ELT, PLB, and Tracking Device Options

[CharlesDavis]

Hi Guys,

Resurrecting this old thread .... I am trying to find the most economical satellite tracker for use in GA flying across southern Africa. I know Spidertracks still is the gold standard, but considering I only do these extended flights 3 or 4 times per year, the monthly subscription of US$39/month (plus an additional US$3,30/hr) feels like a bit of waste.

Has there been any new tech that has come on the market lately or is there a product without the subscription that anyone can recommend, which might do more or less the same thing?

Thanks,

Heye
ZS-MGA
Cessna 210

Have a look at "Safely Track Me" - free, cell-coverage based, written by a member on avcomm. It certainly wont waste money !

[Shaunus]

Funny that i created this thread 12 years ago, and then ended up writing the GSM tracking option for myself to save on costs!

My version has now been adopted by many pilots here in SA, especially flying schools. Works well here as there in comms pretty much all over the country, especially at altitude. But satellite tracking is definitely the way if you are planning on flying cross border, and into countries with limited signal. I would look at the Garmin Inreach.

But if you are doing most your flying here, checkout https://www.safelytrack.me, much cheaper i.e. free! Although at some stage may need to charge something, server hosting costs are on the increase will usage growth.

Cheers
Shaun

[JCA]

Hi Guys,

Resurrecting this old thread .... I am trying to find the most economical satellite tracker for use in GA flying across southern Africa. I know Spidertracks still is the gold standard, but considering I only do these extended flights 3 or 4 times per year, the monthly subscription of US$39/month (plus an additional US$3,30/hr) feels like a bit of waste.

Has there been any new tech that has come on the market lately or is there a product without the subscription that anyone can recommend, which might do more or less the same thing?

Thanks,

Heye
ZS-MGA
Cessna 210

You might try any of the vehicle trackers.

[Mike Wissing]

Hi Guys,

Resurrecting this old thread .... I am trying to find the most economical satellite tracker for use in GA flying across southern Africa. I know Spidertracks still is the gold standard, but considering I only do these extended flights 3 or 4 times per year, the monthly subscription of US$39/month (plus an additional US$3,30/hr) feels like a bit of waste.

Has there been any new tech that has come on the market lately or is there a product without the subscription that anyone can recommend, which might do more or less the same thing?

Thanks,

Heye
ZS-MGA
Cessna 210

Seems pretty cheap to me vs the value of your life!

[jus]

Garmin InReach Mini -- the basic subscription is very inexpensive and designed for occasional private use by PPLs and the like.

https://www.garmin.com/en-ZA/p/592606

[Vogoff]

Garmin InReach Mini -- the basic subscription is very inexpensive and designed for occasional private use by PPLs and the like.

I guess it is relative - R315pm is still a reasonable sum of money (for those of us earning ZAR):
https://www.garmin.com/en-ZA/p/837461

Plus you need to pay R2 per interval which works out at R24 per hour for a 5 minute interval. Although my main worry would be if I leave it on and don't fly for a week and then have to pay for a week's worth of location updates. Except I suspect it only transmits if the location changes, and if it is constantly transmitting the batteries will probably only last a couple of days. But you never know what kind of shock you might get at the end of the month.

Personally I use a Spot tracker which still works well enough for slightly less:
https://www.findmespot.com/en-za/produc ... vice-plans

Cell phone apps also work well but I have flown through enough cellular dead spots to want something else as well.

We also need to consider how ADSB will change this. I expect once my aircraft has 1090ES ADSB Out installed then the Spot or Inreach become redundant for search and rescue?

[jus]

Garmin InReach Mini -- the basic subscription is very inexpensive and designed for occasional private use by PPLs and the like.

I guess it is relative - R315pm is still a reasonable sum of money (for those of us earning ZAR):
https://www.garmin.com/en-ZA/p/837461

Plus you need to pay R2 per interval which works out at R24 per hour for a 5 minute interval.

They've just revised their plans... it's now R169/month with no 12-month contract (so it's suspendable). R2 a tracking point, R2 a check-in message, R10 a text message. I reckon for global satellite comms in a matchbox that's very reasonable... it's R700 / year for SOS insurance as an extra, which is also nice. Push the SOS button anywhere on earth and they come and get you.

[ddevos]

Although my main worry would be if I leave it on and don't fly for a week and then have to pay for a week's worth of location updates. Except I suspect it only transmits if the location changes, and if it is constantly transmitting the batteries will probably only last a couple of days. But you never know what kind of shock you might get at the end of the month.

I would have thought that these devices should stop sending updates when there's no movement, just like GPS loggers stop recording and goes into standby when there has been no movement for a few minutes. The moment there's just the slightest movement, it starts recording again right away. If you have it in a car, for example, simply opening a door and getting in is enough to make a logger start recording again.

Edit: Come to think of it, if it stops sending updates, it won't help in the case of an accident, unless it has a feature that it will continue to send updates after exceeding a certain amount of g-force during a crash.

[Swannie]

Tracplus would be a great idee to look at.

Can give me a call for more info 0607300832

[Tim]

Although my main worry would be if I leave it on and don't fly for a week and then have to pay for a week's worth of location updates. Except I suspect it only transmits if the location changes, and if it is constantly transmitting the batteries will probably only last a couple of days. But you never know what kind of shock you might get at the end of the month.

I would have thought that these devices should stop sending updates when there's no movement, just like GPS loggers stop recording and goes into standby when there has been no movement for a few minutes. The moment there's just the slightest movement, it starts recording again right away. If you have it in a car, for example, simply opening a door and getting in is enough to make a logger start recording again.

Edit: Come to think of it, if it stops sending updates, it won't help in the case of an accident, unless it has a feature that it will continue to send updates after exceeding a certain amount of g-force during a crash.

Two-way messaging and flight following with Garmin inReach works all a bit different. Suffice to say that it works very well.

1. You can buy the Garmin inReach device and not take out the subscription with Garmin. Subscriptions are also offered by third-party Value Added Service (VAS) providers, such as Protegear (https://www.protegear.de/en-gb/inreach-dataplans)

There is a choice of flat-rate and byte-based data plans, each of which can be deactivated daily

2. Apart from tracking and 2-way messaging, VAS such as Protegear offer server-based flight following. In short, instead of relying on your wife to stay glued to the computer screen for hours on end, a server-based algorithm looks for exceptional behaviour indicative of a potential problem (there are different profiles for different activities, but for example for an aircraft it could be stop moving outside an airfield).

It then sends out an alert message to your designated flight follower (eg spouse). If not attended to or unresolved, based on defined escalation procedures it can then alert authorities (or 'management', if used in a professional set-up).

The whole idea is that it doesn't require a human to monitor routine flight ops and that it stays quiet as long as everything is ops normal. But springs to action if something looks fishy.

3. Two-way communication really is critical. Not just for the obvious reason that you want to tell responders whether to bring fuel, or a new prop, or an ambulance. And that you want to know that they have received your distress call, and that they are their way, etc.

But already to confirm that your device at all times is actively connected to the Iridium satellite network. In simple terms, for every location point and every message that the inReach device sends, the Iridium satellite replies - once received - with an acknowledgement of receipt. A big red LED comes on on the inReach device if the two-way link to the sat network is lost. This is something one-way sat trackers like SPOT cannot offer.

[Jayson v Schalkwyk]

I use a Spot X when flying my Maule.

They offer different subscription options based on how often you track points “dropped” and you can share your profile to friends and relatives so they can track you live. It offers an SOS function and 2 way satellite based messaging amongst other functions.

https://www.findmespot.com/en-za/produc ... ces/spot-x

[deanvdm]

This post about a recent accidental triggering of an ELT relates and has a bit more info on ELTs and how they differ from the other devices, esp. when things are not black and white and the ARCC needs to work with inaccurate location or an absence of aircraft ownership information.

https://web.facebook.com/MCSASAR/posts/ ... 4ZrkYAC9Wl

An Aircraft ELT was accidentally triggered at the Wonderboom Airport (City Tshwane); an ARCC-coordinated electronic search for the aircraft located the aircraft, and the device was deactivated.

Last month (24/11/20), the ARCC was notified through the International Cospas-Sarsat Programme's detection system that a 406MHz ELT (emergency locator transmitter) device was triggered. Information that could identify the aircraft and contact the owners, as well as its precise location, was not available, and an electronic search had to be conducted at the airport. In simple terms, an electronic search is a procedure where a specialised direction finder is used to "home in" on a radio signal to find its source. The ARCC requested our MSAR Gauteng team and Hamnet to assist in finding the aircraft using the MSAR Gauteng Direction Finding equipment. The team successfully located the aircraft with the active ELT where it was parked in one of the hangers and arranged for it to be deactivated.

How and ELT works

An ELT is an aviation safety-related device fitted to aircraft. It is designed to be triggered when the aircraft is subjected to a hard impact and then immediately transmit a satellite signal to alert authorities that something could be wrong with a location; they can also be triggered manually in an unfolding emergency.

Modern 406MHz ELTs transmit a digital message via the International Cospas-Sarsat Programme's three satellite constellations (consisting of geo-stationary, Middle earth orbit, and low-earth orbiting satellites). The message contains an identification (referred to as a Hex ID) and if available, position information that helps rescue authorities reduce the response time to aviation incidents (i.e. ideally to take most of the search out of SAR). As part of international aviation safety measures, most large commercial aircraft are required to be fitted with ELTs, but many smaller aircraft also have the devices fitted. EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon) and PLBs (Personal Locator Beacons) are related emergency devices that use the same underlying technology but are designed for vessels at sea or for persons. Note that this specific technology differs from other types of commercial emergency devices such as InReach, SPOT, Spidertracks, cellular network-based trackers and many others. The 406Mhz emergency locator system has higher device and operational standards and is overall a more robust system. It has several redundancies built into the overall system. It is also formally incorporated into the International Civil Aviation Organisation's emergency and rescue structures (of which the South African ARCC forms part).

ELTs are required to be registered to enable authorities to allow the owners to be contacted but in this case, the device (which is identified through a unique HEX ID) was not registered with any country or database which necessitated a physical, electronic search for the beacon.
On behalf of the ARCC we remind pilots, vessel owners as well private individuals to ensure your ELT, PLB or EPIRBs are registered. If you are unsure if your beacon is registered, please contact the ARCC, MRCC or South African Civil Aviation Authority - SACAA.

Electronic Search

A secondary function of many ELTs devices is transmitting an analogue tone on the aviation International Air Distress frequency (121.5MHz). All aircraft radios can receive and monitor this tone, which alerts Air Traffic Control and pilots that monitor this frequency to the fact that something is wrong. For this incident, some of the aircraft in the vicinity, as well as the control tower, were aware of the triggered device which was transmitting on the Air Distress Frequency but were unable to locate it. The transmission also meant that the frequency was partially blocked for real emergency communication. It was, therefore, important that the device be deactivated as soon as possible.

The primary role of the 121.5MHz signal is that it can be used as a "homing signal" which can be tracked through specialised direction finding equipment (informally referred to as a "fox hunt" in the amateur radio community). MSAR, which is a rescue resource to the ARCC, has direction finding equipment part of our rescue equipment that was located nearby and was requested to assist in the electronic search.

20241202_130751 R.jpg

[Mike Wissing]

The problem with the 121.5 portion of the 406 is that’s in the order of 1/10th of a Watt. It doesn’t have an impressive range, but at least still gives off an audio tone which you can pick up on your aircraft comm radio.
Another fun issue with the 406 is that there are multiple frequencies within the 406MHz range, so if your Becker (or similar detection device) can’t be tuned to the exact frequency, you are starting the search with one hand tied behind your back.
A little known fact is the 406 only transmits every (approx) 50 seconds with no audio tone. For an airborne search at 90KIAS, that’s almost 1.5nm travelled per ping (zero wind of course).
Finding an ELT in a hangar can be such fun. The signal can travel along the metal structure, giving you an inconsistent false positive.
Well done on finding it!