az_gila

az_gila

Well Known Member
An interesting local story on a Long-Eze pilot who spent 8 hours in the desert upside down before he was found. It made the 10pm Tucson TV news.

What makes this a bit different is that he contacted Glendale tower with a position before he crashed - and it still took 8 hours. Pilot was injured but OK.

http://www.azfamily.com/news/Pilot-...ashes-in-Gila-River-Reservation-88283092.html

Details on his ELT functionality would be interesting, and details on whether the newer 406 ELTs would actually work inverted on the 406 (not the 121.5) frequency.
 
The story doesn't say if his ELT even went off, it may not have.

This is another reason to mount the ELT control switch on the instrument panel where it can be reached and not on the baggage compartment bulkhead, as many have done. Had he turned on the ELT when he knew he was going down, they might have found him in less time.
 
The ELT Q.

N941WR said:
The story doesn't say if his ELT even went off, it may not have.

This is another reason to mount the ELT control switch on the instrument panel where it can be reached and not on the baggage compartment bulkhead, as many have done. Had he turned on the ELT when he knew he was going down, they might have found him in less time.
Click to expand...

...was part of my post....:)

The point I was trying to make is that it can take 8 hours to find you even if you call ATC a tell them you are going down.

I have heard a lot of pilots say that they don't worry too much about an ELT because they fly IFR or have Flight Following and are always speaking to ATC.

A CAP plane flying by can detect a 121.5 ELT even when it has no antenna or cable attached - as a local mechanic discovered here a few years ago...:rolleyes:
 
Interesting details...

lbgjb said:
Maybe he was trying to debate as to whether he wanted to be found by FAA!!!

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ARIZONA_PILOT_TRAPPED?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US
Click to expand...

...however, even this report says he contacted Glendale tower, and his 25 miles SW is in the neighborhood for the spot this report says they found him.

Heck... he was only about 30 miles from the center of a city with a population of over 1.5 million (Phoenix)...

But - previous offences of no Condition Inspection, Poor maintenance (twice!) and having no medical... no excuses for all of that....:mad:
 
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