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You’ll poke your eye out kid - Taildragger

Webb

Well Known Member
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To avoid the risk of eye meets antenna (ILS/VOR/GS), I’m thinking of under the tail.

Advice, warnings, experiences, etc.. appreciated. Pics would be great and you won’t need a thousand words.
 
To avoid poking your eye out when cleaning the plane install the excellent Archer antenna in a wingtip.

https://www.aircraftspruce.com/menus/av/antenna_archer.html


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It is a good thing to consider. My VOR antenna is pretty far back and pretty close to the ground, and doesn't present any major eyeball hazard.

My COM antennae on the other hand are very much a hazard, and if not for the fact that I wear glasses, I might be down an eyeball. I think I get better airborne transmit qualities with them mounted on the belly, but they're definitely a hazard.

Having said all that, it seems like the Archer antenna in the wing is the go to VOR solution nowadays.
 
Interesting in that I had a VERY close call. My T-Craft was at home for recover. Pushing the fuselage back into the garage, I turned around and poked the VOR antenna into my eye. Immediately backed up leaving my sunglasses hanging on the antenna. The antenna punched through my eyelid and bruised the eye socket. The ball on the end of the antenna pushed the eyeball aside and avoided eyeball damage. Only damage was the hole in the eyelid. That was a VERY lucky day for me. When I returned from the doctor, I found large red ribbons tied on the ends of the antenna.

With the horizontal stabilizer in place, they weren't a factor!
 
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I was at an airshow and a guy had a bag full of little balls - I think they were ping pong balls - and was jamming them onto all the exposed VOR antennas he saw. He had a pretty tragic story behind it.
 
I mounted my VOR/LOC/GS antenna on the belly of my RV6 underneath the horizontal stab. Works perfect and no poked eyes in the last 25 years. See pic below.

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Anything you can mount at arms length- I like small empty plastic bottles with a hole poked in the lid and anything soft and grabby like foam to grab without wearing the fiberglass.
 
Mine is there under the tail, RV-6 taildragger. GS/LOC multiplexer so it works for both. Many approaches, many hours, no problems, and minimal eyeball hazard.
 

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Mine is there under the tail, RV-6 taildragger. GS/LOC multiplexer so it works for both. Many approaches, many hours, no problems, and minimal eyeball hazard.

I’m hopeful you don’t have a dog visiting your hangar at any point.

I keep “doggie eyeball protectors” on my antennas mounted on the belly when parked. Easy capped tubing with a red ribbon slipped over each antenna.

Carl
 
I’m hopeful you don’t have a dog visiting your hangar at any point.
Not many dogs around my place, and it would have to be a small one do be a danger, the ends are pretty close to the ground. On the list of things dogs can get into trouble with at airports, I would rate this one pretty low.
 
Mine is there under the tail, RV-6 taildragger. GS/LOC multiplexer so it works for both. Many approaches, many hours, no problems, and minimal eyeball hazard.

This is where I installed the VOR antenna on one of the RV-6s I built. Worked great.
 
Has anyone mounted the com antenna in the wing tips? I'm thinking of mounting a com antenna in each wing tip and feeding both of them with some kind of rf splitter.
 
Has anyone mounted the com antenna in the wing tips? I'm thinking of mounting a com antenna in each wing tip and feeding both of them with some kind of rf splitter.
This is a bad idea.
1. Aircraft coms use vertical polarization, which means a vertical antenna. If you slant the highest current part of the antenna up/down as much as possible inside the wing tip, you’ll get okay but not great results. (E.g., not as good as an external vertical antenna).
2. If you feed both antennas at the same time, thru a splitter, the results will be highly directional - improved (compared to just one antenna) in some directions, but very poor in others.
 
Has anyone mounted the com antenna in the wing tips? I'm thinking of mounting a com antenna in each wing tip and feeding both of them with some kind of rf splitter.

Two issues:
- What you propose is a phased array. If you are real good at antenna design, have the right test equipment and a range to measure performance, it can be done. In other words for us this is not practical.
- You can build a comm antenna for the wingtip, and if you are careful to use the maximum vertical dimension on the first third of the antenna it will be essentially vertically polarized. Years ago I made one for my first RV and it worked. I note that while flying with another RV-8 who did the same thing with the Archer antenna he was not so fortunate - more than once I had to relay for him to ATC. That said I relegated this antenna to Comm #2, Comm #1 being a bent whip on the belly. It alway worked better. On the next two RVs I just stayed with two bent whip comm antennas and one home brew wingtip VOR antenna.

So yes, if you again know your way around making your own wingtip Comm antenna, it will be just fine as Comm #2. If not, stay with two belly mounted bent whip antenna.

Don’t forget to put eyeball protectors on them when parked. I know of one RV-6 builder that lost an eye while cleaning the belly of his plane.

Carl
 
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Don’t forget to put eyeball protectors on them when parked. I know of one RV-6 builder that lost and eye while cleaning the belly of his plane.

Carl

I used short pieces of pool noodle while building and still if any dogs are around.
 
Mine is there under the tail, RV-6 taildragger. GS/LOC multiplexer so it works for both. Many approaches, many hours, no problems, and minimal eyeball hazard.

This^^. Worked great for 10 years. Removed for a wingtip Archer installation to save some drag. Was not at all worth the effort.
 
Thanks for sharing your perspectives on com antennas in the wing tips. I have a bent whip on the belly of my RV-6 that works fine. I'd like to do something different with my RV-9 but wing tips won't be it.
 
i have a large cardboard box from chewy.com that had a bag of dogfood shipped in it. i lay it on its side , slide it under the antenna and turn it upright. i did it more to protect the antenna from the dog.
 
I almost lost an eye to the tail mounted antennas on my Maule. During my annual I walked around the rudder and bent down all in one motion to get at the inspection cover and the antenna hit me in the upper left part of my mouth, ran up my cheek, and into the bottom of my left eye socket. Thankfully, on the way up it gathered some extra skin so no sharp edges.

No eye damage or scars, but the area from my tooth up towards my eye is numb, just like when you go to the dentist. And this happened 2.5 years ago.

I now put a fluorescent tennis ball on each antenna when I land. And my new project has the VOR antenna mounted under the tail....
 
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