Cessna 150/152 ELT Records: Inspection and Battery Dates
An ELT battery-expiration label and an ELT inspection entry answer different questions. During a Cessna 150 or 152 records review, connect both to the transmitter actually installed instead of treating a recent annual date as a complete ELT history. This guide concerns selected U.S. requirements and record interpretation; installed equipment and operating exceptions still need to be established for the aircraft.
Establish the installed unit and applicable rule
14 CFR 91.207 sets requirements for U.S.-registered civil airplanes, with operation-dependent provisions and exceptions. The aircraft's model name does not identify its current transmitter or establish that an exception applies. Begin with the installed equipment identification and the corresponding maintenance information.
A photograph of a panel switch is not a complete equipment record. Ask which transmitter it controls, where the installation is documented and whether later replacement entries changed the unit. Keep the old and new identities distinguishable if the equipment has been exchanged.
Separate the inspection clock from the battery clock
Paragraph (d) calls for inspection within 12 calendar months after the last inspection, covering installation, battery corrosion, controls and crash sensor, and an adequate radiated signal. Paragraph (c) separately addresses battery replacement or recharge after more than one cumulative hour of use or expiration of 50 percent of the approved useful life or charge life, with its stated battery exception. The new expiration date belongs on the transmitter and in the maintenance record.
Those provisions should not be compressed into “battery good until next annual.” An inspection entry and a marked expiration date need separate attention, and use history can introduce another question. The rule does not give this website a universal battery interval for all transmitter models.
Reconcile the file after replacement
Suppose the current transmitter label shows one expiration date while an older logbook entry shows another. First identify whether the entry concerns the same unit and battery. A replacement could explain the difference; a transcription error or missing entry could also explain it. Preserve the evidence until the maintenance reviewer establishes which account is correct.
A practical private checklist has fields for transmitter identity, last inspection entry locator, marked battery date, battery record locator and unresolved use or replacement history. These fields organize the enquiry; they are not a maintenance release or permission to operate with an unresolved discrepancy.
Keep testing and operational decisions with the right instructions
This page does not provide a transmitter test sequence, broadcasting window or battery-changing procedure. Those questions need the applicable equipment instructions and rules. Nor should a ferry or operating exception be inferred merely because the aircraft is used for training; read the actual provision and its conditions.
Use the annual-inspection guide for the broader inspection schedule and the maintenance-entry guide to interpret the work record. Keeping the ELT's equipment identity, inspection evidence and battery evidence together makes the next ownership review more precise without claiming that paperwork alone establishes present operability.