Mike Marron wrote in message . ..
SNIP
Anyone ever flown an NDB approach via an old fashioned
loop antenna? (For the readers unfamiliar with the terminology,
NDB means "Non Directional Beacon" which is usually a
low-freq signal emanating from a commercial AM radio station
or transmitter on the ground.)

On newer aircraft, the pilot tunes in an NDB station simply by
turning a dial in the cockpit, but many older (WW2-era) aircraft
required the pilot to crank a lever that physically rotated a loop
antenna mounted on top of, or beneath the fuselage so as to
pick up the NDB or radio station on the ground.
SNIP:

In primary flight training in 1953 we had to do all those old things
in the T6G.
Radio range was done at Tallahassee; I forget where we did
non-directinal beacon NDB work. 'Manual loop' - RDF - was worse than
chewing gum and walking at the same time. The real answer was to do
the loop bit when straight and level, figure out which way to turn,
concentrate on the turn, level out, fool with the loop again. The
'dirty tricks' department put the ADF panel and loop crank handle down
between your ankles in the T33! FWIW RDF - manual control of the loop
- works better than ADF in bad static conditions. Also FWIW our 25
watt NDB homer at Naha AB on Okinawa was but a few Khz away from a
monster station at Shanghai. RDF worked better when out a hundred
miles or so. The simplest loop I ever heard of was a couple turns of
wire around the aft fuselage of a Piper Cub; gentle turns right and
left sufficed to find the bearing to the station. It took time, but
Cub pilots have a lot of that at 1.5 miles per minute.
Walt BJ
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