Archive for the ‘Aircraft Survival’ Category
A rancher who owns over 22,000 acres in Montana used his ACR Sarlink personal locator beacon to alert rescue crews to his location after a fall broke his leg and three ribs. While riding on his ATV far away from his home and surveying his cattle ranch land for washed out or damaged fence, the ATV hit a drainage rut and flipped over unexpectedly and violently breaking a ranchers left leg and three ribs. In too much pain and unable to shift the gears on his ATV, the rancher used his ACR sarlink personal locator beacon to alert rescue crews. The alert was received and his family along with the local sheriffs office arrived in a 4-wheel drive shortly after they were all contacted by the international alert station of his GPS location.
GME is offering it’s popular Accusat Personal Locator Beacon on sale for a short time. The Accusat is one of the pioneer personal locator beacons. GME introduced was the first to introduce the strobe light built into their PLB as well as a unit that floats. AT only 8 ounces, this is one of the lightest personal locator beacons available.
The Goddard Space Flight center has stated that pilots flying over water should have a personal locator beacon in addition to a 406MHz ELT on the aircraft. If the ELT signals the location of the crash site on water, it will not continue to do so submerged and if the occupants are in a raft or floating in the water they could be miles from where tha airplane went down in the water. A personal locator beacon can transmit the same information the emergency locator transmitter can. There are even PLBs that are waterproof and can float in water if droppped.
For nearly 40 years, Artex has been an industry leader in the development and proliferation of ELT devices. The company started by creating magnesium batteries for ELT units, quickly developing into a thriving international corporation. Over the years, Artex has steadily gained certifications allowing them to work on a variety of ELT models.
Since 1990, Artex has been manufacturing its own line of ELTs, which includes models operating on every utilized frequency. Now Artex is leading the way in new ELT technologies, incorporating longitude and latitude measurements and making the lightest, most affordable units on the market today. Many Artex ELTs can operate on multiple frequencies, eliminating the need to update your technology constantly.
ACK Emergency Locator Transmitter Approval Coming Soon!
The new ACK E-04 emergency locator transmitter is at the final stage of getting approval from authorities so it can be sold. The E-04 is the cheapest emergency locator transmitter available. In some cases, it is half the cost of other makes of ELTs. The ACK E-04 is a kit that comes complete with everything needed for installation. ELT, remote switch, buzzer, mounting hardware, coax cable, remote wiring, antenna. This is sure to be a HUGE seller as soon as it is approved.
The FCC’s proposed ban on the certification, manufacture, importation, sale, or continued use of 121.5 MHz Emergency Locator Transmitters is not yet registered has not been submitted to the Federal Register for publication, therefore, the 60-day clock for implementation of the rule has not begun. The benefits of 406MHz far exceed the old 121.5MHz emergency locator transmitters so many organizations including the AOPA and EAA encourage owners and aircraft operators to switch to the new 406MHz emergency locator transmitters if at all possible even though it is not, as of yet, legally required.
Preparedness is the key to surviving an emergency. A simple survival kit can mean the difference between waiting out a natural disaster or terrorist action until help arrives and can even possibly save someone’s life. Most survival kits can be purchased for a relatively cheap price yet still provide all the essentials needed for survival for a few days without outside help, running/clean water, electricity, or medical assistance. Many survival kits also can be very conveniently packaged in a small and portable way such as a backpack. This makes them great to travel with in the car, airplane, or boat. They can also just be left in a closet at home just in case. The food, water, and medical supplies included in the kits are normally good for several years so they are very a very cheap form of insurance to keep around for a long time.
The new personal locator beacons available from ACR are a much cheaper in price and have many more functions than previous models. The older models, no longer made by ACR, had less battery life and functions than the new models and they also had a much higher price. The new ACR SARLink and SARLink View both have 6 year batteries, strobe lights, small size and light weight, and a cheaper price than earlier models. The SARLink View series also has a great function of displaying the current latitude and longitude of the personal locator beacon itself. In addition, it has the capability to send an “OK” message from anywhere on the planet. This is a great function to be able to “check in” from the most remote area’s of the world and let someone know you are safe. This function is enabled without activating the emergency portion of the PLB.
A personal locator beacon saves the life of a fisherman adrift at sea. For two days, a fisherman off the Pacific Northwest coast, was drifting when the engine on his boat failed. Repeated attempts to signal other boats or the Coast Guard via the boat’s radio failed. After trying to get the motor to start and trying to reach rescue services via the radio for two days, the fisherman’s personal locator beacon was activated and soon a helicopter and Coast Guard ship were dispatched. Within an hour and a half the helicopter was on scene and 5 hours later a Coast Guard ship was able to tow the boat to the coast for repair. A personal locator beacon will work anywhere on the face of the planet because it uses a worldwide array of satellites to detect the signal almost instantly. With GPS, the satellites know the exact location of the PLB.
Canada is reportedly ready to sign a regulation that will require most aircraft operating in Canadian airspace to have 406 MHz ELTs. The rule will apply to foreign-registered aircraft, and those not equipped will not be allowed to enter Canadian airspace. There will likely be a three-year grace period before Canadian private aircraft have to be in compliance, but it’s not clear when the regulation will be applied to aircraft flying into Canada from other countries. Now is the time to get your 406MHz emergency locator transmitter to be in compliance when the regulation goes into effect.