- Joined
- Jan 4, 2011
- Messages
- 2,500
- Reaction score
- 488
So this weekend had an incident that sucked and got me thinking. So I took off Saturday morning for a local Young Eagles flight that lasted around 30 minutes. On my way back I contacted the Tower and I was told right away that my ELT was going off. I responded that I will address it on the ground and that’s what I did no worries right? Well right after I landed and let the kids back to the hangar I realized that had multiple missed calls and text messages. The texts were from my wife
She received 3 phone calls from multiple places. Air-force out of Florida, San Diego Coast Guard and another place in Norcal asking about me. Her messages were Are you okay? Multiple texts. Well this new 406 ELT our National response system works really well but unfortunately it can’t distinguish between false alarms or real situations. If you can imagine she was freaking out. She was convinced something bad happened to me. Well thank God no but to her it was all real. It took 30 minutes from the time the calls started and the time I responded. She is still shaken up more the 24 hours later. What caused it the ELT to go off? No it was not a hard landing it was during flight. I am calling the mfg tomorrow to see what I need to do. Tough weekend. I love aviation but it got me thinking if it’s time to give it up.
She received 3 phone calls from multiple places. Air-force out of Florida, San Diego Coast Guard and another place in Norcal asking about me. Her messages were Are you okay? Multiple texts. Well this new 406 ELT our National response system works really well but unfortunately it can’t distinguish between false alarms or real situations. If you can imagine she was freaking out. She was convinced something bad happened to me. Well thank God no but to her it was all real. It took 30 minutes from the time the calls started and the time I responded. She is still shaken up more the 24 hours later. What caused it the ELT to go off? No it was not a hard landing it was during flight. I am calling the mfg tomorrow to see what I need to do. Tough weekend. I love aviation but it got me thinking if it’s time to give it up.
