Emergency equipment and survival gear
The ELT and what it does not do, what to carry over cold, high or wet ground, and the two systems that fly the airplane when the pilot cannot: the ballistic parachute and emergency autoland.
14 min read · Airport operations and procedures
After this lesson you can
- State what 14 CFR 91.207 requires of an ELT, and what the 12-month inspection actually checks.
- Say when an ELT battery must be replaced, and why the rule is written in cumulative hours rather than dates.
- Choose survival equipment from the route rather than from a list: cold, mountains, water.
- Describe when a ballistic parachute is deployed, what it costs, and what a passenger needs to be told.
- Describe what an emergency autoland system does after activation, and name what it cannot do.
Two kinds of equipment sit in this lesson. The first kind helps somebody find you after the flight has gone badly: the ELT, and whatever you decided to carry. The second kind is newer and stranger: systems that take the airplane away from the pilot and land it, or lower the whole airframe under a parachute.
The FAA added the second kind to the Airman Certification Standards because these systems are now installed in ordinary training and touring airplanes. A pilot who has never thought about when to pull the handle will not think clearly about it on the day.
The rest of this lesson
- 1.The emergency locator transmitter
- 2.The fire extinguisher: what the handbooks say, and what they leave to the placard
- 3.Survival equipment comes from the route, not from a list
- 4.The ballistic parachute: what it costs and when it is worth it
- 5.Emergency autoland: what it does, and the four things it cannot
These 5 sections, their figures, the checks along the way and the end-of-lesson quiz come with the PPL track. Paid once, yours for good.
Key terms
Try to recall each definition before turning the card.