406 mhz ELT's -- Do we have many of our aircraft with the new ELT transmitters installed ??? I know that our aircraft have to use flight following on any travel and that the flight release officer needs to be notified by the PIC upon departure and return/termination of flying, so that probably mitigates some of the issues by not having ELT installed.
Also I'm wondering why CAP was not at the forefront of recommending 406 beacons to the private recreational aircraft owners. I would have thought that in cooperation with FAA, NOAA, etc, that information packets & posters, etc would have been given to CAP a national week of ELT education would have seen CAP members at various airports that support private/recreational pilots having a manned (and unmanned) display urging pilots to install and also discussing some mitigation methods IF the pilot decides not to install the new beacon.
Here's a pretty good article about the 406 beacons up in AK
http://thecordovatimes.com/article/1038right_signal_provides_saving_grace_in_crash
RM
406's were/are being installed during the annual inspections in 2009-2010. Last I heard this is almost complete.
ditto
We took almost a month of downtime in July to install one. At least it is connected to the GPS.
Quote from: RADIOMAN015 on September 25, 2010, 04:55:22 PM
Also I'm wondering why CAP was not at the forefront of recommending 406 beacons to the private recreational aircraft owners. I would have thought that in cooperation with FAA, NOAA, etc, that information packets & posters, etc would have been given to CAP a national week of ELT education would have seen CAP members at various airports that support private/recreational pilots having a manned (and unmanned) display urging pilots to install and also discussing some mitigation methods IF the pilot decides not to install the new beacon.
Because if everyone used it we'd be out of a job
As for how close CAP is to retrofitting its entire aircraft fleet to 406 beacons, the best word I have heard came from an ops seminar at the September 2010 CAP National Board in San Diego where I learned CAP is not yet 100% retrofitted and there is no official date for when that might happen despite the fact CAP got funding from Congress in 1995/6 to retrofit the entire fleet to 406 beacons as a way to demonstrate to all USA aircraft owners that the new beacons are a very good thing and to jump-start the USA's 406 ELT manufacturing capability.
This is all thought provoking given:
1. The Cospas-Sarsat system stopped listening for all the old beacons in February 2009.
2. Pre-2009, CAP HQ declined to help all the other SAR federal agencies like NOAA (which flies the Sarsat packages), USCG (our prime colleague in EPRIB searches), and NASA (which builds the orbital repeaters) with distributing through the CAP squadrons top-notch joint-agency public relations materials like posters and bumper stickers to spread the word about the need to "Get the Fix" to 406 beacons.
3. And, irony of all, CAP has yet to have a formal published opinion on the FCC's request for comments (due date was March 6, 2007) to end the certification for the manufacture, sale and use of strictly 121.5 beacons. (Yes, that would mean all 121.5-only CAP aircraft could be grounded in 60 days once that proposed FCC rule is published!)
That request for comments flew under the radar until this past June when suddenly AOPA, EAA and AEA got concerned when FCC circulated a draft rule with a date proposed for August 2010 to outlaw not just manufacture and sale but also all use of 121.5-only ELTs. That draft was not pre-coordinated with all the federal SAR agencies nor, it seems with either CAP which chases almost 100% of all activated ELTs or the FAA which "owns" the Congressional federal statute about ELTs.
On September 30, 2010, at the federal inter-agency National Search & Rescue Committee meeting according the AFRCC Commander who came to the CAP San Diego meeting, the federal agencies are expected to support unanimously the FCC proposed draft rule on 121.5 ELTs but there is still some disagreement among the federal agencies he said about how much time all USA aircraft owners should have to retrofit to installed 406 ELTs to avoid mandatory groundings for failure to have federally-required equipment like a legal ELT aboard. The sixty days proposed by the FCC once their rule is published in the Federal Register may be too quick, he said, for some of the agencies. So, maybe they will agree on six months or one year? He also indicated the federal agencies have backed off an idea supported earlier by some of the agencies to allow carriage of a cheaper 406 PLB in lieu of an expensive installed 406 ELT to get around the soon-to-be expected ban on 121.5-only ELTs.
One day, I hope CAP will step up and be a leader again on ELT issues. Maybe it will be tomorrow at the NSARC meeting? Maybe it will be the day CAP's aircraft fleet is 100% 406 ELT equipped? Or perhaps when all our squadrons regularly update their local airport posters on the latest important ELT inter-agency messages like the need to "Get the Fix", to update and proofread your 406 beacon online registration so that we can all have faster searches when aircraft go missing, and be a leader in helping to promote the next major update to ELT systems: NASA's DASS which is already a wonderful proven advancement to beacons.
Part of the problem with the FCC rule wording is that it seems to also outlaw the 121.5 homers that the current 406 beacons use. Some manufacturers have stopped shipping their current 406 beacons and there have been a few articles advising owners to "wait and see"until that issue gets hashed out...