A Potential Life Saver: Personal Locator Beacon

OceanSignal PLB1 Beacon

If your plane is equipped for emergencies with a 121.5 MHz Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT) like my Zenith HDS601, you are depending on old technology in case of a crash.

The ELT is designed that a force exceeding 5g triggers transmission of a beep signal. Who will pick up the signal? It will unlikely be a ground station due to the line-of-sight limitation of the signal. This leaves any aircraft overhead that is monitoring 121.5. 

All commercial airliners are tuned in to the frequency, so most likely one of them will contact Air Traffic Control (ATC). They will send out Search and Rescue personnel.

Lots of things can go wrong with the process. The ELT antenna may be damaged, the plane may be partially immersed in a creek, . . . Your imagination is the only limit for the possible bad scenarios.

If the ELT seemingly cannot transmit the signal, you can remove it from the plane, extend its built-in antenna, and manually trigger the transmission. In my plane, this would mean crawling into the tail cone, unlatching the ELT, disconnecting the external antenna, and extending the ELT's antenna outside the plane. That's quite a few steps when you are badly hurt.

What we are trying to say here, is: You are relying on many things to work out.

There is an alternative. You keep the ELT installed in the plane, replace the battery on the mandated cycle, test it during each annual inspection, and so on.

In addition you buy a Personal Locator Beacon (PLB) to keep in a handy location in the plane. We carry it in the flight bag behind the left seat.

There are several choices. Some companies offer a PLB and a subscription service for a yearly fee. The PLB sends a signal to a commercial satellite, which in turn broadcasts the information to a ground station. Personnel there analyzes the situation and determines a suitable action. Some units can output and receive a limited amount of data.

All this sounds good until you investigate the performance. There have been instances where the ground station didn't respond for hours. All the while injured people were waiting and hoping.

There is an alternative. You get a PLB that in part acts like an ELT transmitting on 406MHz. You register the PLB with the NOAA. There is no fee for registration or monitoring.

The 406MHz signal is received by a number of satellites and triggers immediate response action. You are in the hands of the most reliable rescue operators, since the system is designed to handle all aircraft accidents and emergencies.

In addition, the PLB sends out the 121.5 signal, plus a strobe beacon that helps Search and Rescue find you at night. 

The above photo shows a first-rate PLB of that type. Here are the details.

The PLB is produced by OceanSignal and called PLB1. It fits into the palm of your hand and weighs around 0.25 lbs. The antenna is coiled up in the unit and pulled out. You retract it with a rewind button.

The cost is the same no matter where you buy it. With sales tax, it's $350-400. 

A convenient place to buy the PLB1 is Recreational Equipment, Inc. (REI). One more reason to buy there: You are assured that the unit is programmed for use in the US.

The manual has a small format but is well written.

Battery life is 7 years. For battery replacement, you can send the unit to the factory paying $157 plus two-way shipping, or you do it yourself using a battery supplied by Beacon Battery Replacement (BBR) for $39.

Here is another attractive feature of the PLB1. Since it is so small and light weight, we take it along on hikes into remote areas. If things turn really nasty, there is always the option to call for help.

Important note: Our son Martin figured all this out in a meticulous and time-consuming search of the options.

Have any questions or feedback about PLBs? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

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