How can the large cost of equipping the entire fleet of competition gliders with ELTs be justified, given the low likelihood of a similar situation occurring again?
It’s hard to quantify the cost of a search, but a case could be made that avoiding weeks of heartache, helicopter searches, ground operations, etc. could be worth more than $100,000 perhaps much more. Assuming that there are 500 gliders that fly competition and ELTs can be purchased for $200, the cost of equipping the entire fleet can be recouped from one incident where an ELT proves useful.
