"Dennis Mountains" wrote in message ...
Hi,

I'm building a Lancair Legacy (all carbon fiber) and am planning to put
copper foil strips on the belly to serve as a ground plane for the
belly-mounted com antenna. I'm going to use 1/4" wide copper foil with an
adhesive back, attached to the outside of the fuselage and covered with a
thin layer of fiberglass (not carbon fiber) to protect the foil. I'll
solder it together at the center and attach it somehow to the outside of the
BNC connector.


Why not put foil on the inside of the fuselage as a ground plane?
That's what Diamond did on my Star. The entire 'scuppers' of the
fuselage is lined with metal (but not copper) foil, as a ground plane
for the Com 2, DME, Marker, and Transponder antennas. Although not
entirely made of carbon fiber, the Star has a lot of it in that area
(spar carry through structure). I can e-mail some pics to you if you
are interested.

Com 1 and GPS antennas on the 'roof' have metal plate ground planes,
also located inside.

Steve