Microlighters

With the event of Steve Fossett going missing i started looking at personal locators and came across this site.It looks like it will be available from Vodacom on contract soon .I personally will be first in the row to get one.I think we owe it to SAR to do something from our side to make their job a bit easier. Lets hope it will be affordable for us all.Check out.
www.wherify.com/wherifone/

Send a pm to wayned

He has one available that you can track on the internet and it is mobile, no contract a once off fee and then just normal cell phone pay as you go

Ill ask him to put something here

which helps net mooi f**ol when you are crashed in the desert where there is no cel phone coverage , like that cat who ran out of fuel over Botswana a couple of months ago (but who managed to walk out).

What happened to "Free Willy' or whatever DH was testing?

Did anybody look at the site, it says."What makes the Wherifone different is its built-in GPS-global positioning system." So its not totally dependant on cellphone signal but uses it as well to track the phone.We will talk again when it comes on the market

Slabfish wrote:built-in GPS-global positioning system

Which is what makes it so much better it combines the 2.
In the desert it would work on GPS & if you were indoors (not a plane obviously) it would work on a cell signal

They have found a whole lot of other planes but not Steve's!

http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/09/08/se ... ical-turk/

Coming back to Steve`s disappearance, i think its selfish to expect SAR to spend so much time and money if you know very well that you are flying into remote and unforgiving areas,this not directed to Steve`s case,but for G/A in general. I personally fly over mountainous areas a lot and am seriously looking at one of these locator's for myself. I know the Wherifone isnt the real thing,but if its within the reach of all of us and not to expensive, it might be a great help, if one does go down ,at least your family or buddys can track you and give the SAR a better chance to find you .Thunderboy,have you contacted Wayned,is it the same locator he can get. Like i said these i saw will only be available later some time as Siemens are not selling direct to the public, they have appointed vodacom as their outlets to do the marketing. If anybody has connections to get one, i will gladly be the one to test it out :D

Hi everyone;

The locator which Thunderboy is referring to is a product called ShurDrive. It is a GPS/GSM tracking and monitoring unit which retails for R 2999.00 incl VAT. It is a prepaid pay-as-you go system so there is no monthly contract and you top it up using ordinary Vodacom prepaid airtime topups.

We have two of these units installed in the Davies Aircraft Corporation flying school aircraft and we have found them to be excellent! We are able to monitor students doing solo cross countries in real-time using a cell phone and/or web browser and we can show them their flights on a map afterwards and discuss where they went wrong etc.

We are able to track the aircraft on the web using both street maps and Google satellite maps and we can send a message from any cell phone and receive a reply containing the address, coordinates, speed and heading of the aircraft.

The system sends SMS notifications for exceptions such as exceeding VNE or flying in a restricted area. It also provides movement reports which serve as electronic logs of flights which we use for billing purposes.

It comes with a remote control unit which has an alert button on it which works up to 25m from the aircraft. You can keep the remote control in your pocket and can set the system up on the web site to SMS up to 5 people with your location (as text), and coordinates when you press the alert button.

GPS is used for positioning and GSM for data communications so it would not be able to transmit your position when you are outside of GSM coverage HOWEVER, your last transmission in GSM coverage indicating your speed and direction of travel would certainly provide the SAR with a starting point for a rescue and dramatically improve your chances.

Davies Aircraft is an authorized ShurDrive dealer and they have experience installing the units in aircraft so if you are interested, please consider supporting them by purchasing one from them. Contact Trevor on 082-442-3925.

You can log into the ShurDrive site as a guest user for a live demo of the system’s capabilities. Go to http://www.shurdrive.com

Cheers
Wayne

This Shurdrive sounds like a sure winner....!!

Wayne, what is the dimensions of your unit? (lxbxh)

The dimensions of the ShurDrive unit are 85mm x 65mm x 35mm.

Why dont just use a normal c-track on the microlight then works with simcars and sat nav......same the vars take???

Quentin Ferreira
ZU-ATP
Newcasatle

Hi QF. I'm open to suggestions , is this a anti hijack for vehicles , do you have to sign a contract etc. I would personally opt for a handheld cellphone type unit so me or any one of my family members can utilise it when not used in the a/c. The wherifone looks like just that , but I'm sure we are going to see a couple more models add types come onto the market in the near future . Thanks for the info so far Wayen , I'm gonna keep my ear on the ground for a wile though

Mmmm Time flies!

Some months back I introduced the concept of WALLY (my name) for the then protype of what is now known as the ZU-LU (short for aircraft locating unit). Many expressed interest in buying the product and so I arranged for MISASA to sell the unit and wrote up the story for Afskies which is attached.

Please note:

The story did not feature in Afskies which was probably a good idea as it was out of date by the time the mag came out with the World Champs being history and Annette having left MISASA and so the unit cannot be sold by her.


The new unit tracks altitude and can be ordered directly from the manufacturer at R2999 - see the attached story. The unit manufacturer is Herman Dormehl phone 083 299 6177 or catch him at Microland.

If you would like a larger (easier to read) version of the story - email me at alanmack@iafrica.com

Fly safe and have fun

Cannot read it alanmack please post it as a zip or mail it to me and I will host it somewhere for you.