Aspect Ratio……….. Empty Weight…. Useful Load…… lbs. Max Gross Weight… lbs lbs. Placard red line Speed dive brakes closed. Placard red line Speed dive brakes open. Stall Speed. Opening the Canopy:. Access to the cockpit is gained normally from the left hand side of the ship.
The small window panel in the lower section of the canopy is pushed slightly inward, then aft. Reach across the cockpit to the ring on the latch handle, rotate the latch by pulling the handle ring inboard and aft.
The canopy is unlatched when the handle is at right angles to the longeron. To latch the canopy after tie-down, reverse the above procedure. Control Stick:. The single bent control stick is conventional for aileron and elevator control.
Rudder Pedals:. Rudder pedals are conventional with a five position adjustment. Ease of adjustment is provided for by a levered lock-pin arrangement and a spring assisted pedal retraction. Rudder Pedal Adjustment Lever:. Located between the bottom of the rudder pedals. To adjust depress lever with either heel and relax pressure on rudder pedals. The spring will retract the pedals to the full aft position.
Push pedals forward to desired position and allow lever to lock in place by removing heel. Trim Control longitudinal :. The cockpit control is a lever with a knurled lock-knob located on the right hand side of the cockpit. The lock-knob must be turned counter-clockwise to unlock and clockwise to lock. On the fist few aircraft, the cockpit control is a T-handle located under the lower left side of the instrument panel.
To unlock, turn T-handle counterclock-wise. Pull to the desired trim position and lock by turning the handle firmly clockwise. The trim systems of the bungee type which applies tension to the elevator cable to reduce the control stick back-pressure required while flying at slower airspeeds. Forward position for nose-down, trim and aft positions for increasing amounts of nose-up trim, for either type of control.
Tow Release Control:. The release control is a knob located below center of the instrument panel. Pull the knob fully aft to actuate the tow hook release. Dive Brake Control:. The dive brakes are actuated by a lever located at the forward left hand side of the cockpit.
Lever is pulled slightly inboard to unlock and aft to the desired degree of dive brake application. To close and lock dive brakes, push the lever forward until it snaps into the locked position.
Forces required to open and close the dive brakes are light at low speeds, but will require more force to close as speed is increased. Main Wheel Brake:. The main wheel brake is hydraulically actuated disc type and is applied by unlocking the dive brake lever and pulling to the full aft position.
The wheel brake is actuated during the final few inches of the dive brake control lever travel. Extra pull force is needed to achieve wheel-braking action. An airspeed indicator, sensitive altimeter and magnetic compass are required.
Static Line Drain:. Provision for draining of any accumulation of water from the airspeed static line is made by a spring-loaded valve located at the lower left hand side of center console. To close valve, turn handle pins. Factory flight tests have shown that with this valve open in flight , airspeed readings are reduced slightly. Flight with this valve inadvertently in the open position is therefore not particularly hazardous, and, in an emergency, may be used as an alternate source of static pressure.
Canopy Latch:. Located on right side center bottom canopy frame. Push down and forward to secure canopy. Reverse to unlatch - the handle is at right angle to the longeron in the unlatched position.
Cockpit Ventilation:. Located at top left side or right side of console. Adjust valve as desired. Clear-vision Window Panel:. Located at left or right bottom side of canopy aft of center. To open, pull small knob inward and slide panel aft to ventilate and remove condensation form internal canopy surfaces. Headrest Adjustment Lever. Located at center of aft hatch forward bulkhead. To adjust, pull spring-loaded lever outboard and set headrest to desired position. Release lever to lock in place.
Six positions are provided to complement the various seat-back positions. Seat-back Adjustment Levers:. Located at top outboard sides of seat back. Depress both spring-loaded levers inboard and set seat-back to desired position in the adjustment racks. Release levers to lock into position.
Retractable Gear Control, R:. Fuselage and Cockpit:. Flight controls for free and normal movement. Rudder pedal adjustment. Seat and headrest adjustments. Release hook and linkage. Instruments, lines, pitot-static openings, static line drain. Canopy - hinges and latch, head clearance.
Safety belt and shoulder harness. Wing pins - main spar, and aft carry - thru. Aileron control attachment, fuselage to wing. Tire condition and inflation 31 psi. Wheel brake operation.
Nose Skid attachment and condition. General condition exterior surfaces. Retractable gear safety pin removed - only. Aileron hinge and pushrod connection. Dive brake and mechanism. General surface condition. Stabilizer attach, forward and aft. Standard equipment includes tip wheels, deluxe seat cushions, headrest, and rudder pedal adjusters.
Thanks for contributing, sharing and contacting us. All Rights Reserved. Schweizer SGS Sprite Designed by Leslie Schweizer, the all-metal Sprite, the final glider model produced by the Schweizer Aircraft Corporation, was conceived as a replacement for the one class design The SGS Sprite single-seater is intended to be an all-round sailplane, which can be flown and soared by an inexperienced pilot shortly after his first solo, but is also easily capable of Diamond distance flights, and able to offer modern performance, handling and appearance whether as a personal, club or school aircraft.
First year built Built: I plan to design metal or plastic wear sections on both tips this winter. I'm glad we operate on grass. A past owner operated on pavement and I note the "training wheels" came with the glider. We've never installed them, but certainly would if operating on pavement.
By the way, the tail wheel was badly worn when we bought the glider, possibly from its early operation on pavement.
The nose skid was also worn through and we replaced it. For filler, look for glass balloon filled epoxy for good adhesion, light weight, and easy sanding. There may be other materials with similar or better qualities. The ailerons are very weak and make launch and landing difficult. One must raise the flaps immediately upon landing to a negative setting to maintain some control, and we always launch and tow with the flaps at negative setting.
Any improvement of airflow over the ailerons should help. Our glider spins readily, but gives ample aerodynamic warning of stall and I don't consider spinning to be a threat. Pilot weight may be a factor. At my weight of , it stalls well. Lighter pilots will experience deeper stall, while heavier pilots may experience milder or no stall. Chris, any comment on this? I almost always operate it off of asphalt runways. It has polyurethane skids mounted to the bottom of the wings.
See photo 7 on Tom's website. I have not seen another with skids like these so I tend to think they were installed by a previous owner. I have a set of tip wheels for the glider but have never used them. The skids have never worn out. Rarely do I ever drop a wing during the last of the landing roll; only when there is no headwind. Performance enhancement My has fairly benign stall characteristics. I've never experienced the type of stall that DJ did in his flight test of one of the early-model s.
The wings on my glider have been filled and profiled by a previous owner. He did a lousy job. I have oscillated between getting templates made and going through the process of profiling the wings versus sanding and filling where necessary and then repainting. With the Wortman wing section, I think that somewhere in the middle is probably in order. I have also thought about winglets.
HP18s use the same airfoil that the does and they seem to better with winglets. I have contacted a winglet maker and may buy a set of winglets from him this winter. Don't know if it's worth it.
I have some articles on wing profiling. I can copy these and send them to you if you like. Water ballast Most of my soaring is done in southwest Texas Uvalde where the conditions are usually strong in the summer, so ballasting up is part of the preflight. I too had problems getting the valves to seal. I tried all kinds of greases and potions.
Finally, I found that wax from a toilet bowl ring will seal the dump valves. The wax ring is used to seal a toilet bowl to the fitting in the floor. Be sure to clean the sealing surfaces of the valve and seat before the first application of wax. I don't know of any cases of internal corrosion because of residual water left in the tanks but have also wondered. During the annual inspection, I use a mirror and flashlight to inspect the interior of the tanks as best I can and have never seen any corrosion.
My biggest concern is water leaking into other parts of the wing that have no corrosion protection. In between flying, I remove the filler caps and leave the dump valves open to allow air to circulate. My glider stays in a trailer. As expected, a wet does not climb as well as a dry but in strong conditions the cruise performance is dramatically enhanced. The ride is also much better. Wet, the roll rate is a little slower.
I can't cruise with most of the glass fiber guys either dry or wet and keep up with them during a long glide. I can usually outclimb them. Outclimbing them doesn't count for much flying cross country in strong conditions. In weaker conditions, older glass gliders and the are more closely matched, but not much.
The is a good cross-country glider. Mine has flown several Ks. Tom, We know of each other only through our love of flying and the plane we both sought to fly. She just went through annual and hrs. I purchased her out of Texas almost exactly 2 years ago and have proceeded to log - hrs per year.
I got in touch with Mr. Welles the apps person who fields all the questions for the company and as an owner pilot knows the ship and it's quirks very well. My ship is needing attention to some play in the elevator bayonet bushings and he informs me that there is a fix which is not too bad to perform. But the real reason for my note is that I caught the following write up accident report and thought I would pass it along to you for inclusion in your web page if you deem it noteworthy see NTSB PAGE.
The manual and adherence to it's recommendations for procedure with a view to first landings is all that is needed for safety. The pilot of the plane that is the subject matter here in my view most likely had not done due diligence with regard to understanding the plane.
But I will leave individual dissemination to the reader. There are two 's at our club, Mid Atlantic Soaring, Myself and Tinwings are usually found in the skies somewhere over Md. We both love our ships and have a blast as two of three who will be the "last to land' at our club on any given day.
Paul Rehm "KW". It may be that the pilot failed to understand the difference between thermaling mode flap settings and the landing mode. The has a dual acting flap handle. For thermaling the flap is simply pulled back operating only the upper extension of the flap handle. I'm not sure what the max attainable flap setting this allows but it is something like 30 degrees. To land it is necessary to place the upper extension of the handle into the -8 position and then to move the flap handle outward and then back using the entire flap handle, moving this fully to the rear allows the max flap settings for landing.
I think but am not sure that all models have this dual mode flap handle and the c uses a more straightforward flap handle. The nice thing about the dual mode is that the gear warning can be triggered as soon as the landing mode flap handle is moved. With a single mode flap handle a gear warning can not be triggered until the flap setting exceeds all flap positions used in thermaling.
Dale Fletcher. Encourage them to go get some flap training in something like a Lark or Blanik L 30 degree flaps , then rent a local C CFI and tell him to focus on flap procedures only. The steep, steep nose down configuration standing on the pedals on final is just something you have to experience alone for the first time.
Tom: I greatly appreciate the recent message about the landing accident. Fortunately, the pilot was not hurt. We all get to learn something from this report. November 1, Mr. I should have some positive progress over the next few months. Although we can form a window to fit at present, the quality is not up to our standards. Please check back with us in December or January. Thanks, George Mesiarik Vice Pres. I have come up with a side hinge plan that they will look at closely before we decide on which route to take.
Frankly, my system is simple and should be inexpensive. I have been using this to help with approach speeds. Naturally, when there is wind, I add about half of the headwind component to these speeds in knots or adjust accordingly depending on altitude.
Early on, I discovered that the C will float a long way with the slightest bit of unnecessary extra approach speed. Through tips from people like you and so many others, I have found my comfort level.
Flap-use is a big topic with this plane. These flaps are so helpful in small and rough thermals. They are also very helpful should the approach pattern be too high.
And of course, when used properly, you sure can land in small areas. If I am too high on final approach, and require full flaps, I either leave them on until touchdown, or I milk them off ever so slowly if above about feet AGL and if the indicated airspeed is correct for the lowered flap setting. Then, whatever flap is still extended beyond 25 I leave on to touchdown. Once, I experimented with controlling touchdown by reducing flaps slowly in the flair; it worked out but the landing distance was almost doubled due to excessive airspeed: not good.
So, through communications from you and others, and through the misfortunes of some, I move forward with more knowledge. Thank you for keeping me in the loop! Hello to all: I suggest that all who fly or will fly the need to understand the aerodynamics of camber changing flaps as on the The changing camber changes the angle of incidence relative to the fuselage, which combined with the increased drag at large flap deflections, makes necessary the large pitch down to maintain airspeed.
I agree with the suggestion to get some dual training in other aircraft with flaps, and recommend those with simple camber changing flaps, not the Fowler flaps of Cessnas and, as I recall, the L However, if Fowler flaps are all that are available, training with them is much better than no experience with flaps. The pilot new to the needs to tow high, more than ', and practice maintaining correct approach speed and trimming the pitch attitude at several flap settings covering the range from 0 to full flaps.
Extending the flaps decreases stall speed, whereas extending dive brakes increases stall speed. Hence, approach speed with flaps must be slightly less than speed without flaps to avoid excessive float. I find it advantageous to reduce approach speed on short final.
Keep up the speed for as long as there is possibility of encountering sink, turbulence, etc, but reduce it before flaring. The best way to do this is by controlling the approach to fly the final segment with less than full flaps, then extend more flap without pitching down in time to reduce the approach speed. I don't look at the instruments at that time and cannot cite numbers, but this technique gives me consistent smooth landings with short landing rolls.
Prior to that last speed reduction, I maintain 55 mph or more in the approach; I don't practice low energy approaches for all the reasons that apply to all gliders. Only reduce speed or energy when there is no danger of landing short or encountering negative wind shear, and when you don't need the additional control provided by a LITTLE extra speed to cope with turbulence.
Don't try to land the hot. It will use a lot of runway and you may experience pilot induced oscillations and multiple touchdowns, possibly some hard ones. Just land it level, not hot and not stalled. If it is a bit hot, don't raise the flaps until it is landed; that will permit it to float much farther, in ground effect with excess speed and no flaps for drag. Raise the flaps to the highest limit after landing to improve the aileron effectiveness, and be prepared to apply the wheel brake if the glider begins to swerve.
The often blows over in a cross win, puts the downwind wing tip on the surface and swerves downwind. The wheel brake puts the nose skid down hard and helps prevent the swerve. Stopping quickly reduces the chance of colliding with something, as can happen if it swerves. I've watched a pilot experiment by not trying to stop the swerve, when there were no obstacles to hit, and his turned a full degrees on grass in the swerve! Regards, Red.
SGS drivers out there, I'd like to thank Red for his comprehensive recap of experience flying the and recommendations which I endorse. Such notes should be inserted in the factory manual I also submit the following below in response to the often-heard comment by the uninitiated, "The is dangerous because the over-designed flaps are all you have and that causes the much higher than normal number of accidents.
But still only 11 reported incidents in 18 years I can think of two landing accidents apparently not reported which call direct attention to the handling characteristics sited by Red.
I could not find the records for the s to the in any of you know other stories to share In the first a A retractable was landed hot into a short field by an experienced CFI. He mistakenly put the flaps up on final and corrected the situation too late, ran out of runway and had to groundloop in a pond. In the second accident an experienced cross-country pilot made a normal landing on to a narrow foreign airfield and could not correct the inherent "swerve" before hitting two 18" tall runway lights at about 40 kts.
Thank you all for sharing any of your experiences as well. Michael Henderson Northwest Soaring. The canopy frame would be tough. If you just need the plexiglas, any of the outfits that advertise in Soaring should be able to make one if they can get a hold of another from which to make a mold. For the frame, I have heard of an outfit that sells Schweizer salvage-- you might luck out. I think they are in Phoenix or Texas?
The previous owner of my ship has ordered parts from them, so I'm forwarding this to him-- Dale, what was the name of that outfit? As far as options, my opinion would be to get the side vent but skip the tinting-- it will be inconvenient in the late day. Good luck with the restoration. I got a set of tie-down rings from them 5 or 6 years ago.
Located in Texas. I don't see the ad in recent issues. New canopy. The club I belong to Nevada Soaring Assn. He is located in northern California. I can echo that.
Inconvenient is too mild in my opinion. Tinting is of minimal value, and only really worth considering in the open west and questionable there. I learned to fly in SoCal, and one of my early instructors told me to take off my vaunted RayBans on take off and landing when there was a low sun or shadows.
He pointed out that eyes accomodated more quickly to light than dark. This was pointed out when a year later I had an engine failure in a customer Ercoupe that had a tinted screen. Had to slip it into a small space short of the airport fortunately it was a split control Forney and I missed seeing some crop poles that created some airfoil changes.
The owner was appreciative that it was in one piece but guilt had me replacing three wing skins and recovering several panels. I won't forget that. Cheers, Bob PS - unless you have a well trained bladder, some well placed vent is wise. I like on the left since I am right handed.
David Pilati. Good Morning Tom, I am in the process of purchasing a and wondered if I might gain some thoughts from you. I have done quite a bit of research concerning the aircraft, even spent a bit of time talking to the folks at Schweizer. Your web site has provided good information, but I'm curious now from a more personal note. Any particular joys or problems worth noting?
The aircraft I am looking at is in impecable shape. Very well maintained. Yes, they are older birds, but considering the condition and care this airframe has received, I will take great joy in becoming its new owner. I have been flying gliders for a few years now, have a commercial license and am looking to delve more strongly into the cross-country arena.
My experience with gliders has predominantly been with Schweizer and Blanik airframes. I like glass, but am not too excited about some of the maintenance issues associated with a glass bird. If possible, any thoughts you would care to share would be appreciated.
I'm curious about long-term maintenance issues, peculiarities in flight, information sources, etc. Thanks for your help. Dan Thirkill. Dan, I went for the for many of the same reasons as you have. It is an easy to fly and almost zer0-cost to maintain glider. The flaps are a joy and they improve thermalling and landing. I can thermal it at 40 mph which will allow it to outclimb just about anything. I can land it in really short fields which makes it perfect for XC. It can come in steep and can land slowly.
The brake and skid get you stopped in 50 feet if needed. So cool! The one trade-off is the performance at speeds above 80mph is not good, so if you plan to share XC flights with glass ships who like to skate around at these speeds, the will suffer. If not, no problem. I rarely fly above 80mph.
If you have specific questions, please ask them. Good lift, Tom. My name is Jim Owens and I wanted to drop you a line on how helpful your website for the has been. Living here in Phoenix soaring has been a very BIG part of my life and I am planning on buying my very first glider soon. I recently aquired my Commercial Glider add-on and now have flights, most in the Grob and the Some of my goals in looking for my first sailplane are:.
D To find a sailplane that will carry me at pounds but rapidly working for and hopefully !! I have a ton of questions on buying a sailplane in general not to mention about the Some that come to mind are: How easy or hard is she to fly? Does she penetrate well? While I work for my pay check driving airliners flaps are nothing new to me : but I have never flown a flapped glider It could be summed up this way, "Would you be so kind as to give me your best sales pitch for the "?
She penetrates well but if you examine her polar, above about 80 mph the sink rate is not as good as glass. Someone did fly side-to-side with an ASW and the glide was identical up to about mph. So if you stick to the mph regime, which non-racers tend to anyway, the does very well.
Another plus is the pound dry weight.. I never flew a flapped glider till I flew the First flight I took it up to agl and rode around for 10 minutes at each flap setting. You quickly learn that flying with flaps is easy, and landings are more precise. Rule number one is to watch the airspeed as you change flap settings. Some accidents have been by pilots on final at mph with full flaps that then go to no-flap as they notice they are falling short of the runway.
I use 55 mph in the pattern with 25 degree flap then 50 on final at full flap once I know I can make the runway. I rarely even use up feet of runway. For the sport flyer who wants a reliable, fun, good performance ship, the is hard to top. It has none of the concerns of glass. It also can be easily repaired, which is less possible with glass. An immaculate local c became available and it exceeded all the ones above on almost all measures so I bought it at a premium.. At you will fit fine in the as long as your shoulders are not excessively wide.
Try before you buy. Also, up to 6'4" tall pilots fit. We have 2 Ls, 2 PW-5s, and 1 Junior in our club and they all are good ships with good owner satisfaction.
Hope this info helps and I'm sure you will be happy with whatever you buy. I was just directed to your great site. Thanks for all the information. I am on your list with , which I have owned for 10 years or so. Most of my flying in Wyoming is by myself, and towing can be a problem. I started in Hobbs in the late 's. Question: Until I saw your detail about the , I was not aware that a hinged canopy reduced pilot weight. I don't recall anything in the book. My former partner was in the lb range and I go about We have had no difficulty and the ship trims out easily and with its range.
Why the reduction in weight? Since I have seen few other 's, I was surprised that there was anything other than the hinged canopy front mounted, forked device that swings up and down with the canopy impaled on it.
Steve Maier. Six months ago I relocated to an airport that has asphalt and gravel. I checked my skid and see that the skid shoe is well worn and even missing some metal at the contact area. I'd like to know what others have done to repair the shoe.
Schweizer has no parts and Mary said the price for them to manufacture a shoe was very high Short of sending each individual on the list an e-mail, is there anyway to broadcast this question? Thank you for your help. David Pilati 49DG. I think they've done skid replacement on s which should be somewhat similar.
Hardly scratches it on the worst asphalt and gravel runway you have ever seen here in the Cascade Mtns. Be sure to replace the screws with high shear type as they will snap. Michael p. Anyone have a friend who likes your ship and wants to buy a beautiful C?
We have one too many and a Pawnee to pay for. Email: michael northwestsoaring. It was quite simple in using the worn skid plate as a template. Interestingly, an individual at our club has the sprite tested by D. Johnson in ' His has the original plate, which has essentially no visible wear.
I think I will go that route next time around, in the interest of weight and durability Mike Henderson, maybe you can comment on this at the end of this season?
Paul Westerfield. Dave, Which part is worn? The skid plate or the part the plate attaches to? If it's the skid plate, they can be easily made from 0. This is what I do and they typically last about a season. The plate wears more on one end then the other so I turn the plate around to get more life.
My is flown on and off of pavement. My C manual limits the airspeed for negative flaps to the same speed as for positive flaps.
This appears to render them useless for high-speed penetration. Your thoughts are enthusiastically invited. Boerner NH. Supplement 1, Page 4, of the Operating Manual list the Cruising Speeds for 0,-4 and -8 degree flap settings. I usually go to -4 degrees when I hit 55kts. I don't get up to 75kts very often, but when I do, I go to -8 degrees as the manual suggests.
I use -4 degrees for take off and climb to release. I use -8 degrees after touchdown and during rollout. I would think that these settings apply to both the and the C. Raul, Takeoff 0 degrees Thermal 4 degrees Landing variable I never use negative flaps, even at higher airspeeds. The only time they go negative is when the flap handle is briefly moved forward to disengage the flap mechanism for landing. I wonder if it is possible to ask a question of owners via this website?
I would like to find out if someone has determined a good position for mounting a radio antenna. In the original design it sticks out horizontally to the rear at the top of the rudder. This means there is no ground plane and the polarization is horizontal compared to all other gliders and ground stations that have vertically polarized antennas. I find my radio does not work well and I was thinking it may be due to this antenna mounting position.
An obvious place to mount it that would overcome the ground plane and polarization issues is vertically behind the removable turtle deck on top of the metal fuselage, i. But this would be an eyesore and make the ship look like a I imagine that most modern fiberglass ships use an antenna buried in the vertical fin, probably a center fed dipole that would be excellent in sending energy out in the horizontal where it does the most good.
But this can't be done with the metal fin on the I thought that maybe an antenna in the cockpit or in the fiberglass turtle deck structure might work. I wondered if you had any ideas about this problem or if the homepage could be used to get information? We have 3 s at our Gliderport and they all have the antennae protrude vertically just aft of the turtledeck. It has worked well for me. Check out photo 3 on my ship sn87 , it gives a good view. By the way I got a 4 hour flight in yesterday at our gliderport.
Sweet ride. Ralph, Tom I would suggest that you check the original installation for a poor connection. My antenna has remained in the original position pointed to the rear from under the small cover at the top of the fin and it works well And once I conversed with an aircraft at 30, at a range of miles.
One thing to remember about the original position, for best range, do not fly directly toward or away from the direction of the other radio. However, in all the years I have flown I have never worried about this. Dale, Thanks for the advice.
Knowing it can work well is useful since I had assumed it could not in that position and now I will try to get measurements and check the connections. Perhaps bending it upward a little might help. It sure would save a lot of trouble if it would work well from its current position.
It is certainly true that the nearly horizontal antenna is much less efficient but it is a good, low drag, installation in a metal sailplane. Besides a sailplane is a good platform with little interference.
The original installation had the antenna at about a 12 or 15 degree inclination. I assume the radios of today must have two or three times the transmit power of my old radio. Another thought, does your sailplane still have the original antenna? If not, the length of the antenna may be a problem. It is very important to have the correct antenna length for the aircraft frequencies.
Also, check to see if the antenna is broken or cracked internally. Dale, It is the original antenna. The radio is a 25 year old Mentor channel that draws a lot of power compared to modern radios but puts out 5 watts.
I will do some testing and let you know how things work out. Today we did some tests of antenna positions and related stuff and I wanted to pass on what we found to those of you who have offered advice. Steve had a Standing Wave Ratio measuring device which we used. The original Schweizer antenna in its factory mount position had an SWR of 2 which I gather is acceptable. I had not realized that the antenna was really about 15 inches long and not just the visible part which is half that long as half is within the fiberglass housing on top of the rudder.
It is wound with a coil to increase the effective length to the nominal 23 inches. Also with the tailwheel on the ground it sticks up perhaps 15 degrees so since the ship flies with the nose way down it may be sticking up 30 degrees above horizontal in flight. We next removed the antenna from the housing and in doing so found that the co-ax cable easily pulled out of the bnc connector at the base of the antenna. So there may have been a poor connection there which would have been fixed when we put the connector back on the co-ax.
But the SRW of 2 was made before this so maybe the connection was o. Then we mounted the antenna vertically at the top of the semicircular front bulkhead behind the turtle deck where there is metal fuselage all the way back, but no ground plane forward in the turtle deck and cockpit area.
Here the SWR was 3, maybe not so good because the ground plane near the base of the antenna was only toward the rear. Then we made some comparisons with a good ground station that I brought along and with the antenna in the vertical position on the bulkhead, the ground station picked up weaker transmissions that the ship's radio did not detect.
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