Originally Posted by englishal
I'm going to get one [SPOT] as although it is not an ELT, it is as good as...
Maybe not - you may want to read
this, ("What Price Your Life?") from the excellent "
Equipped to Survive" website.
The same site has an interesting review of SPOT
here. (Same link as in #5 above).
It's probably a viable alternative to a PLB for some scenarios, but I'm not sure that bobbin' in the Oggin after a GA ditching is one of them.
For example: How long, from initiation of SPOT alert to SAR on scene? As quick as a PLB? Last week's ditching was almost in the narrowest part of the Channel and yet it still took a good hour for help to arrive. It was late June, and yet hypothermia had already begun to set in. Is a potential additonal delay something you want to risk?
Also, SPOT doesn't have 121.5 transmission for terminal homing to you, as 406MHz PLBs do.