I am flying a HobbyZone Aerobird.

It flew off into the woods never to be seen again. I ordered a new plane fuseloge and related parts. I would like to add some kind of a locator/beacon so if I lose the plane in the woods again, I can find it this time.

Anyone know of something that will work with the Aerobird? I have seen the Air Alert from Hobbico, the Woodworth Locator and the Arrow ELB (emergency locator beacon). However these are made to work with standard radio sysems. The Aerobird comes with a prepackaged 27 MHZ system.

Any ideas?

There is a locator out there and I wish I knew the name of it. But it works on its own battery and the way it works is you turn it on and after about 10 or 20 minutes it starts beeping. The thing is if you loose it right away it will be awhile before it starts beeping but in your case it's the only way to go. Sorry I couldn't be of more help but maybe some one will reply who knows the name of this device.

Would something like this work?

http://www.keyringer.com/

That would possibly work but the only thing is you have to get within 300 feet of your plane. So, I guess if you have an idea where the plane went down it would certainly work. But, if it's good and lost it might be a little harder.

That key ringer looks like a real possiblity. I may order it. It is fully self contained and has its own battery. I don't know how heavy it is. I will contact the company.


Super thanks!

I have seen your post in another forum also.
I wonder about the key ringer. How loud it is. It may have a radius of operation of x feet but... can you hear it?
Remember, in the woods (I know) there are a lot of other noises.
Radio Shack has a 9v. buzzer that is really loud. Not too heavy with the battery. You may rig it with a timer or an on/off switch in an unused channel in your radio.
However, I learnt to fly close by after loosing a plane in the swampy woods surrounding our field.
One ounce of prevention...
Albert

how about velcroing a small watch with a loud alarm set for 20 minutes or so, wont weigh much, some are real loud, ya know, like one of those little plastic kid watches. just a thought
d

Thanks to all of your posts above, and help I received at other sites, I have learned a lot about plane locators.

Here is a summary/update to this thread.

For someone using a typical 72 MHZ set-up, these plug into a sparechannel on the receiver. They start beeping when they loose the transmitter signal, which assumes you have gone out of range, or yourtransmitter has failed.

Here is a review of an Emergency Locator Beacon that illustrates its value
(this site is somewhat unreliable)
http://webhome.idirect.com/~arrowmfg/ELT%20Beacon_files/elb-revi.htm


Sounds like a good idea to me. Every plane I ever own will have some kind of
locator from now on. Here are examples of locators for 72 MHZ flight systems,
They cost between $15 and $30. They typically go inside the plane. Postings
I have read say you can hear them for about 50-100 feet however if the flight
battery becomes disconnected, they lose power and don't work.

http://www.customelectronics.co.uk/lma.htm
http://www.hobbico.com/accys/hcap0335.html
http://www.rcelectronics.bravepages.com/Locator.html


A Locator for the 27 MHZ crowd

If you are flying one of the 27 MHZ based ready-to-fly planes, like I am, they
are usually based on an electronics compartment that is not easy to get to
unless you take the plane apart. I for one, have no interest in doing that
and I don't think there is a typical receiver with a spare channel in there.
These are planes like the Firebird, T-Hawk, e-gull, or my Aerobird which are
usually purchased by inexperienced flyers who are more prone to lose the
plane. So what do we do?

I found an answer. I ordered a pair of these:

http://www.keyringer.com

They look like a small clicker for your car door locks. They work by sound.
You click one of a pair which sends out a chirp that the second one hears and
answers. Since the unit has to hear the tone, it is best mounted outside of
the airplane or the range will be dramatically reduced.

I tested them, with a clear line of site, and got reliable first try response
to about 175 feet with a response on a second or third try at about 200 feet.
You can hear the tone at that distance, which is pretty far. I then placed it
behind my car's tire away from me. Range when down to about 150 and 175 feet
respectively. Still better than the ones above which go inside the plane.

My plane weighs 16 ounces ready to fly and the keyringer is about 3/4 ounce,
or about 5% of the plane's weight. I think it will be very manageable. I am
going to try attaching it in one of two places for testing.

I will rubber band it to the right side of the body, tucked close up to the
wing using the posts that hold the wing. This places it substantially out of
the air stream, behind the rubber bands, and at the front/rear center of
gravity. We will see what the effect is left right.

The other place will be on top of the wing under the rubber bands that hold
the
wing. It will definitely be in the air stream here, but should balance nicely.
Using it here, it would be very easy to move between planes that use rubber
band mounted wings.

If it works out, I will develop some more permanent mounting method using
screws and epoxy or something like that. If anyone else tries this, I would
love to hear your feedback.

Since this is outside the plane, I don't think I would recommend it for a fuel
plane as there is an open speaker/receiver, so fuel might get inside and
damage it. I see it more for parkflyers, especially the ones that really don't
have a place inside to put the traditional locators. Even on 72 MHZ planes, it
might work out well on "stick" models and flying wings might be good
candidates. Also, since it has it's own batteries, there is no need to attach
it to any of the internal electronics, so there would be no power concerns if
the flight battery came lose, and no concerns about effecting the flight
systems.

I think this could work out. I will let you know how the testing goes. If
someone else has a better idea, let me know.

Her are some pictures of a test mount of the keyringer on my Aerobird. It has been so windy I have not been able to take a test flight.

Test mount photos
http://www.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=67b0de21b33b641c4516