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Ack E-04 (406) -second inflight activation

MS19087

Well Known Member
ACK E-04 (406) - second inflight activation!

This past weekend I did a short hop from KOQN to KPTW - a ten minute flight. Upon shutdown I could hear the audible tones of the ELT. Once I realized it was the ELT I hit the reset button which silenced the unit and stopped it from emitting the distress signal. Sure enough within a few minutes I received a call from the USAF SARSAT facility in Florida.

The good news is that they hear me when it activates. The bad news is that it is the second time in 18 months that it activated for no apparent reason. I called the manufacturer who had little explanation to offer and suggested that I monitor it in future flights - really! They claim the only other reports of activation were from aircraft where the audio annunciator had gotten wet from rain. This was not the case with me - my aircraft was dry and not exposed to any water. I'm disappointed that they have no diagnostic tools to determine why I have experienced this twice in 18 mos.

Has anyone else had an issue with their ACK E-04?
 
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Me, too, maybe

Cruising over NV, I noticed the red LED flashing. I had been fooling with a satellite radio mounted just above the control box, but I had a really difficult time convincing myself I had accidentally bump the recessed "on" button. Que sera, sera, until your post.

The outcome? Two hours later I landed at home field, greeted by concerned friends, the airport manager, and a city cop. This in spite of telling Flight Service it was an accidental activation, call off the dogs, etc. I also wonder why no one noticed my continued 180k movement (it's an ADS-B out ship) and that the signal had quit. Seems there's opportunity to improve the service to minimize the cost of false positives.

John Siebold
 
Unintentional activation is a disappointingly-common topic.

Artex has some real problems with their G-switches. My ME406 went off while sitting on a carpeted stair in my home, with nobody else around but me. I looked over and saw the LED blinking. It's not supposed to activate when removed from the ships wiring (there's an activation loop in the aircraft side of the wiring harness) and yet this thing was still transmitting, with no antenna connected. That was an expensive lesson, costing half the price of a new ELT. Then the battery pack failed a year later... Not impressed with the Artex product, and even less impressed by their customer service ethic.

All that aside, the ACK could be experiencing the same kind of G-switch failures as the Artex units. As I was able to demonstrate to myself, this failure mode requires no actual G-loading - mine failed at a constant 1G.

If your ELT is activating inadvertently, I would strongly advise that you call the manufacturer and tell them you are sending the unit directly to them and that you want a full production burn-in test cycle run on the unit (including vibration and temperature cycling). Also tell them you aren't going to risk your life on their "fly it and see" diagnostic technique. If necessary, escalate within ACK to get to the right person who will comply with your request. Often the sales side of the house will be more responsive than the service side of the house so don't be afraid to use one arm of the organisation to twist the other arm.

BTW, I tried this technique with Artex and they hung up on me after I tried to pin them down on the Australian AD on their G-switches. They continue to say they don't have a problem when the Australian CAA clearly believes they do have a problem. If you get this type of treatment from your ELT manufacturer, install another brand. I installed a Kannad and have never looked back. The exceptionally-unsatisfactory customer service provided by Artex has left me with little choice but to warn others about this company's poor product and service.
 
SDR

File a FAA Service Difficulty Report and put the failure out into the public record.

It is a TSO piece of equipment.
 
Me too

After a very nice flight through France two days ago, the plane parked since twenty minutes, we leave it without noticing any warn signal, when we received a phone call from Sarsat about our emitting ELT. Back at the plane, we actually heard the signal. But I still do not know why !!!

Is it a frequent issue with ACK E-04 ?
 
Do you Ack E-O4 guys have their static suppressor installed? IIRC there were previous posts about un-triggered activation, that were fixed by installing the suppressor. (It?s now standard with new sales).
 
Transponder Antenna

I built a Rans S-20 Raven. My Ack 406 activated several times. Upon trouble shooting the problem I realized that the transponder was activating the elt. I ended moving the elt farther away from the transponder antenna and the problem went away.


Just a thought,

Best,
Jim
 
ACK 406 Activation

Had my ACK 406 go off on a flight from Mississippi to Michigan. Landed for fuel and had my wife call me about the Airforce getting my beacon signal. I shut off the main switch for the rest of the flight. Had it go off again about 2 months later while on a local flight. I sent it back To ACK in California and they said there was nothing wrong with it. I installed new remote switch to see if that would resolve the issue. It did not. The unit went off again during a flight. I now fly with the 406 ELT unit in the OFF position because of the 3 untriggered activations. The 406 unit is in the exact spot that the 121.5 unit sat for 15 years without issue.

There is something definitely going on with ACK 406 ELT's.

(UPDATE 5/22/2019: went to airport yesterday afternoon. Installed the STATIC Suppressor on the Coal line that others mentioned. Departed the airport made it about 1 mile from the end of the runway and the ELT was screaming at me! I tried multiple times to reset it with the remote switch and it just kept tripping ON. I landed and shut the unit off at the main switch. I guess it will stay off from now on. I wanted to add that there was no bumps or turbulence, the departure and air were smooth. The ACK 406 ELT has an issue and will active without a G input. What a waste of money and time for this unit.)
 
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PLEASE file a Service Difficulty Report (SDR) so the FAA has record of these inadvertent activations. If sufficient number of SDRs are filed, the FAA will finally wake up and drive ACK to make the necessary improvements in their product.
 
Do you Ack E-O4 guys have their static suppressor installed? IIRC there were previous posts about un-triggered activation, that were fixed by installing the suppressor. (It’s now standard with new sales).

Is there some technical release for existing product? Is there a production date for this?

EDIT Lazy me I looked it up - Service Advisory: SA E-04.1 issued in 2014
 
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Our ACK E-04 shows a manufacture date of 21 June 2017, it came with a static suppressor. It was put into service August 2017. So far wehave not had any trouble with it. (Fingers crossed)

We have another airplane that could use a 406 but wow I really don't want to invest in any of them.
 
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