I installed one of these antennas in each wingtip on my Glastar. Its possible that the Glastar wingtip simply does not have the needed vertical component for the Archer Sport 1a, but I was VERY careful with the installation, following all guidelines as best I could. The unit is well made and the instructions were reasonably good. I optimized everywhere that I could, including very careful and thorough grounding to the aircraft skin using special multi-contact material, and the highest quality coaxial cable and plug. The result has been mediocre at best. The problems are simple: poor range, and each antenna is sufficiently masked in certain directions (presumably by the rest of the wing and/or the rest of the aircraft) that I often find myself using roll inputs or turns in order to get better transmission or reception in marginal situations. This is obviously not a desirable outcome. My desire for an internal, zero-drag solution for com antennas drove me to try the Archer Sports, and for a long time I didnt want to admit failure, but ultimately, after asking about the range and performance of other antenna installations, Ive had to admit that theyve turned out unacceptably poor. The RV aircraft have much more vertical space in the wingtips for a more vertical mounting, and also have no fuselage hanging below the level of the antennas, so its possible that the Archer Sport performs significantly better in that configuration of aircraft. Soon, Ill be removing both of my Archer Sport antennas, and likely replacing them with a pair of standard com antennas atop the wing. People who have this configuration on the Sportsman and Glastar report outstanding com performance in nearly all situations.

I bought and installed my Archer wingtip antenna a number of years ago fairly early in the construction of my RV-7A. I was aware at the time of some mixed reviews about this antenna but I really liked the idea of not having a comm antenna mounted externally so the optimistic part of my brain won the argument and I went for it. I suspected that proper installation was key to making this thing work so I followed the included instructions meticulously. To minimize any possible contributing factors I had a solid run of RG-400 from the wingtip to the radio (an ICOM IC-A210) so there would be no connections to mess things up. I made my first flights and discovered that I had to be inside of 8 miles before the tower at my home airport could hear me clearly and while that might be OK for flying at small uncontrolled airports it simply doesnt work for the flying that I do. Ultimately I pulled the co-ax out of the wing and installed a RAMI bent whip on the belly just aft of the firewall and slightly to one side of the exhaust pipes. My first flight after installing the new antenna was to test the range of the same radio with the new antenna and the tower now gives me a loud and clear from 50 miles out. I hadnt previously noticed any issues with reception, but it became obvious on this flight that reception was much better as well. Im sorry this antenna didnt work out but Im glad I have a properly working comm radio now.