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Who gives a toot, or hoot?

bjdecker

bjdecker

Well Known Member
Ambassador
This isn't the first time this has been done, nor will it be the last.

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I sourced these from Amazon for ~$17; they're extremely loud (+120dB) and reminiscent of a 70's Lincoln. Sure beats yelling "Clear Prop" and hoping that someone hears you.

Wiring was dead simple; High current power and relay power from always hot buss (fused) at the battery, relay + connector mounted on the front of the battery box, horn switch ( [on]/off located on the panel by the key switch.

The horns are mounted to a single piece of AA6 0.75"x0.75"x0.063" on one leg, the other leg has two MS21919-WCH12's which hang off the adjacent motor mount tube.

"beep-beep"
 
A buddy installed a horn on his 4 years ago. Funny to hear a plane blast the horn to give people a warning.
 
this will be used on my last spare/unused button on my Infinity stick grip I have been searching for!! My grip will be labeled " The Tooter":)
 
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In 2019 I put a 140 db piezo siren in each wingtip and connected to an extra button on the stick…
 
I used some Cadillac horns (tone pair) from the junkyard on my old 6A. I wanted that beefy sound. They were surprisingly useful, and fun. I always wanted to, but never did, get a Doppler shift recording on a flyby.
 
Brilliant idea 👍🏻
Seen this fog horn available locally from some boating outlet... should suit me well enough 🤠

fog.png

Ok, its size make it more suitable to an RV-10...

This one would be better suited, but reading about relay for power has me doubt of it's utility prior engine starting... one honk and one might have to recharge the battery 😅

fog 2.png
 
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bjdecker said:
This isn't the first time this has been done, nor will it be the last.

View attachment 103821

I sourced these from Amazon for ~$17; they're extremely loud (+120dB) and reminiscent of a 70's Lincoln. Sure beats yelling "Clear Prop" and hoping that someone hears you.

Wiring was dead simple; High current power and relay power from always hot buss (fused) at the battery, relay + connector mounted on the front of the battery box, horn switch ( [on]/off located on the panel by the key switch.

The horns are mounted to a single piece of AA6 0.75"x0.75"x0.063" on one leg, the other leg has two MS21919-WCH12's which hang off the adjacent motor mount tube.

"beep-beep"
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Can you share the link for that horn if you think that is loud enough!
 
Several times over my flying career I really could have used a horn so the 9 will have one. Doing RV engine wiring and hook ups now. Already have wires FWF for a horn and will select a location once all the pieces are in place. For avionics redundancy i used the same model relay for the horn and avionics. They are mounted side by side, easily accessible and have blade connectors so in theory in the event of an avionics relay failure I could move those wires to the horn relay and keep going.

Don Broussard
RV9 Rebuild (closing in on the finish line)
57 Pacer
 
Back in the 90's the Cal Fire base here at Ramona had a Beechcraft Baron as the spotter aircraft. It had a fire engine siren that they would turn on.
 
Installed a Hella horn on my 10. Best thing ever! BTW…Airbus has em on their jets too.
 
RWoodard said:
What is the function and where is the horn on an Airbus?
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Most of the Big Jets have a"horn" or buzzer in the wheelwell to get the pushback crew/ground folks attention, for headset/hand signal conversation...
 
Tag said:
Most of the Big Jets have a"horn" or buzzer in the wheelwell to get the pushback crew/ground folks attention, for headset/hand signal conversation...
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How many ramp folks have responded to that horn? I'm pretty sure they don't know what its for...
 
rocketman1988 said:
pretty sure they don't know what its for
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Quite a few knew that. Thing is, if used for too long or too many times, it could have the opposite effect. As in the ground crew, pushback crew, dispatcher, engineer, just becoming ahh... let's call it upset, and walk off to get another coffee in the crew rest area 🙈
 
Dan 57 said:
Quite a few knew that. Thing is, if used for too long or too many times, it could have the opposite effect. As in the ground crew, pushback crew, dispatcher, engineer, just becoming ahh... let's call it upset, and walk off to get another coffee in the crew rest area 🙈
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In the 727, the ramp guys told me once that if they heard the horn to run. Seems that they confused it with an APU horn and since the APU is buried right next to the fuel tank...well, you get the picture. 😧
 
rocketman1988 said:
How many ramp folks have responded to that horn? I'm pretty sure they don't know what its for...
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I had good success with it; just using a couple of quick bursts. Having said that; one does need to know who you were dealing with (for example it would have the opposite effect in the old days in Detroit!) The surprising thing to me was the number of pilots that were unaware of its availability.
 
RV7A Flyer said:
If you're going to do something, do it right :)

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I am retired but used to work for a shortline RR. I cannot tell you how many times we had our horns stolen from our locomotives! And we tried a lot of different methods to secure them from theft. Since Federal law requires a horn on a locomotive, when they were stolen it put the locomotive out of service--and for a shortline this was a big problem as we did not have a lot of spare locomotives available. Furthermore, these horns are very expensive to replace and are illegal on cars or trucks (though there is no enforcement)!!!
 
Tag said:
Most of the Big Jets have a"horn" or buzzer in the wheelwell to get the pushback crew/ground folks attention, for headset/hand signal conversation...
Click to expand...
OK. I’m familiar with the ground service ‘meeep, meeep’ push button, but I just hadn’t noticed a real live horn on the the A320 in the 20 years I’ve been flying them.

As others have commented, I’m pretty sure most of the rampers at my airline have no clue what the horn is for! They kinda tilt their heads and look around aimlessly like a black lab listening to Shakespeare.
 
What you really need is a loud external PA that you can select via your comm panel. :) That way you can announce "Clear" or "Hey! Outta the way, buddy!" or whatever loudly and clearly. LOL!
 
Weefle said:
I do not know where the horn is located. It is used to alert ground crews if the APU is having grief. An Airbus pilot told me this .
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Previous employer's aircraft had a horn-like buzzer in the nose wheel well as the APU fire alarm. Reason was that the aircraft may be sitting with the APU running and nobody in the cockpit, so there had to be a way to alert people outside.

One could set it off manually by pressing the APU Fire Test button.

Our engineering sim was fully equipped, including said horn. Lots of shenanigans occurred...
 
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