It’s one of these things I knew I could fix, if only I would just concentrate. I’m talking about my almost nose to nose encounter with that heli-boy a while back. It sure did scare me, tell you that! Anyway, we now have the Technology, so next time, he will see me/us.
The Technology is a so called tracker-device that is used in more and more full size air-planes. It’s an open source project, so the costs are peanuts compared to the existing equipment. Within the protocol there is a type of plane ‘Drone/UAV’. For my purpose that’s close enough to the truth.
It’s basically a transmitter that sends it’s location to the nearby receiver on top of my garage. The location is then shared over the Interweb, and all planes that have FLARM receivers, will see the position and hopefully take action. (very short, very much simplified version) (See OGN for an introduction)
Since the receiver is only 1300 meters from our flying site, I hope to be able to pick up the signals from the transmitters. If not, we’ll sort it!
So with some luck and dry weather, I hope to try this for real in the next few days/week/whenever.