The FAA does not require ELTs in gliders. Why is the SSA Rules Committee proposing mandatory ELTs for all contests beginning in 2006?
The experience of Peter Masak’s accident at the 2004 15 Meter Nationals was a wake-up call for the competition community. Although Peter could have been anywhere within a several hundred square mile area, a search and recovery was made possible only because an ELT was installed in his glider. Given the nature of the terrain where he crashed, without an ELT it could have been years until he was found. At best it would be naive to assume that it would have been less than several weeks. Accounting for all pilots who fly each day is undeniably a responsibility that the contest organizers bear. This initiative gives them a tool to use. Just imagine yourself as the CD or CM with the responsibility of finding a lost pilot at the end of a difficult contest day. If you couldn’t find him, when would you give up searching? Would you not wish that the glider had an ELT? Cheap insurance!
