Hi Mark Mine were two suggestions only which work here. With our helicopters, as soon as you turn on the Master switch the power flows into the Tracplus satellite tracking system and the pilot has to do nothing as a position signal is sent every two minutes ( or less if you want to alter the settings) My ELT comment is that if you are at altitude and something catastrophic happens that means you are definitely going down, whip on that manual ELT activation switch. A few Transmission bursts may assist searchers later. Of course in a partial system failure with a probability of maintaining control of the aircraft such an action would be well down the checklist. On that we agree

(Written on 2015/01/09)(Permalink)

Hi Mark The manual cockpit ELT activation switch is situated usually in an easy to reach location for the pilot and only takes a split second to operate for a thinking pilot. My suggestion of satellite trackers and ELT activation are only two practical suggestions in the toolbox of possible solutions and are offered after over 50 years direct involvement in aviation - mainly in some very remote areas.

(Written on 2015/01/09)(Permalink)

I am quite amazed that aircraft can just disappear. Here in New Zealand we have mandatory emergency beacons fitted in all aircraft which transmit through the satellite system on 406mhz and can be turned on manually from the cockpit in an emergency and also have a g switch which can turn them on automatically on impact. The shortcoming of the latter is that the exterior transmitting aerial may break off in an accident thus preventing an adequate signal being sent from the distressed aircraft. Because of this, those of us here that fly - especially in remote areas, have for many years fitted on board tracking devices such as SPOT. Spidertrack or Trackplus. These units are small in size, simple to install and relatively cheap insurance with the latter costing the operators less than NZD$5 per hour on average to run. Smaller GA operators of fixed wing and helicopters in this area set their devices to give a position every two minutes or so and the latter two devices quoted show speed. al

(Written on 2015/01/08)(Permalink)

Preacher below has summed the situation up correctly. Don't blame the airline every time. Check your ticket. QANTAS financial results are abysmal relative to its size and capital investment so don't bring profits into the argument.Biggles

(Written on 2014/12/26)(Permalink)

It was only a generator The motor kept going It was just one of those things Plenty of redundancy A lot of hype over very little

(Written on 2014/10/11)(Permalink)