Withdrawal of emergency beacons
Am I alone to see withdrawal of PLBs as a real step backwards in safety?
As one of the guys being ferried around, I thought the whole point of the PLB was that it is Personal Locator Beacon - meaning that if the worst happens and the chopper goes down, if I manage to get out of it before it sinks then the SAR guys can find ME - personally!! If the chopper doesnt sink and is floating inverted, I still want SAR to find ME, not the upturned chopper.
Now with any luck I will be with everyone else that was on the chopper, and SAR get the choice of a multitude of signals to home onto, but I might be on my lonesome floating around in my blobby suit, and if so I still want to be found pdq!!
There is currently a debate in GA circles about the mandatory carriage of ELT/PLB 's and which is best and which is legal. To me its a no brainer, its the person that needs to be rescued, not the machine - regardless of legalities
Regards, SD..