Do the new GPS ELTs really work?

[Kitfox Pilot]

I landed here are home and my elt went off, no it wasn't that bad of a landing.
I taxied to the shed and got in the baggage compartment to turn it off because the G meter switch can't be turned off from the dash.
10 mins from the time it went off a police officer rolled in.
He said air force called county sheriff and county call local police who were guided right to my plane via directions from the air force.
Pretty fast IMO.
I don't know why it went off but if yours does someone is coming pretty fast....

Airtex 345 elt.

[PapuaPilot]

My wife got a call from the Air Force when my ELT went off accidentally. I was still flying home on a 1 hour flight and had just called her before we departed. She was pretty upset. When I landed I had 2 messages on my phone from the USAF and my wife. I knew the ELT had gone off and was able to cancel it from the panel switch. What I didn't know was I could have called Boise approach and told them I was okay. They could have passed it on which would have cancelled the search.

Harlen, I'm curious why you couldn't reset the ELT from your panel and how you had enough Gs to set it off?

[Kitfox Pilot]

[QUOTE=

Harlen, I'm curious why you couldn't reset the ELT from your panel and how you had enough Gs to set it off?[/QUOTE]


This to has me concerned. I almost did not connect the G switch which is only connecting two wires together on the 345 but after reading the amount of g's it took to set it off, which is 4.5 g's, I thought it would be ok for off airport landing type flying. Others had told me not to hook it up.
As for why I couldn't turn it off from the cockpit I'm not sure but it wouldn't so I had to turn it off at the elt.

From the manual: Toresetthe beacon, the position ofeitherthe local ELT switch or the cockpit remote switch must be
changed from“ON”to“ARMED”. If activation is from the G-switch, the switch position must first be set to
“ON”then changed to“ARMED”.
NOTE:TheELT g-switchCANNOT be disarmed or disabled from the cockpit. Cockpit operation is
limited to activating and resetting the ELT

[PapuaPilot]

Thanks, I didn't know that but it kind of makes sense that a G switch activation can't be reset from the remote switch. I also thought G switches were supposed to be activated at 6.0 Gs.