This Sounds Familiar
According to the FAA—thanks to AVSIG friend Capn. Randy Sohn for sending me this info—on February 1, 2009, the International Cospas-Sarsat Organization (U.S. included) will “terminate processing signals emitted by 121.5 MHz Emergency Locator Transmitters (ELTs).” The guvmint wants us all to obtain 406 MHz ELTs, which will be processed by the Cospas-Sarsat system. (I didn’t even know there was such a group. Sounds like some kind of health food to me.)
I’ve been through all of this before, with slightly different numbers. We had been stumbling along without ELTs since the Wright Brothers, but it hadn’t bothered Congress a whole lot until one of their own—Congressman Hale Boggs—disappeared in a Cessna 310 in Alaska. This was too much for Congress, which decided something had to be done. So they—Congress, not the FAA—mandated ELTs and all airplanes—with a very few exceptions—had to have one.
Oops! There weren’t that many ELTs available. The deadline was extended because you really couldn’t buy the damn things. Eventually that got straightened out and all God’s chillun had ELTs.
Oops! Some of the batteries required by law were defective. Now everybody had to throw away those batteries and get new, nondefective batteries.
Oops! You couldn’t buy the new batteries. I remember; I tried like heck to find them for brand-new airplanes—you couldn’t get them. Helluva mess. But, eventually we got by that mess, too.
Since then, ELTs have proven to be less than ideal. More than 97 percent of the alerts over the years have been defective. Much time and money was spent searching for airplanes that were not lost. One time, at Huntsville (AL) Aviation, a tornado flattened our main storage hangar and balled up a lot of airplanes on the ramp. We had airplanes stacked like cordwood and ELTs beeped away like a dump truck backing up. This went on for weeks.
So, now we will have the 406 MHz ELTS. I surely hope we get that done with less hassle and better results than we had with the original ELTs.
Keep your fingers crossed.
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Doug–
Thanks so much for this info.
Folks, Doug Ritter is a recognized professional on survival after the crash. I urge you to read his info (including the link contained on the link for a comparison of the old and new beacons).
Thanks, Doug.
Ralph Hood
Ralph,
Some added information and viewpoint:
http://www.equipped.org/blog/?p=70
Former SARSAT OP–
Well bless your heart and thank you. I didn’t doubt that SARSAT exists and does good work (even if you didn’t sign your name (:-})–I just wasn’t familiar with them. I gotta admit that I, too, think thr 406 idea is a good thing. I do doubt that the guvmint can fold them in smoothly. I agree with AOPA that they should not be mandated. Just put them on the market and let GA people decide. I do think that supply of the old 21.5 ELTs should cease, so that attrition will eventually replace all of them. For example, I dislike it when people don’t use car headlights in the rain. However, this is being handled slowly by the fact that you can’t buy new cars without automatic headlights. Likewise, we have smoking on the run without bannning smoking totally.
Thanks for your enlightening comment,
Ralph Hood
SARSAT has been around since the mid-80s. The first ‘SARSAT save’ occurred 21 years ago in British Columbia, Canada. Since then, over 6000 saves have been attributed to the system.
The 406.025MHz beacons EPIRBs/ELTs/PLBs are newer technology than their 121.5/243.0MHz cousins. The accuracy of a crash position with the former is less than 3 nm versus 15 nm for the latter ~ this is due to the frequency stability of the 406 beacons.
Additionally, each 406 beacon is uniquely coded to a country and owner. When registered (mandatory), this allows the National Mission/Rescue Coordination Centre to contact the owner, or his alternate, by phone to verify that the signal is not a false alarm. This in turn will save counless flying hours, resources, and wasted funds. The new beacons are not cheap, but, in the long run will pay for their implementation many times over.
An alternate plan would be to start charging for resolving rescues and especialyy for false alarms. Rescue insurance anyone?
Clyde–
Who brought her up? Not I.
Ralph
If you think this is a mess, wait ’til Ms Clinton runs your your health care service!
CM