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Antenna fell off

Norcalrv7

Well Known Member
This weekends flying camping trip started with intermittent mode c, that progressed to transponder failure, then finally no transponder or adsb in. After returning home, it looks like the bottom half of my cl-105 transponder antenna fatigued at the factory glue joint, and fell off! Made for some easy troubleshooting at least.




Anybody else had this happen?
 
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If you are referring to the plastic cap blade, then kind of. Mine was a Deltapop brand and I noticed a gap that developed between it and the fuselage skin once while waxing the bottom of the plane. When I touched it I noticed it move a bit, so just a little wiggle and tug and it popped right off. The antenna post was intact and everything looked good otherwise so I cleaned it up and used silicone adhesive to put it back on. It worked fine before and after.
 
I've lost two Deltapop antennas like this. Customer service was superb and he has now changed the bonding process and all seems to be well.
 
I had a similar issue with a CL105 on my RV8. The last time I had my 2 year IFR transponder cert done, we were getting intermittent replies. I checked the antenna and it was loose, probably from bumping it too many times while cleaning the belly. I replaced it with a new one. When wiggling the antenna when it was off, it separated from the base. I just cleaned it up and epoxied it back together with a temperature tolerant structural adhesive. I haven't tested it yet, but if it checks out, I have a spare!
 
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