Personal locator w/GPS

RotaryWingBob

RotaryWingBob

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Gone West
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Feb 23, 2005
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Chester County, PA
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iHover
I've been toying the idea of getting a 406 mhz personal locator with GPS to carry while flying (the R22 does not have an ELT, nor will the Raven II). Does anyone have a recommendation about which unit to select?
 
RotaryWingBob said:
I've been toying the idea of getting a 406 mhz personal locator with GPS to carry while flying (the R22 does not have an ELT, nor will the Raven II). Does anyone have a recommendation about which unit to select?
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We chose the ACR Terrafix at work for both our survival vests and our backcountry rangers. We researched a few and these came out on top.

For aviation they augment the ELT in the aircraft, they don't replace it. All PLB's have to be manually activated i.e. you must be conscious and have sufficient mobility during the emergency to do so.
 
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You can read a very comprehensive review of all 406Mhz PLB's at "Equipped to Survive" (www.equipped.com).

The McMurdo PLB's failed the tests miserably - only ACR products passed.
 
Now is probably a good time to find an extra discount from the major avionics shops because they are at OshKosh.
 
Armageddon Aviator said:
The McMurdo PLB's failed the tests miserably - only ACR products passed.
Click to expand...

McMurdo upgraded their units, it appears that they passed the second time around:

http://www.equipped.com/406_GPS_beacon_test_2005_summary.htm

What I'm curious about is... Does the beacon send the location only once? Or will it continuously update the location until the battery fails? As in, if I know I'm going down, should I activate the beacon in the air, or wait until I'm down?
 
One point is that they don't get a GPS location until activated. So if you are in heavy canopy or a canyon there might be a reception problem. The 406 by itself is still better than 121.5.
 
I talked to the vendor at OSH about these

http://www.martec.fr

I'm debating whether to avoid the rush and buy an upgrade to 406 now before the 121.5 phase out.
 
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