Quote Originally Posted by goshawkr View Post
Hi Tony.

To put things in perspective, I never fly without telemetry. However, last season I got out my receiver exactly twice not counting the daily check to verify that it was operating. I currently use a scout transmitter that has been custom tuned to maximize battery life, and last season I used 3 batteries all year.

At that level of use, its difficult for me to justify the expense of the battery life for this new system, to say nothing of the expense of the gear itself. It dosnt hurt that I am highly allergic to apple products for the mapping apps.

Your right, a lot of austringers would find more peace of mind with this setup than they currently enjoy. But even they would be better served with a system more optimized for them. For example, optimizing battery life by offering a shorter range for the data stream and/or less than real time in the data feed (for shortwingingers, one update a second or even once a minute is more than enough).

Longwingers are where the money is. It makes sense that their needs are catered to in the first (and second and third) round. And of course, there are plenty of falconers that walk in both camps.
Hi Geoff,

I know what you mean. I invested in the 434 uhf system and have hardly used that either. But there will be times, and when they come I'm sure this additional stuff will take away much of the stress.

Of course the live data and flight mapping stuff will give me as a longwinger so much more than additional security when things go wrong, and given that my falcon won't tolerate a backpack, it's only now that the system is available with such a miniaturised transmitter that I've been able to contemplate enjoying the benefits of such a system.

I genuinely believe that systems that take the guesswork out of tracking will soon become the norm, be it for long, or shortwingers (and yes, I'm sure there will be variations in programming to suit us all one day).

A couple of my goshawking friends are keen to have a try with it this coming season, and I'd enjoy letting you know how they get on.

Best wishes,

Tony.

PS My goshawking friends have a lot more money than me. ;-)