PLB Personal Locator Beacons

29 Aug 2004 PLB Personal Locator Beacons

A recent crash in Washington reminded me of the necessity of having a PLB or Personal Locator Beacon. Three guys in a Cessna 185 crashed at about 17:00 local, and didn’t get found until the next morning at about 10:30 local. Get this – they even had a cell phone, and had called for help, and they still could not find them for 17+ hours. So much for the useless ELT that the various aviation authorities require.

http://www2.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20040826X01293&key=1

The PLB that seems to be the most popular is the ACR GyPSI 406 Personal Locator Beacon (about 700 USD):

I also found the McMurdo Fastfind PLB with GPS (about 870 USD at PilotMall.com http://www.pilotmall.com/store/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=1&Product_Code=1158):

These will help you get found if you crash and you or someone on the plane survives. They are not automatically deployed, so someone has to be able to fire it up. One of these would have saved the guy that perished in the crash mentioned above. Flying can be very hazardous if something goes wrong, so why not give yourself every possible chance to get back home after an accident? If money is tight, it’s better to spend this money on a PLB than the sunroof upgrade on the new car.