1984.
Bought again in 2006 after 22 years.
It's not for sale!
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GAHorn
Posts: 20967
Joined: Fri Apr 12, 2002 8:45 pm

Re: ELT Upgrade..?? ...or Not...??

Post by GAHorn »

I think there must be more to the story... Bob Jolley told me he saw a 170 circling his place and when he went out side the pilot pulled the throttle back and shouted out "Which way to Ireland?"

:wink:
'53 B-model N146YS SN:25713
50th Anniversary of Flight Model. Winner-Best Original 170B, 100th Anniversary of Flight Convention.
An originality nut (mostly) for the right reasons. ;)
hilltop170
Posts: 3481
Joined: Sat May 06, 2006 6:05 pm

Re: ELT Upgrade..?? ...or Not...??

Post by hilltop170 »

Just for the record, Bob pointed the wrong way, I ended up in Lampasas!
Richard Pulley
2014-2016 TIC170A Past President
1951 170A, N1715D, s/n 20158, O-300D
Owned from 1973 to 1984.
Bought again in 2006 after 22 years.
It's not for sale!
User avatar
GAHorn
Posts: 20967
Joined: Fri Apr 12, 2002 8:45 pm

Re: ELT Upgrade..?? ...or Not...??

Post by GAHorn »

hilltop170 wrote:Just for the record, Bob pointed the wrong way, I ended up in Lampasas!
I know of another tall, lanky aviator who asked the same question and he ended up in Paris! (Texas, I think.) :roll:
'53 B-model N146YS SN:25713
50th Anniversary of Flight Model. Winner-Best Original 170B, 100th Anniversary of Flight Convention.
An originality nut (mostly) for the right reasons. ;)
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BWeathered
Posts: 30
Joined: Mon Jul 17, 2006 1:34 am

Re: ELT Upgrade..?? ...or Not...??

Post by BWeathered »

Have read this entire thread (and don't want to re-start a philosophical debate about mandates and govt responsibilities). I find myself at a "good place" (getting a new paint job soon+ the old ELT is only partially working as only 1 of 2 antenna configs is functional) to replace my ancient 121.5 ELT. Since I don't have another GPS source, I was looking at the Emerging Lifesaving Technology 406 (under $1000 at Aircraft Spruce, appears to have Aircraft Spruce logo on label, and I noticed that at least one dealer has dropped the brand)

Anyone have any good/bad experiences with this product? Any thoughts on long-term product support? Any other ELT's out there with self-contained GPS?

Thanks, Brent
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