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PLBs/ELTs Recommendations

There is so much information to trawl through on this topic, but while a few countries like France and Germany will accept a portable PLB for a foreign registered aircraft, Holland require an ELT. What is not amazingly clear is whether this is portable or fixed.

I will probably need to get a PLB or ELT soon, and so am thinking, if Holland will accept a portable, that I get a portable ELT. Does anyone have some recommendations on which and what to buy?

EDHS, Germany

I have both ,since I am flying over the sea most of the time.If the innevitable happens,I will activate the ELT while the plane still flies to alert COSPAS and e.t.c. that “here I am and something is wrong”.After the crash or ditching and if still alive ,I will activate the PLB in my belt. Useful also when wandering around in the dingy or walking away from wolfes and bears. Artex and Kannads for ELTs, McMurdo for PLBs (even more). Registering is an absolute required procedure.

LGGG

I have the Ameri-King AK-451. About a year after it was fitted, when I entered the hanger, I heard very quiet sound, I thought it was a distant alarm and went back outside to check where it was coming from, only to find it was my plane. Spoke to the friendly Scottish supplier who contacted Ameriking, they said return it. This we did, after 2 months of the supplier getting no response, I took up the challenge. All emails ignored, only way is to telephone them and they sound very unprofessional, after three calls I eventually got it back with the message ‘No fault found’ and told to rewire with the enclosed new wiring kit, and a bill for $175 for the wiring kit. If it goes wrong again I will scrap it and go for another make. It has been OK for the last 4 years, and I never changed the wiring!

Last Edited by Norman at 12 May 10:18
Norman
United Kingdom

Here is an article, still I believe current as regards the finally chosen model, on my ELT installation.

Having a GPS input would be nice but is potentially problematic to do “quite legally” in a certified aircraft – even if your panel mount GPS emits compatible data. So if you want a beacon with GPS and you want an easy life you are probably looking at a portable one.

And everybody should have a portable one (a PLB) to use in the life raft. I have this one

There are smaller models, with the difference that the battery life is less and they don’t float in water.

I use Sartech every so often to overhaul that PLB, plus an old non-GPS one I have from 2002, which would definitely float the right way up (in fact it needs to be floating in water, for the water to act as the ground plane for the antenna) and which lives in an “emergency bag” together with a handheld radio.

I have seen the insides of a few ELTs and the workmanship was truly crap, so Norman’s story doesn’t surprise me. The certification regime does make it possible for some really crappy firms to hide inside. Like ISO9000 really

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

McMurdo do two different types.

The one Peter has shown above (which I have too), and a cheaper one. But both has serious problems.

Firstly, neither will cover you for flight in the Netherlands. They are PLBs not ELTs.

The issues with the cheaper one, is that it does not float, and many have reported on another forum that they could not break the “break away” plastic which is needed in order to activate the beacon! Many have reported this from trying from the comfort of their living room with nice warm hands, never mind trying to do so from freezing cold water.

The problem with the more expensive one shown above, is that there was a report where various models of PLBs were tested, and the McMurdo one above never got a GPS signal at all (it was left for 45 minutes from memory). Not particularly reassuring, but the distress signal still goes out, as does the 121.5 homing signal.

Colm

EIWT Weston, Ireland

topical subject, i bought the following PLB last week on the basis that it does float! Compact and light too :)

http://www.force4.co.uk/acr-resqlink-buoyant-gps-plb-with-free-safety-pack.html?gclid=CIP9zrunoMUCFSbJtAod8y4A_A#.VVHiRvlVhBc

No difficulty in opening the antenna and exposing the emergency button, unlike some other PLBs i’ve heard of.

EGKB

Yes – McMurdo had a massive scandal some years ago, with PLBs on which the GPS more or less didn’t work…

However, from my usual vague memory, that was over by the time I bought the yellow thing above.

On the one I have, the lid comes off very readily. In fact I pulled it off when doing the “passenger briefing” to the FAA DPE from Wichita, when I was doing the FAA CPL checkride out of Southend c. 2007/2008 (that option BTW is long gone). The antenna instantly springs out and there is no way you will get it back in the box. It had to go back to Sartech to be “repackaged”

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

I have an Artex ME406 ELT installed and a portable ResQLink+ (GPS, £205).

Last Edited by chrisparker at 12 May 11:50
Spending too long online
EGTF Fairoaks, EGLL Heathrow, United Kingdom

The subject has long been confusing me. At the risk of passing some firm answers already given, am I right to state that
-) an ELT is inherently fixed to the airframe, whereas a PLB is meant to be carried on the person?
-) some countries (Netherlands, but also Austria) require an ELT and will not accept a PLB as an alternative?
-) if so, what other countries more? Switzerland, likely?
-) apart from the legal aspects, chances of survival are much better served by a PLB than by an ELT?
-) if so, why would said countries insist on an ELT?

EBZH Kiewit, Belgium

I can’t answer your geographical questions Jan, but

  • an N-reg is required to have a fixed ELT (121.5 only is legal) as a State of Registry (USA) requirement
  • an ELT will sink with the aircraft, obviously, and they often get damaged in crashes and don’t go off
  • a PLB won’t get activated if the person(s) is incapacitated
  • both types can be activated manually upon an engine failure, so may have some minutes of transmission before reaching the surface
  • I think the minimal realistic option for Europe is a life raft plus a PLB

More here and here and here

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom
22 Posts
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