Emergency Locator Beacons

[JD]

After speaking w/ Danny's wife Olivia several times while he's in the ICU after having spent 17-18 hours unconscious, hanging partially inverted in a tree overnight, I have decided to look into flying w/ a PLB. I'll make this brief and to the point:

Here is what you want to know if you really want to be rescued............
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distress_radiobeacon
http://www.sarsat.noaa.gov/emerbcns.html

I spoke w/ Nico, the tech at ACR and he is an XC PG pilot from South Africa and knew what I was talking about. Rather than buying one of their discontinued units for $200 then possibly needing to spend another $150 for a new battery and inspection due the the old shelf life, I just bought a brand new model at the best discount I could find on the web.

This is the model he suggested: http://www.acrelectronics.com/product2.aspx?sku=2883

Here's where I just ordered mine: http://www.anchorexpress.com/ProductDet ... tCode=2883

For an extra $60/year I can use the beacon to transmit my location to my retrieve driver, etc: http://406link.com/406Plus.html

am i correct in assuming that this unit requires you to be awake and able to manually transmit your location?

Just press THE button--before you come to a stop. You can deactivate it if you don't require rescue after you come to a rest. If you subscribe to the tracking feature, you use a different button. It looks pretty straightforward to me. I will not be buying a SPOT Locator now that I have this on its way and know that it can be used for retrieve driver alert with a $60 annual subscription.

[stebbins]

When I bought my Spot, these things were much more expensive, and had no ability to give the alert to the driver. Now that the price is lower and you can do that, they really are competitive with Spot. They still cost more, but you don't go through a separate company for emergencies, but direct to the emergency system.

But as I already have my Spot, I'll probably not be buying one for now.

And the spot has the cool "bread-crumb" feature that these don't seem to have. Thus if you are dropping bread-crumbs at the same place over and over, and haven't checked in, maybe it is time for someone to come check on you. And this happens without you having to press any button in flight, after landing or whatever. You just have to set it up before flight.

And if you are using bread-crumbs that way, you don't have to be messing with pushing THE button while you really should be working on minimizing or avoiding a crash in the first place.

All that said, there are advantages to both. I'm glad that there are options out there! I know someone who might be alive today if these things had been available (and he'd had one.)

Thanks for the info Jonathan.[/code]

[dhmartens]

I wonder how it would compare to a popular service like Onstar.
There was some talk of Onstar for helmets in a motorcycle forum
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXGP8tkV1N4[/youtube]

[Jim]

I suppose, DMARTENS, that that would mean you would call OnStar when you get locked out of a thermal and have them let you in.

[Steve90266]

Jonathan, to complete the XC survival package, you might consider carrying a simple pen flare and cartridges. These can really help the SAR guys pin point your location quick, especially at night. And they are cheap!

http://www.jamestowndistributors.com/us ... =8123&BASE

Steve M.