Is it safe to fly a Full Range Aircraft with Antenna pointing to the Ground?

[lazy-b]

Is it safe to fly a Full Range Aircraft with Antenna pointing to the Ground?

I've been flying a small electric Helicopter with an Antenna pointing to the Ground, but Hesitate to test it on a Full Range Aircraft.......

I just use a a Stranded Wire with the same Length as my Telecopic Antenna and install an small Aligator clip at the end of the wire, and clip it on a Full Collapse antenna........works perfectly on my Coaxial Helicopter, I usually fly it in a small room, so I do not want to use my Telecopic Antenna.

One of this day, will performed a Range Check, if this Full-Collapse antenna with a Pig tail wire will give a Full-range.

my Guess, it will give the same Range as a fully extended telecopic antenna.......if its work, I might Permanently attach a wire to my Transmitter.

I Guess, this attached Wire will give a Better Range than a Rubber Duckie Antenna.

[weber_alejandro]

All I know about the antenna used in r/c is this:
If you could visibly see electromagnetic radiation, a whip antenna’s radiation pattern would look like a donut. If we were to cut the radiation "donut" in half, we could get a good idea of the cross-section of the radiation pattern. The cross sectional area is known as the antenna "lobes", and provides a good basis for understanding the antenna's radiation characteristics.

http://images.tomshardware.com/myimages/NTK/wlanrange_dipole-az-el.gif

You should be aware that the antenna's radiation pattern is generally concentrated in the horizontal plane, with little in the vertical plane. For the horizontal plane, it can be said the radiation pattern is omni-directional or 360 degrees. The donut itself, especially on the horizontal plane can be aprox 1400m in length (aprox for r/c), and any receiver antenna within the "donut" will receive the strongest transmitted signal. A receiver outside of the donut will not receive a very strong signal, or may not receive any signal at all.

That's the reason why is not a good idea to point the plane/heli with the antenna if you want the strongest signal in the receiver.

The other thing I can say is that the antenna has a impedance matching for the RF output stage on the TX. So, a full-collapse antenna can overheat and maybe damage the RF transistor because the impedance mismatch if you use this configuration for a long time.



Alex

[vintage1]

It will probably work pretty well, not as good as a telescopic, possibly better than a rubber duck, and possibly not perfectly in tune.

I would be inclined not to do it unless you have to: having said that, you probably would get 1 kilometer out of it.