In the last week I have seen 2 RV's with inoperative ELT's. In one case the ELT had never even been connected (the flat cable was actually rolled up and secured underneath the instrument panel and I discovered it by accident while troubleshooting another problem), and in the the other case the panel mount control head was there but the ELT was not installed in the aircraft (yes, gross misrepresentation).
I know we really only need to check the ELT once per year, but for those of you who are purchasing aircraft, or have purchased one in the last year, you may want to check that it does in fact work.
You can test them during the first 5 minutes after the hour, and only do it very quickly. For those of you with the 406 MHZ ELT's, if not done very quickly you will get a phone call from the SAR center. That system really does work.![Smile :) :)](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
Vic
I know we really only need to check the ELT once per year, but for those of you who are purchasing aircraft, or have purchased one in the last year, you may want to check that it does in fact work.
You can test them during the first 5 minutes after the hour, and only do it very quickly. For those of you with the 406 MHZ ELT's, if not done very quickly you will get a phone call from the SAR center. That system really does work.
Vic