[wp_913]

Hi

Well gents, along these same lines... The other day while trying to achieve a better fit for the missile pallets on my Sundowners F-14, which by the way was only somewhat successful, I inadvertently broke the thin and quite vulnerable small piece protruding from the nose.

If I had to guess, I believe this is some type of antenna. Nevertheless I was wondering if anyone has suffered this same fate and how they went about making the repair. My first thought would be to obtain some thin silver color wire, drill a small hole into the nose and glue the wire in. The spare parts situation is rather disappointing. Any thoughts gentlemen ???

[David Hingtgen]

I broke off a little piece of my Sundowners too---the small antenna projecting down from the chin pod. No problems on any of my other F-14's, maybe the Sundowners one just has a more brittle/thin/weak batch of plastic or something.

[wp_913]

Hi David,

The piece I'm referring to comes directly out from the point of the nose, maybe 1/4" long. Is this component an antenna, or something else, pitot tube perhaps or ????

Thanks in advance

[Elmer]

Originally Posted by wp_913

Hi David,

The piece I'm referring to comes directly out from the point of the nose, maybe 1/4" long. Is this component an antenna, or something else, pitot tube perhaps or ????

Thanks in advance

It is a pitot tube.

[rdenham]

Originally Posted by Elmer

It is a pitot tube.

The probe at the end of a Tomcats radome is actually a Angle-of-Attack Nose Probe.

[wp_913]

Hi Guys,

Yes, that makes sense to me,,,,, anyone have any ideas for a replacement for this part, maybe better than my silver wire idea ???

[Elmer]

I have a source manual that refers to the probe as pitot; I have inferred from things I have read that angle of attack is measured through a pitot, much like velocity is measured. But, I am no Tomcat expert so I defer to others. If my source manual is wrong, I stand corrected. Where is DH when you need him?

[David Hingtgen]

Pitot is a TYPE of probe. The particular pitot probe on the nosecone of most Tomcats is an air speed indicator.(I think---though it's often labled the Alpha probe, that doesn't actually seem to be its purpose--especially since I can find no probe at all on the plane dedicated to airspeed---strange) It also has pitot probes that do not measure air speed.

[firefighterpilot1]

I have used the tip of a needle and painted it silver and it has worked as a replacement pitot tube. (It wasn't on a CW so I make no guarantees)

[smit]

Originally Posted by David Hingtgen

I broke off a little piece of my Sundowners too---the small antenna projecting down from the chin pod. No problems on any of my other F-14's, maybe the Sundowners one just has a more brittle/thin/weak batch of plastic or something.

I just noticed that the same thing is missing for my Freelancers bird as well. Hadn't noticed it till you mentioned it. Any clues on how to fix it?

Thanks,

Smit