I think nobody detests that such operation, under full-cost accounting, costs 60€. The question is more whether having this check done every year by an avionics engineer (on top of operational checks made by the pilot/owner) makes sense.
Of course, if, although not strictly required, one puts the action into one‘s maintenance program (as an annual must-do item), or if it is mandatory by ICA of the ELT itself, then there is nothing to complain about.
Avionic T
Welcome to the world of the aircraft owner impressions of aircraft maintenance , Don’t think you will get any sympathy for doing a job properly with test equipment that has to be calibrated and highly qualified technicians who have to sign a legal document for every job.
The only thing these people see is the number at the bottom of the bill , they have no idea of how this number is constructed and how little of the money stays in the pockets of those who carry out the work on the aircraft.
come on, this isnt so hard. take a look in your ihp.
easa SIB 2019-09R1 is applicable.
https://ad.easa.europa.eu/ad/2019-09R1
for 60-100Euros you get in our maintenance shop:
- removal of the elt
- installing g-switch loop (artex)
- testing of g-switch
- looking for battery due
- looking for secure installation
- visual check of antenna
- bonding check on composite planes
- reinstall
- (remote)-testing of 121,5mhz and 406mhz with avx-10k tester including decoding of the sarsat signal
Regards from a “ripoff” guy in your words
@gallois: yes you´ve got the point correctly. It´s just about the situation that the avionics guy wants to convince me that this paid test is mandatory every year although the battery is good until 2027 – and as long as you don’t know better or know the legal basis, you’re being scre**d
@Chris I am pretty sure we do our own ELT and PLB tests. We telephone an ATS centre and we say we want to do a test and agree a time. Then we just press the test button at that time and they come back to tell us that it is working and ownership details. Eg Confirm test okay and registered to aeroclub de Fontenay le Comte. Cost €0.
I don’t think that has changed since last year.
Or perhaps I have missed the point here.
Chris wrote:
s this in EASA Land one of the current procedures that has to be done compulsory?
In principle it’s not mandatory. My examiner wants to have it done every three years. There’s a Service Bulletin out that it should be done, for some reason that has to do with the acceleration sensor, forgot the SB number.
The KEA130A has no internal calibration. It has to be opened up and “overhauled”.
However there is a hack which is commonly done on altimeters whereby you loosen the subscale adjustment knob and this can be used to bring the error into the specification parameters. I don’t know any more but have seen it done.
AFAIK ELT test is not a requirement on EASA-reg.
Sorry for a maybe two stupid questions:
1.) My KEA 130 Altimeter shows a difference of (I assume) about 50-100 feet from the Transponder Altitude indicaton.
Do I have to exchange the whole encoding Altimeter with another overhauled one or is an avionics shop able to recalibrate the Altimeter usually on site during static and pitot test?
2.) After the last annual the avionics guy of the mx shop insisted that the ELT has to be checked on every annual although the battery is safe until 2027, billing me 60 or more euros for checking the test beep. I‘m of the opinion that I can demonstrate this to anybody but without charging money for pressing a test button. Is this in EASA Land one of the current procedures that has to be done compulsory?
We use the Garmin Altitude Encoder on all our installs, and find it very simple and reliable. It runs about $250 and change.
