As I was starting the Cherokee to put it it away after fueling I heard a faint squeal in my headphones. I checked to see if I was hearing my pulsing landing lights or the tail strobe. I realized it was an ELT. I tuned to 121.5 and there it was. I toggled mine to see if it was me. I called on the radio to Joe, my CFI who verified it.
After pushing the plane back into my berth I walked to the office to tell "Crusty." Joe had already called him. He said he couldn't go out and search right away. When he came around scanning with a handheld I went along and we went from plane to plane to plane.
We thought it was a a plane in a hangar because Joe said he couldn't hear it in flight. That would mean it was blocked by a hangar roof.
We actually opened up a few planes in my hangar and toggled the ELTs. No luck. We had checked all about of the planes in the hangar.
Eventually Crusty gave up and handed me the radio to see what I could find.
I walked around and tried to find where the signal was strongest. I started thinking that the handheld antenna received strongest along the donut to the side so I could scan with the side, giving me a sort of bearing vector but in two directions.
What was weird was where the signal was gone and strong. It was strong at the fuel island at the center ramp where I first heard it. It was strong just outside my hangar which is the westernmost. It got strong again in spots as I moved east. I checked some planes just east of the center.
I finally realized that the handheld was tuned to 121.52. I tuned it to 121.5. Then I tweaked the squelch until it was high enough to only hear the chirp of the warble when it was strongest. By driving up and down the line of planes to the farthest east after about 20 minutes of searching I eventually had it down to 2 planes parked outside.
I was zeroing in on a 172 just as the owner pulled up. "Your ELT is On!" He reached in and turned it off. Peace and quiet.
He had returned the plane from annual last night. The mechanic left the ELT switch where it could flip on. The ELT had been going for some 14 hours. I did tell him he was gonna need a new ELT battery.
Finding the signal was not bad accomplishment for me, a guy who didn't know what was he was doing.
What gets me is that the airport never got a call. Even if the satellites are down, we might figure that a few airliners heard it. We can assume that 121.5 ELTs are really worthless to bring help. I wondered if we should have called FSS to tell them we found it, but we can guess that the new FSS wouldn't have a clue what we saying.
After pushing the plane back into my berth I walked to the office to tell "Crusty." Joe had already called him. He said he couldn't go out and search right away. When he came around scanning with a handheld I went along and we went from plane to plane to plane.
We thought it was a a plane in a hangar because Joe said he couldn't hear it in flight. That would mean it was blocked by a hangar roof.
We actually opened up a few planes in my hangar and toggled the ELTs. No luck. We had checked all about of the planes in the hangar.
Eventually Crusty gave up and handed me the radio to see what I could find.
I walked around and tried to find where the signal was strongest. I started thinking that the handheld antenna received strongest along the donut to the side so I could scan with the side, giving me a sort of bearing vector but in two directions.
What was weird was where the signal was gone and strong. It was strong at the fuel island at the center ramp where I first heard it. It was strong just outside my hangar which is the westernmost. It got strong again in spots as I moved east. I checked some planes just east of the center.
I finally realized that the handheld was tuned to 121.52. I tuned it to 121.5. Then I tweaked the squelch until it was high enough to only hear the chirp of the warble when it was strongest. By driving up and down the line of planes to the farthest east after about 20 minutes of searching I eventually had it down to 2 planes parked outside.
I was zeroing in on a 172 just as the owner pulled up. "Your ELT is On!" He reached in and turned it off. Peace and quiet.
He had returned the plane from annual last night. The mechanic left the ELT switch where it could flip on. The ELT had been going for some 14 hours. I did tell him he was gonna need a new ELT battery.
Finding the signal was not bad accomplishment for me, a guy who didn't know what was he was doing.
What gets me is that the airport never got a call. Even if the satellites are down, we might figure that a few airliners heard it. We can assume that 121.5 ELTs are really worthless to bring help. I wondered if we should have called FSS to tell them we found it, but we can guess that the new FSS wouldn't have a clue what we saying.
Last edited:
