[ARC5] ARN-6 in F-80 and F-86D

[D. Platt]

Speaking of ADF's and sense antennas (not that anybody is really 
interested) I have a tale of woe.  When I came off active duty in 1965, 
I went to work at Page Airways at DCA.  I did functional check flights 
on stuff I was qualified for and helped out in the avionics shop.  One 
day, a customer came in with a Bell 47 (H-13 for the MIL guys) 
helicopter and wanted Page to install a /used/ ADF in it, a Bendix 
ADF-T-12-something.  The sheet metal guys did a nice job and we 
installed the receiver, indicator, loop, and the sense (whip, in this 
case) antenna.  The day he came to get it, it was raining like the 
dickens.  A nice summer rain, but rain, nevertheless.  We fired up the 
ADF just inside the hangar and it worked perfectly.  The bearings 
/looked/ fine, knowing where the local AM stations were, relative to 
DCA.  I signed the 337 for the avionics portion and the A&E did his.  
About 3 months later, I get a call from the General Manager to come to 
his office on the field.  He and the FAA GADO were there.  I was queried 
about this installation and about the testing procedures.  I told him 
what we did and how we tested it.  I did mention that the customer did 
not want to wait and have one of us go with him to flight check the ADF 
as he was in a hurry to get back to some horse ranch in Kentucky. So off 
he went that day.  It turns out that the loop antenna was installed 180 
deg out.  The sealed loop normally has a small, white painted arrow that 
says "FWD" on it.  But, being used, there was no such marking.  Hence, 
when I installed it, it was one way or the other.  I got it wrong.  
Anyway, the guy told the FAA that he was almost killed as he flew out 
over the FL Everglades for hours and almost ran out of gas.  He was 
P/O'd at Page, of course.

The FAA GADO guy told me to be a bit more careful in the future... 
that's all.  I was dismissed with nothing more ever said or implied.  
About a week later, I was told that the FAA had told the guy that it was 
unfortunate that the incident happened but he was ultimately responsible 
by refusing the necessary flight check.  I was also told that the GADO 
told the guy he was an idiot (sic) for not appreciating what was going 
on long before anything undue happened to him.

Today, we'd probably all be in court......

Jeep  K3HVG