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L-21B part question

DutchGrasshopper

Registered User
The Netherlands
Just new here and a Piper L-21 enthusiast since I was a kid watching Dutch Army Pipers at a strip near where I lived at that time. Unfortunately one of them crashed there in september 1965 in which the pilot and observer perished. Recently I was able to find that spot and a friend and I have plans to erect a small memorial to commemorate the crew.
Apart from this I have a question what the part on some Dutch L-21's is. One can see it on this R-177 on top of the cockpit.

Regards,

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Hi Charlie, maybe it's a bit better to see on this one. It seems to be some open cover.

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My only theory is it’s a ram air temperature probe. It looks a lot like what we had on the DC-8. No idea why one would be on a L-21.
 

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I found a couple more pics of those L-21’s on the internet. They appear to have tow hitches. Yay! (I am a glider pilot.)

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Charlie, good find. Doesn't look like a Tost hitch though :-( . My old L-21B had been a glider tug in MI after being rehabbed from the Italian Army.

Thanks. cubscout
 
It is a trailing wire antenna mount. I have an L18C project that came from Denmark which I have owned for 20 plus years. I will get you a picture of the part.
 
Here is the bracket that attaches at the windshield/skylight intersection.
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It appears to be a horizontal loop antenna...the feed has two wires at the cage and then two round insulating bobbins for side spread and a ribbed insulator to form the tri- or quadrangle. Wing tips would hold wires to the bobbins and tail or the vertical stick in the pictures could support a wire forward to the ribbed insulator. The loop wire is short and typically 1 wavelength on the frequency of interest. Back then who knows what radio frequency they used. HF propagation vs a VHF vertical could support a horizontal loop.

Of course this is a guess and if the fuselage fixture allows length adjustment like a trailing wire antenna and spool then I'm FOS.

Designed by early UFO's.

Gary
 
Gary,
If you remember back in the day, the FSS frequency was 5.631mhz all over the State of Alaska. From memory a "full wavelength" was around 175ft trailing back
behind you, I think you would see a " half wave null" at about 87' and that worked fine most days. Still ALOT of cranks on those 6" spools to get it all back in!
The old Lodge freqs everyone talked on in the 70/80s was 3.201mhz. The fixed antennas that ran to the wing tips were just
"Loaded 1/4 wavelength" and worked " ok some days" but if conditions were tuff you needed to use the "long wire"
I can still hear old Bob Curtis calling Trident Radio in Anchorage for a phone patch
" Trident Radio this is WGG 97 Tickchik Lake"........

Sent from my moto e5 go using SuperCub.Org mobile app
 
From the mid-'60's until 1974 I was a passenger in several aircraft that had the HF rigs described by TurboBeaver installed. Typically selectable fixed frequency Brelonix units but there were others (Lear?). The air mobile antennas were either trailing spool end-fed wires or fixed length off center fed dipoles attached to wing and tail tips, all loaded by tuned coils and caps in aft baggage boxes. Ground stations had similar radios with either vertical omnidirectional antennas or elevated horizontal dipole wires. Back then the Sun often had enough spots to excite the ionosphere so non-line of sight propagation was possible.

Gary
 
That’s pretty wild - I love this site for many reasons, but listening to the more experienced members talking about the old times is one of my favorites.
 
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