ORIGINAL: Freewind
Ed,
I have a Sky King locator, but just had a miserable experience with a lost plane...one month in the weeds, but someone found it for me. I've been looking at the Walston equipment. I'd like to move the tx from plane to plane also. How did you mount it? I was thinking a small exit hole out of the pod and tape the antenna to the boom.
Dave
Dave,
Not sure which mount you are asking about.
The Sky king locator I use is just mounted in the nose. No hole. Not the best situation but can be heard from about 40 feet if I listen carefully. If I put a hole in and put this by the hole, should be good for 100+ feet. On my gliders I find the sky king very valueable for monitoring my battery level.
We had a farily new electric pilot drop his Easy Star about 200 yards into deep woods. Three of us went hunting. We used GPS to try and stay on track. We never saw the plane, but one fellow heard the Sky King Beeper. Found it. Without that beeper, he would have been out of luck.
As far as the walston, I used to put it inside the plane. However tests with my Supra and AVA show that this seriously cuts down the range. So now I tape it on the outside, jsut behind the wings. Much better range. Should be over a mile on the ground.
In a wood, plastic, fiberglass, kevlar plane, you can put the walston inside.
So, if I were to drop the plane 1/2 mile out, I would use the walston to get in close, then listen for the sky king beeper to get that last few feet. Or hope that someone hears the beeper, investigates and calls me.
All of my planes have the beeper at a minimum. We had a sad incident a couple months ago of a pilot flying a $1000 plane. got way down wind, and lost sight of the plane. Just picked it up visually as it was heading below the tree line. No name, no beeper, no walston. Big search parties went out multiple times but we never found it.
Everyone, at a minimum, put your name and phone number in your planes.