Prepare for: Emergency Equipment and Survival Gear

What you'll do

1. Find the ELT and its remote switch, and know how to turn it on manually after a forced landing.
2. Check the ELT battery date during preflight; batteries are replaced after 1 hour of cumulative use or when half their useful life is gone (91.207).
3. Know where the fire extinguisher, first aid kit and any flotation or survival kit are, and how to use them.
4. After an off-airport landing: get everyone out and away, turn on the ELT, call 121.5 if you can, and stay with the airplane unless it's unsafe.
5. Pack for where you fly: water, a light, a phone and battery, warm layers, a signal mirror or whistle, and anything your terrain needs (mountains, desert, water).

The standard you'll be held to

Quoted from the current FAA Airman Certification Standards for each level that tests this.

Prepare the night before

• Read the emergency procedures lesson.
• Ask your school what survival gear is in the airplane, and build a small kit of your own.

Common mistakes

• Not knowing where the ELT switch is.
• Walking away from the airplane, which is much easier for searchers to spot than a person.
• Flying over mountains or desert with no water or warm clothes.

Questions to ask your instructor

• Is our ELT a 121.5 or a 406 MHz unit?
• What survival gear does the school keep in the airplane?
• Can we practice an ELT activation and the after-landing steps on the ground?

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