June 3rd 2010
On March 15th we received an E-mail reply from COSPAS stating the ?only issue remaining? was a procedural change by our oscillator manufacturer RAKON that reflected the proper stability limit characteristics. We followed their suggestion, changed the limits, and part number, then submitted this data to COSPAS to meet their requirements. COSPAS said the current draw retesting was done and successful, and they were awaiting the final lab report to finally wrap this up, and get our certification. In late April COSPAS decided after reviewing the lab results that they had concerns about how the testing was done at the lab, and decided to re-review earlier data that was a previously closed matter. Upon examining their earlier approved test data, COSPAS decided there were some discrepancies regarding how the testing was performed. COSPAS then decided we need to go back, and retest several aspects. These matters had been closed nearly 8 months ago and deemed acceptable. Approximately two and a half weeks ago COSPAS discovered that the lab had damaged the test ELT (Installed battery backwards reversing polarity.) and not reported this to COSPAS. It has been over 13 months since we delivered the ELT to the military lab, for what we were quoted to be a 6 week process. The military lab currently doing the testing is the only lab (COSPAS certified) we can use in the western hemisphere. This whole experience dealing with COSPAS and the Military lab has been extremely frustrating to say the least. We are awaiting a response from COSPAS as to what we need to do to complete this process.
On the bright side, Consumer Aviation has given us a ?Gear of the Year? award for the E-04!