ELT Incident

The phone rings at your house, you answer it, and the person calling says he's from the US Air Force!! (OMG, they want to recruit me as a jet pilot maybe?????) What would you be thinking at this moment??

Then he asked me if I am Bob Brusa, and is my plane N no. N412SB, to which I reply yes to both questions. Then he tells me they are getting an ELT transmission from my plane.

I tell him the plane doesn't even have an engine yet and thus has not flown.

It turns out my partner, who has the RV12 in his garage which we are building, was working on installing the ELT and did not notice that the switch was in the "on" position. When he connected the wiring he could not understand why he was hearing beeps!!

The instructions on the ELT tell you to go to Radio Shack and get a resistor to make a test wire to check and see if the ELT works. We haven't done that yet so now I guess we won't have to. It works!!!

So if you want to save yourself the time of trying to check it, just turn it on and wait for the AF to call you!!! LOL

Bob

Yesterday, the Air Force Rescue Coordination center called me.... then my wife... then my brother in law. Then the Coast Guard in California made all the same calls. Then some from Florida. The 406 ELT I sold months ago has come alive, with my old N number on the code.
I have been unable to reach the buyer by telephone. It is clear, he never contacted NOAA to re-register the unit. Let the seller beware.

flightlogic said:

Yesterday, the Air Force Rescue Coordination center called me.... then my wife... then my brother in law. Then the Coast Guard in California made all the same calls. Then some from Florida. The 406 ELT I sold months ago has come alive, with my old N number on the code.
I have been unable to reach the buyer by telephone. It is clear, he never contacted NOAA to re-register the unit. Let the seller beware.

Click to expand...

FYI, it is also possible to un-register your self from an ELT. It is a bit more involved than the initial registration (because NOAA doesn't have an easy to find process on their web site), but I have done it.

Sorry to disappoint, but you are not the first to run amok with the new ELT technology. Here is an excerpt from my Kitlog entry of early 2011.


Rolled the airplane outside and tied it to the truck to prevent sliding on the ice. Got in and started it up. Plugged in the headset and immediately heard an ELT tone - LOUDLY! (I had left the com radio set to 121.5.) Then the real fun started!

Since the ELT signal was so loud I assumed it was coming from my own ELT. I tried to reset the ELT from the remote switch but succeeded only in activating it. Finally got it shut off, but the ELT signal continued to blast away. Tried to call inside to the FBO on the radio to see if they were hearing the ELT too. Nearly blew my ears out with feedback and a horribly loud version of my own voice returning to my headset. Things were going from bad to worse so I decided that it was time to retreat, and shut down everything including the engine to sort things out. Got out the Garmin manual for the com radio and managed to figure out how to get the sidetone volume down below the threshoold of pain.

Bill emerged from the FBO to say that there was indeed an ELT going off in the hangar. Somebody bumped into it (I know who but will never tell) and it had been blasting out a signal all night. I was just starting to feel better when my cell phone rang. It was Carolyn calling to see if I had crashed. Huh? How did she get into the act? Well, it seems the Air Force Search and Rescue Center had called her! Holy ****! I asked her to call them back to tell them all was well. Right after I hung up the phone rang again. Guess what - was a nice young lady from some Air Force base in Florida. While I was trying to talk my way out of this mess she informed me that she had Carolyn on the other line. Got everybody calmed down and hung up. The phone rang once again. It was my business partner calling from South Carolina. Yep, you guessed it - the USAF called him too! I shut off my phone before Obama called.

I think the ELT batteries are required to be replaced if the unit operated for longer than an hour. Maybe someone could chime in to confirm.

Regards,

The ELT manual will spell out battery replacement intervals depending on transmission time or service life. The old 121.5 ELT's typically required battery replacement every couple of years. The newer 406 ELT's May last up to 5 years before a new battery is required. Don't forget that testing is also required as part of the annual or condition inspection, and that the test must occur during 5 minutes of the hour. Something in my mind says that NOAA re-registration or update should be done every 3 years too. But with all that, ELT's are like an AMEX card - Don't leave home without it.

Well, I got another call from "Alberta" the clerk at NOAA that does the registration. She asked if I would like my name and N number removed from that beacon. Easy and convenient.
In this Artex 406, the testing time and active time are all logged. In the case of the one I sold... I am afraid a $150 battery is now a paperweight. Normally they can be tested once per month for 5 years. But, this one is toast... according to the duration of the phone calls I got.
Still can't reach the buyer on the land line he has listed.