A clever gizmo
Just found out about this rather clever gadget.
As I rent out my airplane I have always been curious about where it is especially if it's a little late getting back - that any flight to another airport is going to involve being over 100 km + of open water that 'curiosity' is compounded.
One of my renters has SPOT that sends a message and location if one presses a button every now and again - no message means there's a problem or that the button is not pressed - needs batteries etc. Was thinking of getting one then I learned about this new device a tiny tracker the size of a few stacked 50pence pieces - solar powered too; you can read about it on retriever.com - there is a crowd funding campaign for it too.
They are not cheap but I am certainly getting some for the planes here - peace of mind, safety and if my renters give the codes to their friends "they can fly along too" - have a weird notion of taking the feed in to Flight Simulator - should not be difficult - depending on it's refresh rate it could be fun.
Not too sure how it sends information - I have asked the company - but the "anywhere on earth" assertion suggests it's not cell towers; I will up date when they reply.
At resent I have a $25 GPS flight data recorder but can only download it physically - does make great Google Earth tracks and even the GPS altitude and ground speed info is useful - weird to see how ones perfect circuits are never quite the same - have been trying to do two identical ones in plan, it's not as easy as it sounds!