Originally posted by MinnFlyer
In all my years of flying, I have only done that once. Fortunately it was with one of those little combat Gremlin's which are damn near indistructable.
I had the same thing happen a few years back. I had a rubber duck antenna on this particular radio (BNC mounted). I fired up my Gremlin's engine, walked out to the flight line, and launched...
A split second later one of my fellow flyers called out "Dude! Your antenna fell off!" He scooped it up, ran over and snapped it on. Saved my bacon that time.
I've switched to screw-in rubber duck antennas on all my current radios. They work fine, and I no longer have to worry about breaking the telescoping ones when launching HLGs (or poking anyone in the eye.) This does tend to dull the "extend-the-antenna-before-taking-off" reflex when I fly other people's planes, though
