Horizontal electric field sensors-staked or not?

The paper by D. V. Thiel and R. Mittra, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sensing, vol.35, p.1357-62 (1997) is commented upon. They take part in the controversy of staked versus unstaked sensors to measure the horizontal electric fields above the Earth's surface. Their idealized computer model is most ingenious and the results are not disputed. Nevertheless, the present author raises a few issues, in which correction and clarification may be needed.