Posted on 01/01/2007 8:01:28 AM PST by Excuse_My_Bellicosity
In my CAP days, we once broke into a BANK at 2AM!!
Bank Pres had bought a new ELT for his airplane, then placed it in a file drawer, which he then slammed closed, setting off the ELT...
Local Police weren't impressed until they recieved a call from the on-duty General at Scott!!
"I mean, an ELT will only squawk for 24 hours or so before the battery goes dead."
In the meantime, every Rescue and first response unit in North Amerca is going nuts....
The priority is to find the ELT, because someone on the other end may need help.
Being that I'm an RF Engineer, in addition to being a pilot, it would be very easy to detect an ELT emitting a signal on 121.5 Mhz by just using a handheld radio and listening for the ping on 121.5. If the ELT were just on the other side of the door the signal would be strong. If not, then they probably wouldn't even hear it ground to ground if they were more than a half mile or so away. These low frequency "antique modulation" aircraft radios just don't work all that great. I think if it were me, and I were risking conviction on Federal charges, or worse, risking getting shot dead by the owner of the hangar I was about to break into, I'd be double dog sure before I broke someone's door down. Having some General call after they'd broken in and damaged my property would result in hysterical laughter on my part as they were carted off to jail. Clearly, the didn't understand how to verify the location of the signal, thought they had the right to do whatever they wanted, where ever they wanted and it was very unprofessional at best. Essentially, what they did was look at a map, saw that my airport on that map and that it was in their target area. Somehow from this they felt that gave them the right to break my property and enter my hangar. It doesn't. They are not law enforcement.
Even if it had been in my hangar I doubt the satellite would have detected it anyway because the steel siding and roof on the hangar would significantly attenuate the signal. The 121.5 Mhz ELT's don't work that great in the best of conditions. That's why they're switching to 406 Mhz.
Clearly, these folks overstepped their boundaries. For all I know this woman was part of the local CAP office, caused serious embarrassment for them with this episode, and that was the reason they denied knowing her.
One thing is for sure, I'm considerably less confident in the CAP abilities in these parts....
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