Fuse-mounted antenna doubler pics

[Thermos]

All,

While we're riding out the remnants of Irene, I decided to fabricate some stiffeners for the Delta Pop Aviation comm antennas I plan to use. The antennas are going in the outermost left/right seat rib bays, just behind the wing spar. Here are a couple of pics...





AC43-13 mentions tying in both sides of an antenna stiffener to stringers or other structure, but trying to do that would have been awkward with the curved outboard seat rib - so I'm tying the stiffener to the spar rear bulkhead and belly skin rivets. A friend did this on his RV-7 and it seemed to work ok for him.

Any comments? Am I missing something? Feedback would be really appreciated before I start drilling holes in the ribs and skin.

Dave

[Vlad]

Dave,
Great idea. The only thing I would not do is bottom skin rivets. Antenna attach bolts/screws will give you necessary strength and good contact. just an opinion.

[captain_john]

Wow Dave!

That sucker ain't goin' NOWHERE!!!

They do look good on the belly.



Here is a picture of mine:




CJ

[Wicked Stick]

All,

While we're riding out the remnants of Irene, I decided to fabricate some stiffeners for the Delta Pop Aviation comm antennas I plan to use. The antennas are going in the outermost left/right seat rib bays, just behind the wing spar. Here are a couple of pics...





AC43-13 mentions tying in both sides of an antenna stiffener to stringers or other structure, but trying to do that would have been awkward with the curved outboard seat rib - so I'm tying the stiffener to the spar rear bulkhead and belly skin rivets. A friend did this on his RV-7 and it seemed to work ok for him.

Any comments? Am I missing something? Feedback would be really appreciated before I start drilling holes in the ribs and skin.

Dave

If you wanted a bit more stiffness to the doubler, you could bend a flange or add a piece of angle to the other two edges where they are laying flat.

[Thermos]

Thanks everybody! After reading your posts and thinking about this for awhile, I'm going to wait and mount these things once I start installing systems. It may mean doing a lot of pop-rivet dimpling, but so be it.

I'll probably move them aft a bit like you did, John. If I left them in the current position I doubt there would be any interference with the aileron pushtubes, but I'd rather not find that out when it's too late. If I move them aft, I'll probably put an angle on at least one free edge.

I'm probably overdoing it a bit on the rivets, but Delta Pop antenna studs don't provide as much side-to-side support as the Comant mounts do - so some additional support from the rivets probably won't hurt.

Dave