Greg Arehart

Greg Arehart

Well Known Member
I am planning to fly to Canada this summer (July) and have a couple questions:

1) Anybody have an update on the latest regs? A few days ago I read that the Transport Canada minister was going to sign a new reg requiring the 406 for transient pilots from outside the country, but didn't see any effective date for this legislation.

and related:

2) Anyone have suggestions/reviews on the 406 ELTs available out there? I currently have an Ameriking 450 and am thinking of replacing it with a 451. Will the antenna and panel switch still work or do these need replacing as well as the unit? I cannot find any info on this on the Ameriking website other than "its a direct replacement"

Thanks in advance for any info.

greg
 
No date yet.

AVFLASH NEWS
May 15, 2010

406 ELTs To Be Required To Fly In Canada Email this article |Print this article

By Russ Niles, Editor-in-Chief








After a brief reprieve, Canada's Transport Minister, John Baird, 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. Canadian Owners and Pilots Association President Kevin Psutka said in a Web posting that although the rule hasn't been publicly released, it is understood to be substantially the same as a draft that was rejected by Baird last year because it didn't have any viable alternative methods of compliance. "The exact wording for the alternate means is not known at this time but we do know that the wording will not change significantly from a previous draft of the regulation; wording that excludes all affordable alternatives for our sector of aviation," Psutka said. 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. COPA has opposed the 406 MHz mandate because it believes there are technologically superior systems available that are more accurate and reliable than 406 ELTs, which it says are subject to the same issues as 121.5 ELTs in that they often fail to activate in real accidents and go off accidentally too often, triggering costly searches. Psutka said it was pressure from the Canadian Forces, which oversees search and rescue, that convinced the minister to backtrack.



The military brass insisted on automatic signaling as a bottom-line requirement, even though the line-of-sight signal from ELTs can be obscured by terrain (or even the aircraft itself), antennae break or the signal is lost from submerged aircraft. COPA argued that so-called bread crumb tracking devices that send regular position updates via satellite make more sense but most don't have the crash-triggered signaling ability. Psutka also said the military's influence on the equipage of civilian aircraft is a bad omen. "In many countries where the military controls/influences civil aviation, general aviation is either severely curtailed or non-existent," he said. "Perhaps the unwillingness of our Transport Minister to listen to reason and stand up against the military is a sign of things to come."
 
Greg Arehart said:
I am planning to fly to Canada this summer (July) and have a couple questions:

1) Anybody have an update on the latest regs? A few days ago I read that the Transport Canada minister was going to sign a new reg requiring the 406 for transient pilots from outside the country, but didn't see any effective date for this legislation.
Click to expand...
We have a pretty convoluted regulatory process up here, so it will take some weeks to months before this reg is in place. And there will be a transition period (the rumour is three years). It won't affect your planned trip for this summer.
 
Artex ME406 ELT

I'm in the process of installing an Artex ME406. Some notes regarding the Artex conversion from my (partial) installation of an Ameriking AK450:

1. The mounting bracket holes are a completely different pattern so I fabricated a new mounting plate.

2. The wiring interface on the ELT uses a DB15 connector. Artex makes an adapter to allow use of existing RJ11 wiring, but I opted to yank out the RJ11 and start over again using four-wire shielded wiring as shown in the installation instructions. No problem since my panel isn't in the plane and my wiring runs are still accessible. If I were doing this in a finished plane I would probably buy the adapter.

3. An audible activation alarm is supposed to be mounted near the ELT. The unit is loud enough to be heard outside the plane and should provide activation warning after engine shutdown/on the ramp. I fabricated a small angle aluminum mount.

4. The panel unit is a different size than the Ameriking unit. Fortunately, I was saving the panel space pending the ELT installation decision so didn't have to redo anything on the panel. Artex markets a set called the "ME406 ACE" that allows use of existing ACK panel units, but I didn't see anything on their site to allow use of an Ameriking unit.

5. The antenna is much shorter than the Ameriking antenna but still uses a BNC connector so the mounting hole is the same. Given the limitations of mounting an ELT antenna in the RV8, I haven't made a final decision on where to mount it and will probably wait until after I do the canopy.

Overall, I'm impressed with the quality of the unit and the documentation.

The manual is available on the Artex website at: http://www.artex.net/support-resources/documents.php?folderid=5

Good luck,
Mike
 
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AK 451 vs 450

Hi Greg.

I swooped the 450 with a 451 last spring and it really was a "drop-in repleasement" as AK says:

The unit itself is exactly the same so you just take out the 450 and put in the 451, using the same bracket and mounting clip. (takes 30 sec's)

You need to replace the antenna and the cable, but it's base and diameter is exactly the same, so just unscrew the old antenna and screw the new one in. Then replace the cable (the cable and the antenna are included in the 451 package)
(Takes 2 minutes)

You can use the cable going to the external switch (the one you probably have mounted in your instrument panel), so you just unhook the cable (the one which looks like a phoneline-cable) in the 450 and put it in the equivalent hole in the 451.
Then you swap the old external switch in the instrument panel with the new one and put the cable in.
(Takes 5 minutes)

Then you can enjoy the 451's 5 year battery. :)

I kept my old 450 since it has voice-capability and it's stored in the RV-bag together with the spareparts etc in the baggage-compartment.
Then, if I ever need to talk to the rescuers on 121.5, I can do so using the 450. It'll be quicker grabbing the 450 out of the RV-bag, rather than making my way into the aft fuse behind the baggage compartment and getting hold of the 451.

But this last thing is ofcourse just an option.

Just my 2 cents from Norway...
 
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There are an increasing number of options available for 406MHz ELT installations. If your AK-450 installation used the "telephone wire" to connect to the remote control I would highly recommend removing that wire and installing new aircraft-spec wire, preferably MIL-C-27500 multi-wire twisted shielded cable.

So far my installation experience has been limited to the ARTEX and KANNAD products. The KANNAD is the easiest to install since it doesn't need a connection to aircraft power and has an internal buzzer so no external connections for that either. The down-side is the Kannad connector will only accept 24ga wire. Once you have the necessary twisted shielded 3-wire 24ga cable it's a snap to wire it up and install it. The Kannad unit also uses an antenna which appears to be of higher quality and likely will exhibit better long-term durability.

On the other hand, the Artex unit requires a connection to aircraft power in order to light up the LED on the remote control panel. And the Artex unit has an external buzzer - this is a minus from a wiring standpoint but a plus if you are hard of hearing and want the buzzer mounted in a location where you're guaranteed to hear it. And the big plus with the ARTEX unit is that you can buy the serial data dongle for it to allow it to pick up NMEA0183 position data from your hand-held GPS, turning your simple ELT into one which will provide GPS position in its first burst of transmitted data.

Other ELT's worthy of mention... The Emerging Lifesaving Technologies ELT has some unique features, including built-in GPS (requires aircraft power and separate antenna), and its ELT antenna is a much more attractive design for sleek airplanes like RV's. Pointer Avionics continues to forge ahead with its Skyhunter ELT with built-in GPS. And then ACK comes in with the only TSO C126 ELT which won't require a remote control panel if the ELT is mounted within arm's reach of the principal flight crew.

Frankly, AmeriKing touted that they'd come to market with a 406MHz ELT that would blow the doors off the competition from a price perspective. Granted, the 451 is cheaper than its competitors by a bit, maybe $200 tops, but if its reliability is anything like that of its 450 brother then I'd probably not want one in my airplane at any price.
 
Thanks for all the info - good for making informed choices. I might just wait on this for next year (prices might come down?). I already have APRS (probably won't work well up north but otherwise good for position reporting) and a handheld PLB.

cheers,
greg
 
Ameri-King feedback

I have the AmeriKing 450, and would love to plug and play a new 451 for $800+ etc. I am not a wiring guy.
Someone comments that the phone plug is not good. Can you advise why? please.
Of course 'Mil-spec' everything is better, and this is an important device...but seriously, what is going to happen to the plug provided?

similarly,
'Frankly, AmeriKing touted that they'd come to market with a 406MHz ELT that would blow the doors off the competition from a price perspective. Granted, the 451 is cheaper than its competitors by a bit, maybe $200 tops, but if its reliability is anything like that of its 450 brother then I'd probably not want one in my airplane at any price.

Exactly what was unreliable about them? Did they fail to activate? or accidentally activate more often than other brands?
With all the testing that they have to go thru, I find it hard to comprehend that one brand is fantastic, and the other totally unsuitable.

..but, for $1000, I'm listening! Please enlighten me.
 
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