That's assuming you are flying in an area with good radar coverage and talking to ATC. Where I live the nearest Class C is 30+ miles away, and I have gone years without talking to them. Sure they may see you pop up and pop off, but did you crash, decide to land in the field behind your house (which I do on occasion), or just fly below their coverage area? Multiply that over dozens of aircraft a day and you'll realize that ADS-B is not a good replacement for an ELT. (Though I bet it will help them find you quicker if someone does initiate a search.)gahorn wrote:The STUPID thing about 460 ELTs is..... if they enforce ADS-B ....then the 406 ELTs should be JUNK!
Why?.... because if you're flying along at 1500 ft and smack a radio tower or otherwise go missing.... the ATC computer will have seen you travelling along and come to a STOP!.... so it should be fairly obvious that your LAST WAAS-REPORTED LOCATION......is where your remains ...remain. Doh!
.
Response times to 406 elts are literally within minutes. They start calling and they keep calling until they get someone. If not, they initiate a search. We set one off at work once accidentally, and in less than 15 minutes phones starting ringing. In the US the call comes from the Coast Guard, and they already knew the tail number, what type aircraft, what color, general vicinity, and who they were calling. Very impressive.
Really, they should have named them something different because these are so far removed from old ELT's in terms of performance and reliability. Traditional ELT's have a bad reputation that is well earned. Unfortunately that stigma has carried over to the new 406 units.
Sorry for the threadjack.
DEM