To confirm the ELT has not activated, you should:

• A. Monitor 121.5 before engine shutdown
• B. Monitor 121.5 during engine shutdown
• C. Check the GPS receiver
• D. Inspect the ELT battery

Answer: (A)

When you want to know whether an ELT has activated, listen on the 121.5 MHz emergency frequency while you still have the engine running. If you hear a beacon on 121.5, that means the ELT has already activated, and you should follow search-and-rescue procedures immediately. If there’s no signal on 121.5, you can be reasonably confident that the ELT has not activated up to that moment, so you can proceed with shutdown and normal operations.

Checking the GPS receiver won’t tell you if the ELT has activated, since it provides navigation data, not beacon status. Inspecting the ELT battery only indicates whether the unit might work in the future; it doesn’t confirm whether the beacon has already transmitted. Monitoring 121.5 during engine shutdown is less reliable because an activation could have occurred earlier, and you might miss the signal if you’re not listening at the critical moment.