Don't lose your plane!

"bill kolofa" > wrote

You need to get one of those 100 buck or less wireless TV cameras from somewhere, and put it into a plane, and then go on a spy mission. It would be paid for with one find, and you could find other people's planes, too.

Plus, it would be fun !

| "bill kolofa" > wrote | | > I fly in areas surrounded by tall weeds and somewhat swampy | > with tall "cat tails". Who would have thought that the weeds could swallow a | > 2 meter glider? | | You need to get one of those 100 buck or less wireless TV cameras from | somewhere, and put it into a plane, and then go on a spy mission.

You make it sound easy. In practice, it's not so easy. At the very least, make sure you have somebody else there to watch the TV screen so you can fly your plane, lest you find yourself looking for *two* lost planes.

| Plus, it would be fun !

There is that.

Though really, Bill's advice to use a lost plane alarm around places like this is good advice. They're cheap and light and help tremendously. As an added bonus, most will also warn you when your battery goes low -- which isn't so important for electric planes, but for gliders or glow planes, it's very nice.

This is what I use --

and I tend to build it into my slope planes, since they're the ones most likely to get lost. If you can make a hole for the speaker to get outside it'll be much louder, but it's not essential.

It's amazing how easy it is to lose a plane in a bunch of trees, and get 10 feet away from it and still never realize it's there.

On 26 Jul 2007 15:52:59 GMT, "Doug McLaren" wrote in :

I love searching for OTHER FOLKS' downed birds.

I've helped to find a few.

The best find was three days after it got lost. I wasn't there when it happened, but someone pointed to where they thought they had seen it last.

I took a compass and forced myself to walk a grid through the forest.

The compass eventually said "Go through that thicket." I didn't want to do it. There were paths around that particular piece of brush. But that's where the plane was--and I didn't see it until I was right next to it and just about ready to step past it.

Nose down in a thicket or in a stand of grass presents virtually no image to an eye in the sky--just the trailing edge of the empennage and wing and perhaps a small glimpse of part of the fuse.

When your plane is going down and all hope is lost, point your antenna at it as it disappears into the woods. Carefully mark the line for future reference. You may, for a moment, lay your TX on the ground while you find other things to act as your pointers. Then take the TX with you into the woods and periodically wiggle the sticks while you search. You may get lucky and hear the servos moving.

No harm in trying--other than the awkwardness of wading through swamps while wiggling the sticks.

Marty

Lost plane story..

I was down at one of Mac Hodges' fly-ins and had my ol' spad (I called it my plastic plane) in the air having a ball. I had it in a flat spin when the engine quit and it went down in the woods across the way. Three of us went out looking for it, but no luck. Checked the tall stand of pines and a briar thicket where we were absolutely sure it went it. There was an old deer stand by the thicket so we even crawled up on it for a better view. Nothing, and darkness was approaching so we had to call it quits. I thought about the wiggling the transmitter stick idea, but only after we were walking out.

I had to go home that evening empty handed, and it bugged me mainly for losing the ham band receiver in it. I decided to drive back the next morning (another hour and a half one way) and give it another try in new light. Searched for awhile without luck and climbed back up in the deer stand again but still didn't see it. Then, for some reason, I looked straight up. Yep, about 10 feet directly overhead, there it was

- wing in one limb and fuse in another. I found a stick, knocked the parts down and headed back. It wasn't hurt - hey, it's a spad! On the way home I charged it up and flew it later that day at our field.

Sweet!

David AMA 804532

On Thu, 26 Jul 2007 21:45:22 -0400, David Hopper wrote in :

Way to go!

What a great feeling, eh?

Marty