wildblueyawner

Hi all,

Seeking some opinion / advice re the Hobbico Air Alert click for web page, which provides a lost plane finder (beeper) feature in addition to monitoring Rx pack voltage - I'm mainly interested in the lost plane beeper.

The instructions for the Air Alert say to plug it into Rx channel 3 (throttle). The beeper sounds when more than one minute of Tx (throttle) inactivity is sensed. Since I want to use the Air Alert in an electric-assist glider where throttle will be inactive for much longer than a minute, a false alarm will sound in flight, therefore I need to use another channel - one that is regularly commanded and on the least critical control function.

QUESTION: Is there an unusual risk in plugging the Air Alert into a non-throttle channel? Aside from the obvious additional points of potential failure (the device itself plus 2 additional connectors and wiring), can plugging the Air Alert into a regular flight control channel, e.g. rudder, compromise function or reliability of either the receiver or servo?

Any comments appreciated, TIA

Pilotsmoe

As long is it is a standard servo, I don't see any problem with it. Don't know about a high torque though.

strato911

I don't see a problem with it either. A few pilots I know would have to do that too, since they fly full throttle for the whole flight until they want to land.

CP140

I have these on my planes....we have a lot of trees around our field! When I first started using them, I emailed Hobbico's tech support and asked them why throttle. The answer I got was you can plug it into any channel. I usually have mine on the airlerons.. I can't fly for very long without some sort of wing waggle, also, I found that with a longer than normal taxi/wait to take off with it plugged into the throttle, I'd have to blip the throttle to stop the beeping indicating no stick movement... something you might not want to do. With it plugged into the airlerons, all you have to do is give them a little wiggle.

GYANNI

I installed the Hobbico air alert on all of my planes. Recently I found out how useful it can be in finding my crashed airplane in the woods. It would have taken 3 hours to find it. With the air alert I was able to retrieve (the pieces of) my airplanes in minutes.
But yesterday, I found a disappointing problI installed the Hobbico air alert on all of my planes. Recently I found out how useful it can be in finding my crashed airplane in the woods. It would have taken 3 hours to find it. With the air alert I was able to retrieve (the pieces of) my airplanes in minutes.
But yesterday, I found a disappointing problem. I gave full throttle during a regular run up, and the servo stuck there. I had to shut up the rx, turn it on again, and it work just the time to cut the throttle to idle.
I disconnected the air alert, and everything worked fine again.
Obviously, a defective unit. I had about 20 flights on that air alert.
Now I'm debating if I should remove the air alert from all of the models.
It wouldn't be nice taxiing with an airplane that you cannot slow down with a bunch of people around, not to talk about flying an airplane at full throttle for the whole time.
Anybody Else had problems with the air alert?em. I gave full throttle during a regular run up, and the servo stuck there. I had to shut up the rx, turn it on again, and it work just the time to cut the throttle to idle.
I disconnected the air alert, and everything worked fine again.
Obviously, a defective unit. I had about 20 flights on that air alert.
Now I'm debating if I should remove the air alert from all of the models.
It wouldn't be nice taxying with an airplane that you cannot slow down with a bounch of people around, not to talk about flying an airplane at full throttle till you have fuel in the tank. Anybody Else had problems with the air alert?