Hi, I have a GPS enabled win mobile, is there anyway i can use it to track my plane in the event of a crash in a deep forest. Is there some gadget/transmitter which can be fitted on the plane so that a GPS enabled phone can track the where about of a plane when lost. In a hilly area like mine, its very difficult to find a lost plane.

Most people use audio (beepers) to do that, assuming you know the general area it went down. 

Many ESCs (like Castle ones) have it as a functionality to beep when it loses the TX signal, so just turn off the TX and you can locate the plane using beeps. 

Maybe you need these Radio Collars and Trackers: 

https://www.northwoodsfalconry.com/products-page/radio-tracking-receivers/


By the ways if you are flying planes BVR (Beyond Visible Range), you should be using some kind of FPV + Telemetry like Eagle Tree. That should include a GPS which is sent to the base station.

yes, nowadays eagle tree has supporting softwares for integrating data with google maps:D
get the latitude and longitude and go searching your plane with your phone 

I use my dog to do that for me  ............kidding 

How much for the dog that can use lat and long on a phone to find planes ?

 

i meant ...i use him to search the plane for me 

Not true...just kidding 

Keep another win phone on the plane and try GPS then lol......Just a stupid suggestion....

Thats a good idea.. Will be taking my dog from next time, by the time I start fpv it will learn searching plane nearby  

You never know...he (dog) may help find you the planes which others coudnt find too 

yep, there are already two easystars resting somewhere on the baner hill. may be foamybuilder's dog will be able to find them also; some day 
On a serious note you can use a buzzer like this
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=14521
Once I was able to locate my plane just by listing to servo, it was 10~15 meters away in the shrubbery and I would have never looked in that direction if i wouldn't have heard the servo. In a jungle like environment a buzzer like this could be heard for like 50 meters i guess.

Quote from: SunLikeStar on March 04, 2011, 05:35:15 PM
On a serious note you can use a buzzer like this
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=14521

One of the crappiest product from HK. I have 2. Can hear the beep only from couple of meters (and not couple of 100's of meters).
useful only to locate plane in a pretty dense overgrowth like tall grass, shrubs, if you can locate the plane within 15-20 meters without the cue.

Thanks all for your replies, the beepers approach, would work very well on a flat land, but I believe a some tracking device   like ujjwaana`s suggestion or a gps tracker would work fine for place like mine where you only have an option of flying on a Table-Top runway with a deep terrain on all sides :-)

in my case I was flying during a foggy day. I was flying low and slow but to make a loop i increased throttle and ....it vanished in the thick cloud infront of me.... ....i could hear the engine but not able to see ....it took few seconds to realize what happened actually.....I lost it that day.

I did my best to find but not avail.....I came with a heavy heart ...loosing a Complete ...trainer with receiver, engine, servios..... I MISSED THIS KIND OF INSTRUMENT TO TRACK MY PLANE....

I went to the place again ....found some kids playing around ...they have seen my plane flying there....I finally found the salvage.......what a luck ...... ..I found it about 2 Km from the place of flying ....it was in a bad shape...engine badly damaged....but all other things were in place ..i recovered my rx, servos, engine and a damaged trainer body.

Except trainer body ...I can again use my engine and all other things. We  defiantly  need something to counter this catastrophe.........

a singh has nicely documented his ordeal in this thread (http://www.rcindia.org/rc-general-topics/fog-a-nightmare-for-aeromodling/). Jokes Apart

There are satellite systems called COSPAS and SARSAT, they pick up distress signal sent out in 121.5 Mhz, 243 M Hz and 406 M Hz and triangulates the crash site, some Personal Rescue Beacon has GPS data being transmitted, where the CEP (Circular Error Probability) reduces to less than 40 mts. Breitling has come out with a watch which has this function and not expensive, say compared to a RC Jet whose loss will be more expensive. (http://www.thisnext.com/topic-personal-emergency-beacon-breitling). last heard SARSAT has switched to 406 M Hz, which too is available with breitling. of course to find your model, they will charge money, afterall it costs money to keep those satellites airborne.

Conversely, if you plan and program your failsafe properly, it should be fine. no?

In Asinghatiya's case, all He needed to do was cut throttle as soon as he lost sight of the plane. It would have come down fairly close to where he was since it was low. In any case not 2 kMs off!

Failsafe would not really help here.

  destiny my friend destiny......actually I altered its throttle setting the same day ...and somehow ...I forgot to check if throttle is closing completely or not  .

I found it when I cut the throttle but engine deny to shut its mouth ....on the otherside of the clouds.... ......I was freezed ...with a fear...of it crashing in some house or on some vehicle.....beleive me after few seconds....I was so confused about the orientation of the aircraft......so....at 360 degrees I have huges ground and residential colonies nearby.......

I thank god for saving me and saving a potential accident out of it.....

http://track.mapmyindia.com/ can this be of some help I think this is not so accurate coz it's mostly used for cars and trucks...