Who's running a 406 ELT?

[C5Engineer 1170]

In my ongoing quest to spend money on my airplane I have been wanting to upgrade to a 406 ELT. I am currently running an Ameri-King AK450 with D flashlight batteries. It looks like their AK 451 is almost a direct drop in replacement. I think the piece of mind would be a good $600 well spent considering I KNOW for a fact that the only people monitoring guard these days is the Air Force and even if someone happens to hear your signal the search area is still HUGE.

 

http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/avpages/ameriKingpackages.php

[EDMO 1078]

In my ongoing quest to spend money on my airplane I have been wanting to upgrade to a 406 ELT. I am currently running an Ameri-King AK450 with D flashlight batteries. It looks like their AK 451 is almost a direct drop in replacement. I think the piece of mind would be a good $600 well spent considering I KNOW for a fact that the only people monitoring guard these days is the Air Force and even if someone happens to hear your signal the search area is still HUGE.

 

http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/avpages/ameriKingpackages.php

Joey, With the outback where you fly, I would get the new one already!  Note that the new ones have $49 replacement batteries with 5 year life - NO MORE D BATTERIES!  I have a AK-451 for Foxy, and just removed a 450 from the KF3.

I know the new battery will expire before I get finished with Foxy, but needed to install the mount and wiring before covering the fuselage.

EDMO

Edited 22 Oct 2015 by EDMO

[Av8r3400 1179]

I have one of these America-King units going into the Mangy. 

All I can say is it would be a direct drop in replacement for the old 121.5 model. 

[EDMO 1078]

I have one of these America-King units going into the Mangy. 

All I can say is it would be a direct drop in replacement for the old 121.5 model. 

I haven't tried the new one in the old mount yet, but it may work - The new one come with a different mount than the old one.   MAYBE I bought an ACK ?  Whichever was a few $$ cheaper - Now have to go check....

EdMO

Edited 22 Oct 2015 by EDMO

[wypaul 448]

I have the 406 in the Avid, thought it was a good plan for the backcounty flying.  Then while talking to the local CAP they said that the old one was ok but SPOT offered the best protection for the money and if he had to choose between an ELT and the SPOT it would be the SPOT hands down.  If I would have talked to him first I would have stuck with the 121.5 and bought the SPOT saving myself a pile of money.  That was just one mans opinion but it carried weight with me.  I still have the 121 in the Q2 and don't plan to up grade that one. 

[EDMO 1078]

I flew Search & Rescue for the CAP for about 11 years before ELTs came out - If I can be found, (and I'm not even talking about 'Back-Country'), in an hour instead of a day, week, or month, maybe I wont be bled out when they get there.  Here in Missouri, we have plenty of forests to crash into, and I can tell you that I have looked for a plane with a couple and 4 children in it for a month before we found them - all dead.   You can go into the trees without leaving more than one broken branch, and not be seen from the air.

I want all the latest technology "Just in Case"!

EdMO

[tcj 150]

I don't have a 406 ELT but do carry an ACR resqlink Personal Locator Beacon (PLB).  It is still a compromise.  It does not automatically start transmitting with an impact like an ELT.   You don't turn it on until you need to be rescued.  No subscription required and is monitored by Search and rescue world wide.  I wanted it to also use when hiking and snowshoeing out in the backcountry.   Spot is just a tracker/messenger and requires a subscription.

 

I don't believe the AK-451 has an internal GPS, you need to hook it to an external GPS to get that feature.  This whole thing about the GPS part is kind of confusing to me.

 

Have you looked at the ARTEX ELT 345 GPS.   They now have an ELT with GPS for less than $600.  http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/avpages/artex11-13989.php?clickkey=2578691

Edited 23 Oct 2015 by tcj

[C5Engineer 1170]

I don't have a 406 ELT but do carry an ACR resqlink Personal Locator Beacon (PLB).  It is still a compromise.  It does not automatically start transmitting with an impact like an ELT.   You don't turn it on until you need to be rescued.  No subscription required and is monitored by Search and rescue world wide.  I wanted it to also use when hiking and snowshoeing out in the backcountry.   Spot is just a tracker/messenger and requires a subscription.

 

I don't believe the AK-451 has an internal GPS, you need to hook it to an external GPS to get that feature.  This whole thing about the GPS part is kind of confusing to me.

Tom there is a version of the 451 that has GPS feed but it's about 3 grand! I never take off without my SPOT running. Guys if you are running one take the time to teach your wife how it works and any codes you may use. For example I was camping in a spot with no cell signal one time and woke up to extremely dense fog that none of us anticipated. I had told the wife what time abouts I would be back in cell coverage. Not knowing what else to do I kept sending OK messages throughout the day. She was confused on why they were all coming from the same spot but at least she knew I was okay. We didn't get out until almost 2pm that day and needless to say she was pretty stressed when I finally made contact. Now she understands that if I keep sending OK's without moving we are weathered in. My Spot has paid for itself many times over with her having the peace of mind of knowing where I am. I figure if I go down and it was running just looking at the track log would give a vector and a relative distance from the last known point which narrows the search area down a lot.

[Av8r_Sed 82]

I use the InReach SE from DeLorme.  The big advantage is it allows two way texting in addition to providing the tracking info.  It's helpful to be able to receive emergency messages when you're out adventuring as well as being able to send them out.

[EDMO 1078]

Joey,

      I bought the ACK E-04 406 ELT because it was cheaper from Spruce than the Ameri King 451. 

And, it came with the remote switch and wire, even tho the Spruce catalog says it will work with the Ameri King remote switch.

EDMO

Edited 24 Oct 2015 by EDMO