ADVANCED AIRCRAFT ELECTRONICS, INC

 http://www.advancedaircraft.com/

 Does any body have any experience with this antenna mounted in
 the wing tip of an RV?

 A regular whip antenna can have as much as 3 pounds of drag at 230 MPH
which
 translates to a HP requirement of about 2.3 HP. That is a fuel burn of
about
 1.2 pounds an hour or about .2 gallons an hour.

 "Advanced Aircraft Electronics Inc. (AAE) offers a series of aircraft
antennas
 specifically designed to be used without a ground plane.  This means that
 composite aircraft and fabric covered aircraft can now have their antennas
 mounted totally within the structure. "

 Paul Lamar

 Paul,

I do not have experience with these antenna,but I heard they are really
good.They are called Bob Archer antenna after the designer.You can google
Bob Archer antenna for more info.They have them at Air craft Spruce for a
cheaper price.I believe they also have these antenna for metal air craft.I
think I might have one installed inside the Horizontal stab.  of the KIS
Cruiser,do you remember the cable that was sticking out of the horz.  stab.
that we did not know what was it for,I believe that might be for this type
of antenna.I have to take the horz.  stab.  to the airport and connect the
cable to my hand held radio to see if that is true.


Michael Hart



A protruding antenna on the wing tip will cause yaw which will have to be
compensated for causing additional drag. Not a good idea.
Rolland Lapelle



I goes inside the composite RV wing tip.

I just got mine and it looks good with wide conductors.
Wide conductors widen the bandwidth which lowers the VSWR
at the extremes of the VHF frequent range.

Here are some pictures of it.
The conductors become more or less straight when installed in
the composite wing tip.

BTW I also ordered some RG142/U low loss coax from this company.
http://www.cablexperts.com/cfdocs/cat.cfm?ItemGroup=5&itmsub=0&bskt=0&c=0
It should be here today.

This is half the loss per foot of some other common 50 ohm coax.
Important when the antenna is 12 or more feet away from the radio.

It is also double shielded with silver plated copper braid.

The only drawback to this apporoach is the horizontal polarization while
most VHF antennas are vertically polarized. It remains to be seen if this
is going to be a major factor. I'll let you know one way or the other.

If it works I might put the ELT antenna in the other wing tip.

Paul Lamar


RG400 is about the same electrically (depending on whose numbers you
believe), has a higher temperature rating, and is a tiny bit lighter.
Maybe about $8 more for a 12' run.  Available from Stein Bruch:

http://www.steinair.com/wire.htm



Matt-