AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2014 - 14

LETTERS

FROM OUR MARCH 2014 ISSUE

A Tipping Point for 406 MHz
Dave Hirschman's update on the installation of ELTs struck home for many readers
at an interesting time in aviation history.
Thank you for promoting the
406 upgrade to our pilot community. As stated in the article,
the new 406 ELTs can greatly
reduce the time it takes to be
found. As a Civil Air Patrol
member and Maryland Wing's
chief of emergency services I
can relate from personal experience that, even in a fairly
populous state like Maryland,
it can be difficult to find an aircraft that lands or crashes in
the woods or mountainous terrain if there are not witnesses.
If you are injured, being found
quickly can mean the difference between life and death.
In many of the searches
I have worked, the ELT or its
antenna was damaged in the
crash and were not a help in
finding the aircraft. Because
Maryland has fairly extensive
cellphone coverage, a cellphone
(charged and left on) has often
made the difference. CAP has
experts that can work with the
phone companies to triangulate position fixes from the cell
tower data. Another simple step
that assures that a search begins
in a timely fashion and within a
defined area is to file a flight plan
whenever possible. If you are
flying a short hop or local sightseeing and aren't going to file,
then make sure friends or family know your plans and know
when to expect you to return. No
one thinks that their next flight
will end in an accident, but taking a few extra steps each time
we fly can greatly increase the
chance for a good outcome.
Maj. Rick Stuart
AOPA 3476354
Westminster, Maryland
14 | AOPA PILOT May 2014

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even ThOugh not required
by regulation, 406 MHz
ELTs have fallen so much
in price and increased in
capability that they are a
good value for GA pilots.

A tipping point
for 406 MHz
New technology is a compelling value
B y Dav e H i r s c H m a n

A pAir of events last year changed my
mind about ELTs and spurred me to
take a long-delayed action. First, in early
December, a Beech Bonanza A36 with five
people aboard disappeared from radar
over a remote and rugged Idaho wilderness. An intense air and ground search was
launched, but adverse winter weather hampered efforts to locate the missing airplane.
A month later, no trace of the Bonanza or
its occupants had been found, and the only
ones still actively scouring the mountainous area where the airplane was last seen
on radar were heartbroken family members.
Next, the ancient 121.5 MHz ELT in my
own airplane went off while parked overnight in a hangar. I wouldn't have noticed,
but an alert airport neighbor tuned the
emergency frequency on his handheld radio
transceiver and heard the distinctive alarm.
The distress signal was faint, perhaps
because it had been going off for some time

without notice and draining the ELT battery.
The battery was almost due for replacement, but I decided to upgrade to a modern
406 MHz ELT instead-and the cost of a
new, more reliable, and far more accurate
ELT ($559 for an ACK Technologies E-04
model) was far less than I had anticipated.
Earlier generations of 406 MHz ELTs had
topped $5,000 in 2009, and $2,500 in 2011.
Now, they're much more affordable.
Also, the installation itself was simple.
The new ELT is exactly the same dimensions as the ACK E-01 it replaces, so it
clips into the same bracket. There is a new
antenna and a GPS connection, but the
entire installation can be done in about one
hour. Now, in the event of an accident, the
ELT will broadcast its GPS position (and
aircraft identity) with pinpoint accuracy.
ELTs became required equipment for
general aviation aircraft in 1973 after congressmen Hale Boggs and Nick Begich

perished in an aircraft accident in Alaska
and the wreckage of their airplane was
never found. ELTs, however-especially
back then-were nearly worthless. They
activated in fewer than 20 percent of accidents, and 97 percent of their signals were
false alarms. In an effort to improve the
ELT system, the u.S. government launched
a satellite monitoring program. But after 27
years, that monitoring system was canceled
in 2009 with little to show for it.
Today, digital technology has come up
with a better solution-the 406 MHz ELT.
It's far more durable; sends fewer false
alarms; and, best of all, it transmits GPS location and aircraft ID as well as a radio homing
signal to rescuers. It is orders of magnitude
more precise than its predecessors.
AOPA has long lobbied against new
mandates for 406 MHz ELTs. The association believes informed pilots should be
allowed to make their own choices about
the equipment they buy for their airplanes.
Now that the technology and reliability of
new ELTs has been proven, however, and
prices have fallen, 406 MHz ELTs are a
compelling value. In my mind, the scales
have tipped in favor of 406 MHz ELTs.
(PLBs and satellite messengers are terrific,
too, but survivors of an airplane accident
may not be able to find or correctly operate
them when it matters most.)
Pilots who choose to stick with the old
121.5 MHz ELTs certainly have the right to
do so. They know the kinds of places they
fly, and they can evaluate the risks. But
pilots must know that their chances of being
found after an accident in a remote area are
exceedingly poor with old ELTs-and better safety equipment is widely available at
reasonable prices. If the Bonanza lost over
Idaho had been equipped with a 406 MHz
ELT, chances are much greater that it would
have been promptly found.
AOPA
eMAIL dave.hirschman@aopa.org

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86 | AOPA PILOT March 2014

"Missing from the
dialogue is the cost
to society (USAF,
USCG, CAP, state
and local aviation
first responders) in
locating the 121.5 signal and securing the
occupants with the
knowledge that time
is of the essence. The
cost to respond to
false signals is also
not insignificant. The
pilots who choose to
not upgrade (some
with AOPA's blessing) shift the cost
to the rest of us and
that is worthy of
discussion."
Bill Ross, AOPA 3703443
Cedar, Michigan

Don't get me wrong, I do feel
that the 406 ELT is a good
investment for safety, especially
if you are flying in mountains
or remote terrain. But I have
problems with articles that
sell this equipment without
telling the readers what they
may be up against to install it
in their airplanes. If you have
a post-1990-production Cessna
or Piper you may very well just
have a simple one-hour plugand-play installation.
But for most of your readership who fly older legacy
airplanes these upgrades are
more expensive and time
consuming to install. And,
when I am looking at mandated avionics upgrades for
ADS-B compliance (although
who knows if that 2020 deadline will hold up), my money
would be more wisely spent
on something that is required
than optimal-especially when
flying in the Mid-Atlantic. If I
THEN: 1998

The lowdown
on ELTs
I don't wish to deprive the
commercial or deep-pocket
flyers of every high-tech
advantage that can be fitted
into an airplane but am I the
only pilot who thinks that it
is absurd to mandate an ELT
in a small private aircraft? I
can file a flight plan or tell my
friends where I am going and
feel satisfied that a reasonable search will be initiated
in case of an emergency.
Leonard Uecker
AOPA 156532
Quitman, Arkansas

was forced down, the chance
of landing in a remote area is
highly unlikely and, given the
proximity to all the new airspace restrictions, I will be
talking to ATC anyway.
Christopher Polek
AOPA 4681307
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

No runway, no
problem
I enjoyed the recent article on
Just Aircraft. My family and
I live about a mile from Gary
Schmitt, and have enjoyed
following his progress since
he bought into the company a while back. Gary often
flies over our house on final
approach to his mountaintop
grass airstrip at his home. He
has the enviable situation of
being able to fly to work most
days. Gary has shared his love
of flying with so many people
in this area.
The SuperSTOL is quite an
airplane. My 19-year-old son,
Nicholas (at six feet, nine inches
tall) has flown in it with Gary,
and we have both visited Gary
at the last two EAA AirVenture
shows. From reading the article,
it sounds like Dave Hirschman
didn't attempt that strip himself.
I don't blame him!
Alan Mayer
AOPA 6772912
Highlands, North Carolina

Today, I had the time to read
the article on the intriguing
SuperSTOL. Indeed, it is quite
an impressive short/off-field
performer. Nicely written,
too. What did catch me by
surprise, however, is the glorification of the airplane, which

AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2014

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