Do You Need a Portable Emergency Beacon ?
Does your flight bag contains a portable ELT ? Mine does not, because my type of flying does not requires one. How to decide if you need one ? What are the decision factors ? Where to buy one ? Let’s have a look.
One More ELT
I don’t know the regulations by heart, but I’m not sure it’s even legal to fly a plane without an ELT. The beacon starts transmitting when a violent shock occurs, helping the rescue team to locate the crash site. The pilot can also activate it manually to ensure it works, once committed to crash.
If you fly planes not equipped, or if you think the on board ELT could not work, having your own portable unit can makes sense.
Pilot Locator - Not Plane Locator
The ELT is kind of a life-insurance for pilots. It’s comfortable to think that if the worse happens, the beacon will ring an alarm bell. Are you sure it will ? VHF waves are not doing well through water. If you ditch and survive, there are chances that the plane will sink, making the on-board ELT useless. Even if it was working, your life raft will probably move away from the ditching site.
If for any reason you think you could move away from the crash-site (generally not a good idea), a portable beacon is certainly better.
121.5 or 403 ?
All pilots know the international VHF emergency frequency: 121.5 MHz. All ATC facilities and do monitor it permanently, and any pilot facing an emergency situation can use it. The old-generation ELTs do transmitt a permanent sound on this frequency. Nothing more.
The new generation use 403 MHz. This is not one of the communication frequency used by pilots, but it’s monitored by satelites. The major advantage of the 403MHz beacons is the message they send. This message contains airplane or pilot identification, but also a GPS position, making the localisation much easier. No need to use direction finders, which are affected by reflections and multi-path problems.
Have it ready
If you carry a portable emergency beacon on your flights, don’t forget to make sure it’s easily available. If it’s simply in your bag, on the back-seat or baggage compartment, it will be hard to reach it before the plane sinks…
Read more or buy
AOPA recently relayed how a pilot has been saved thanks to its portable beacon after ditching 70 miles away from the closest shore.
See what is available from Transair shop in London, if you want to order from Europe.
If you prefer to order from US, sporty’s also offers some portable ELTs.
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