Something we don't have to worry about.

[Col7777]

Something we don't have to worry about in Flight sim:

www.uscg.mil/cgjournal/

I posted this because I know that there are a few pilots in this forum and I thought it might be a reminder and promote a bit of interesting chat.

[jesse]

I can recall the days when we did not even have 121.5MHz. In the early days, we relied upon HF radio assigned emergency frequencies and most ships and shore installations monitored them. Also, there was the old reliable Gibson Girl. This was a hand cranked signal generator that sent out a signal on the International Distress frequency 500KHz (kcs) kilocycles in those days. Technology in all fields is ever advancing and 406MHz will be a welcome addition.

Jesse

[capflyer]

We with CAP have been eagerly awaiting the 406 MHz deployment for some time. We have some (but not all) of our aircraft equipped fully for 406 operations and it is great what we know from these beacons when they are present and active. While it will reduce (but not eliminate) the number of "false alarm" calls we go on finding stray ELT's that activated because the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center can call the owner directly when the ELT is picked up to ensure it's not a false alarm, there will still be times where we have to go out because either the owner didn't pick up the phone or because he was unable to get to the plane to deactivate it (i.e. out of town).

[Col7777]

capflyer,

Sir you have my respect, I looked at a few web pages for CAP (Civil Air Patrol), please forgive my ignorance.
I live in the UK so that is partly my ignorance, I never realised what you guys/gals do.
If I read it right CAP covers the whole of the USA, I take it you are in the South Western region, what is your base if you don't mind me asking?
I bet you have a few stories to tell or some about your colleagues.

Col.

[capflyer]

Col -

We're all volunteer so I don't necessarily have a "base". I have a squadron, TX-133 (Irving Composite Sqn), and one of our meeting locations is Dallas Executive (KRBD), but beyond that, we fly whatever airplane is available when called and most crews are made up of authorized crewmembers from different squadrons. We perform 98% of all over-land aircraft search and rescue missions in the US and Puerto Rico. We also assist in other search and rescue situations as requested. We do a lot of Disaster Relief too, as is evidenced by our presence and operation in the aftermath of Katrina, Rita, and Ike.

I've not been doing the Emergency Services side long enough to have any stories though. I've only flown 3 sorties and none of them were anything spectacular.

[dutch11]

I didn't realize that the cap in your name referred to the Civil Air Patrol. I was a CAP cadet back in the seventies. I quit when I joined the Navy and haven't ever signed up again. When I was a cadet, the Sheriff's department handled all SARs and we just assisted, but I guess the CAP is the head agency in any search now.

[capflyer]

No, only in AFRCC-assigned searches is CAP the lead. We will lead on EPIRB and/or PLB searches only if it goes through AFRCC first. Otherwise we are only assisting the locals or other agencies.

[sunny9850]

I have assisted on two searches for downed aircraft here in SoCal ...my schedule doesn't allow regular participation at the CAP meetings unfortunately and I can confirm how hard it is two find that small speck even when you roughly know where to look thanks to an ELT signal of the old variety.

The dramatically improved accuracy of the new system will no doubt be a life saver. And hopefully with less accidental or false "alarms" there will be more credence given to them.

We typically monitor 121.5 on our #2 COM when were flying and you'd be surprised how often you get an ELT signal over busy SoCal on a weekend.
And quite frankly sometimes I don't detect a great deal of urgency from ATC when I report a signal.

On the other hand at this point the installed version of the new ELT is just too expensive for a lot of GA fliers....including myself. So a registered personal locator unit will have to do.
It is a case of chicken or egg I think. The manufacturers say the price will drop when they sell more of them and we as the consumers say we'll buy one when the cost drops.
At any rate I would be against any mandate to upgrade....I am still not convinced the helmet and seatbelt laws were such a good idea

Stefan

[capflyer]

Well, Canada's already mandated the change and said if you don't have a 406 installed, you can't even fly into their airspace, so there are a lot of people who are going to change over that way. In addition, all new aircraft are supposed to be delivered with the 406 starting this year, so that will help get the production numbers up and thus the cost down.

[dave mcqueen]

And quite frankly sometimes I don't detect a great deal of urgency from ATC when I report a signal.

99 times out of a hundred the ELT was coming from an aircraft parked inside a hangar with a malfunctioning transmitter.

At the center we normally could not hear 121.5 transmissions due to the lack of receivers. We only had a few and one was on top of the center. Hundreds of miles away over the mountains where they would really be helpful there weren't any because it was impossible to provide maintenance 6 months of the year. When we had reports of ELTs from pilots we notified our supervisor who told someone else and so forth up the chain. Unless there was a specially equipped aircraft on frequency all we could tell was if the ELT sounded stronger, weaker, or absent all together based on pilot reports. Some aircraft could give us a bearing to/from the source.

Having said that my understanding was that orbiting satellites listening for ELTs could pinpoint the position of the ELT and go from there. We were required to get 2 or 3 reports from pilots to establish that there was an actual ELT signal being transmitted on 121.5/243.0 and to establish which antipodal point the source was at.

[capflyer]

The orbiting satellites gave us a general area (usually something like 25x25 miles - I.E. somewhere between Canton, TX and Tyler, TX for a recent one) and nothing more. They confirmed that there was a signal, but beyond that, we (CAP) had to find the things. Even with the new 406 units, we'll still have some locating to do even though the ELT will make our job much easier as they'll direct us in a much more precise manner (get us to within a couple square miles of the transmitter), but there will never be a replacement for having an airplane or a ground team DF'ing (Direction Finding) the signal in realtime.