carbon airframes and Antenna location

I know this has probably been discussed many times, but here goes
again. I am building my rudder this week for my HP-24. My fuselage and
vertical fin is predominately carbon fiber, so no antenna in the fin.

The laminate for the rudder will be fiberglass, and I plan on putting
the antenna there. I am planning on using carbon edge tapes in the
leading edge of the rudder laminate for added stiffness.

My thougths here are that since this part of the rudder (the LE/
bullnose) is already in the aft fin cove, which is carbon allready, I
should not see any degradation in the antenna function due to this
added carbon.

Do you pilots with carbon airframes, and antennas in the rudder find
this to be an ok solution? Do you find that the antenna gets blanked
out if the pilot you are talking to is in front of you and therfore
have the carbon fin blocking the signal?

I fly an all carbon sailplane sailplane, but use a handheld with a
rubber duck antenna, what I find is that the fuselage can blank out
transmissions at some points of the circle.

Cheers,
Brad

PS................the rudder mold was cut on a CNC router, what a cool
way to make tooling!

On Jun 30, 12:54*pm, Brad wrote:
Do you pilots with carbon airframes, and antennas in the rudder find
this to be an ok solution? Do you find that the antenna gets blanked
out if the pilot you are talking to is in front of you and therfore
have the carbon fin blocking the signal?

I fly an all carbon sailplane sailplane, but use a handheld with a
rubber duck antenna, what I find is that the fuselage can blank out
transmissions at some points of the circle.

Stemmes (and probably other ships) have the same configuration - all
carbon fiber except for the rudder which is fiberglass so the com
antenna can be mounted there. Works well EXCEPT when directly ahead
since then the vertical fin absorbs much of the radio energy. When I
call inbound to an airport, I always turn at least 20 degrees from the
tower. Seems to work OK.

Martin
WT

I have just had my Ventus CM refinished. Pretty sure it is all carbon,
except the fin which is glass.


Mark

On Jul 1, 10:00 am, Hellman wrote:
On Jun 30, 12:54 pm, Brad wrote:

Do you pilots with carbon airframes, and antennas in the rudder find
this to be an ok solution? Do you find that the antenna gets blanked
out if the pilot you are talking to is in front of you and therfore
have the carbon fin blocking the signal?

I fly an all carbon sailplane sailplane, but use a handheld with a
rubber duck antenna, what I find is that the fuselage can blank out
transmissions at some points of the circle.

Stemmes (and probably other ships) have the same configuration - all
carbon fiber except for the rudder which is fiberglass so the com
antenna can be mounted there. Works well EXCEPT when directly ahead
since then the vertical fin absorbs much of the radio energy. When I
call inbound to an airport, I always turn at least 20 degrees from the
tower. Seems to work OK.

Martin
WT