Originally Posted by
Recidivist
"A cover of the AOPA magazine of the era had a picture of Bullimore sitting on the hull of his yacht in the southern ocean"
Are you sure about this LS? I remember differently - TB was inside the upturned vessel and swam out when AUS navy crew banged on the hull. There was another rescue at the same time (was it Thierry Dubois?) - that skipper was standing on the upturned hull of his yacht, clinging to a rudder and knowing that if he fell asleep, he would die. I have seen a photo of that, many years ago.
Rec, Charlie,
Come to think of it, you are probably correct. But the facts at the time got through to even some of the most dense of the politicians of the day.
Squawk 7700,
FANTASTIC NEWS, FIXED ELT ONLY FAIL 85% OF THE TIME, INSTEAD OF 90%+ ???
Clearly we should revert to the original legislation and make fixed ELT mandatory.
Call it an obsession if you like,
I just call it facts, (and certainly not fake news) and there have been at least two occasions since the mid-1990s, when "the usual suspects (latest generation of)" have started a move to once again mandate fixed ELT.
All in the name of ICAO compliance. There was huge pressure brought to bear on the person who did the post-implementation review of the original change (which only confirmed the failure rate) but he also stuck to the facts.
The "case" that CASA originally presented to justify the mandate was mindblowingly inaccurate, to the degree that it, in my opinion, it went beyond the usual level of incompetence. Then again, we have seen similar in more recent times, think of the grossly wrong benefit/cost analysis (both No.1 and No.2) for ADS-B.
What other piece of aeronautical "safety" equipment, with such a grotesque failure rate would allowed, even tolerated, much less mandated.
And, 7700, there is the little matter of those who don't learn from history are bound to repeat it.
Only in recent weeks, a most earnest young instructor took it upon himself to tell me how much better a fixed ELT was --- as fitted to his company's several aircraft. That I declined to leave my GME PLB in the car more than surprised him. I trust now he understands a little more of the "true facts".
Tootle pip!!