Kind that runs on flashlight batteries, 121.5

Would be ACK-01 or Ameriking

Bill Hale

Hi Bill,

it's hard to ask that question on a public forum because all you get are responses from FAR "experts" telling you it's illegal to install one yada yada

I found one last year by stopping by the local aircraft spruce store and asking if they'd tell me anyone local who had recently bought a 406. I cold-called a few of those folks and quickly found one willing to part with his old 121.5 unit for a song.

Yes i have a 406 in my bonanza that my family rides in, but I wanted something cheap for a different plane, and the "why" part of that is my own business and doesn't require any commentary

There is one on eBay for $750!! I want it for a replacement for a super cub that hardly ever leaves sight of the ranch. BH

I should have both , 856 419 5209

You cant beat those Ameriking 121.5 ELTs.
I just "refreshed" the batteries for a couple bucks. Mine even has a jack for communicating with SAR.

I am trying sooooooo hard to be gentlemanly and to refrain from making negative comments. It's sooooo hard to do because, well, there's a reason why the world has moved on to 406MHz ELTs.

How much is your life worth?
How much life insurance do you carry? (Remember, some insurance companies want to see your remains before they'll pay out - the ELT is one of the ways to find your remains!)

Depends on where and how you fly.
I am sea level on the east coast where any misadventure will be on YouTube before the ELT goes off.
If I were out west in mountainous terrain or flying IFR at night, then yes the 406 would be the way to go.

And there it is.
My champ hasn't been outside this circle in ~20 years. It's used to check on crops and cows. The same area is routinely travelled on an ATV. Do you want to give us a lecture on equipping each honda fourtrax with an ELT ?

fortunately, technology has caught up, and your iPhone 16-17 is able to make emergency communications to satellite.

Why bother with an ELT at all? For the flying you are doing it isn't required, I'd just toss the old one. When the boys wrecked my old Lance, the first alert was their cell phone calling their wives. When flying where there is cell coverage, technology has made the elt, old or new, redundant.

Jeff

Because the guy who signs off the annual prefers that it has one and I don’t care to argue with him.

I understand.

One of the reasons I got my IA many years ago was while most technicians can read English, far too many apparently don't understand it. I got tired of having to read, and then explain, the regulations to people I was paying for their expertise. The last straw for me was when the IA refused to sign off a plane we had recently reprinted because we didn't put 12" numbers on it.

Jeff

Just ask Steve Fossett how useful they are..............

Just for the record, I would encourage anyone who has actual first-hand experience with an ELT that made a difference in SAR/Survival to post to this thread..................no CAP guys either.

Just someone who was actually in the weeds and an ELT made a difference with regard to rescue/survival.
NOT "I started a fire with the batteries to prevent hypothermia", or "I threw it at a bear and the orange/yellow flash scared him off"...............
NO second-hand, I heard about a guy, etc.
Please, only actual first-hand experience where the ELT actually served it's designed purpose of enabling/enhancing SAR.

they once did hunt us down to find the EPIRB on our boat was going off, on it's trailer in the driveway

My list of ELT "saves" is surprisingly long. I became a convert very early in my career when a man limped into the avionics shop carrying a pail of water. In the bottom of the pail was an unrecognizable charred lump; it was the Narco ELT10 which had saved his life in a helicopter crash. That was the first of quite a few, including one of my own when a cylinder went out through the side of the engine cowl in a C206.

The idea that ELT's don't work is, frankly, an idea which has been very thoroughly debunked. It's time to move on.