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Nav antenna on belly of plane

JDA_BTR

Well Known Member
I have an extra hole in my kit because I don?t need a separate Adsb in antenna. One is at the tail of a trigear configuration. The other option is under the baggage compartment. If I use one for the transponder can I use the ither for a nav antenna? I was planning a wingtip nav antenna but maybe I don?t need it now?
 
S E A R C H is your friend. There are lots of conversations on this forum regarding use of a "cat whisker" style of NAV antenna under the tail.
 
Thanks I did search and find that plenty of people put those in but not much info in whatbthe trade offs are.
 
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A wingtip VOR antenna does everything you need. A belly mounted VOR antenna will be functional as well - but is ugly and an unnecessary eye hazard. If you must put it on the belly, please take the time to add eyeball protectors on it every time you park the plane. While you may know these pointy eye pierces are there, kids and dogs will not. You might also forget one day when cleaning the belly and sit up. An eye patch is not as attractive as the movies make them out.

Yes - I do add sleeves to my belly comm antennas for the same reasons.

Carl
 
Good advice on the eye hazard hadn?t thought of that. Well I?ve got a perfectly good hole on the bottom of my plane. Wonder what the best way is to cover the holes.
 
Good advice on the eye hazard hadn?t thought of that. Well I?ve got a perfectly good hole on the bottom of my plane. Wonder what the best way is to cover the holes.

The best way is to cut a plug... same thickness as belly skin. Make it a good fit. Make a backing plate to cover the hole plus enough to rivet to the skin.

C/S all rivets. Rivet the backing plate in place. And then rivet the patch in place.

That is an Air Force approved patch.

Or you could cut a patch to cover the hole plus some room for rivets, taper the edge and rivet it on........ this will cause drag and the other won't.
 
SNIP Well I?ve got a perfectly good hole on the bottom of my plane. Wonder what the best way is to cover the holes.

Option #1 (the easy one), install an ADSB blade antenna anyway. You will most likely install one at some point, so do it now.

Option #2, put a couple of bids of fiberglass on the inside over the hole. Let it set up. Add micro on the outside to fill in the hole now that you have the cured glass on the inside as a backing plate. Sand the micro, repeat if needed. Prime and paint.

Carl
 
Might be fun to install an aprs antenna. Will look into that not sure if a stock com antenna will do.
 
Might be fun to install an aprs antenna. Will look into that not sure if a stock com antenna will do.

A COM antenna is a little too short for optimum APRS performance, but it would work as long as the SWR wasn't high enough to damage the tracker.

I would fabricate a patch as detailed in posts above but secure it with countersunk screws so it can be removed easily in case you find you need another antenna.
 
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