On Apr 21, 1:37 pm, Eric Greenwell wrote:
Ian Cant wrote:
...Although the personal locator beacon
has the disadvantage of needing manual activation [which
in some situations might not be possible] it also has
the advantage that it can be activated in advance -
for instance, when facing a certain landing in dangerous
terrain, it could be activated on final approach, ensuring
a signal is sent out even if the landing is disastrous
and the ELT fails to activate on impact.

All ELT's have a manual activation switch, so they can also be activated
by the pilot in the situation Ian describes. I hadn't thought about
doing this with mine, but it sounds like a good idea. The post-landing
checklist should have "Check ELT" on it, so the pilot would remember to
deactivate after landing if it's not needed.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA
* Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly
* "Transponders in Sailplanes"http://tinyurl.com/y739x4
* "A Guide to Self-launching Sailplane Operation" atwww.motorglider.org

The ELT normally has a three-position switch if it's switchable: "on"
"arm" and "off" If you turn it "on" it continuously emits a distress
call and beeps loudly. The distress call will activate search and
rescue efforts, beginning with an attempt to discover whether it's a
false alarm (since most ELT activations are inadvertent). While this
act may seem like a safety measure, the side effects may overload the
emergency response system if all us glider pilots start doing this for
every landing. Rather, perhaps it should be routine to turn it "on"
as the initial step in committing to an off-airport landing, turning
it "off" after landing if all is OK.

And Tom Knauf is right, a GPS-equipped 406mHz personal locator beacon
is cheap life insurance, and less than the cost of the parachute to
which it should be attached, which we also hope not to be needing.

Dan Johnson