Dave Dunwoodie wrote: >> I've been studying every KR2 picture I can find and a see only a handful that have an ELA antenna visible. This brings up a couple of (dummy me) questions: 1. Is an ELT required? This may sound really stupid, but the lack of visible antennas has me wondering now. 2. What about an internal ELT antenna? All of my other antennas are internal, why not the ELT? <<
See http://www.n56ml.com/antennas/10091413m.jpg for my mini-antenna farm. Left to right are the ELT antenna (specially contoured for optimal results whether nosed into terra firma or hanging from the top of a pine tree), GPS antenna for laptop navigation applications, transponder (the secret here is a "Sister Schubert biscuit tin" ground plane cut to RF optimized proportions), APRS ham radio frequency tracker, GPS antenna for said APRS tracker, and in the vertical stab is the comm antenna, routinely good for 150 miles. All are internal, because 3/32 plywood and a layer of cheap paint isn't much of an obstacle to RF signals. There's also the XM-WX weather reciever up front to pick up XM weather sattelite data. There may be more antennas that I don't even remember at this point. And people wonder why my plane is so heavy. To address your particular concern, the ELT is a bit of a crap shoot. One thing's for sure...if it's external it'll be the first thing to disappear during an off-airport landing. Depending on speed of impact, the ELT may not end up anywhere near the antenna, especially if the landing was hard enough to activate it.. In that case, it probably doesn't matter where the antenna was...whatever it was fastened to may be gone entirely. For these occasions, the APRS tracker is recommended. It will show your last whereabouts down to about 500' AGL, depending on how far out in the boonies you were before impact. At 500', the search area is confined to a diameter that will ensure recovery of your remains in a very timely fashion. If you're using the new 406 MHz ELT, forces will be mobilized in about 15 minutes, based on personal experience, and it shouldn't take long after that. My wife has a link to my APRS track on her desktop, for just such an occasion... Mark Langford, channeling Foghorn Leghorn and the "fawtunately my feathuhs ahh numbuhed" routine website at http://www.N56ML.com It seemed funny at the time... --------------------------------------------------------
