Ed Byars said he has had two successful 121.5 style ELT activations; I
know a pilot in our club that had a successful activation (the police
were alerted and arrived in short while). So the scorecard is:

3 Successful activations
? Unsuccessful activations

I don't know of any other cases. This is a very unscientific poll, but
perhaps others can report their experiences in actual crashes, which
might give us a better idea of their value.

Personally, I fly with an 121.5 ELT, for several reasons:

1) Because I fly a motorglider, I often fly when (or where) other glider
pilots aren't flying, so there is no one to give my position to.

2) I often fly a 100 miles or more away from home, so I can't contact my
base station.

3) I frequently fly over mountains and other terrain where locating the
glider would be difficult.

4) My wife said it makes her feel better, knowing I might be found
sooner after an accident.

5) It might (in some areas) make search and rescue people more likely to
search for me.

The cost was about $300, because I bought a small one that could be
mounted more easily. The larger ones are quite a bit cheaper, and
probably no harder to mount, now that I've seen some other installations.
--
Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly

Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA