On 9/8/2020 3:29 PM, ProfJ wrote:
snip...

The consensus seems to be: proceed with caution, unless there is lightning...

That was kinda my general thinking even *before* Ken Sorenson's (I think it
was) Moriarty misadventure with lightning.

In electrical-charge terms, my closest (known, hyuk hyuk) encounter came while
returning to Boulder from the ENE, through light virga between I-25 east of
Longmont, and Longmont (some 8-ish miles west). Began to hear some
previously-never-heard "clicking type noises" while running along through some
light rain keeping a wary eye on airmass motion "just-in-case." Puzzling, it
was, until something INside my brain clicked...about the time my forearm hairs
began to stand up. Static electricity charge build-up on the canopy? Slowing
from 65 knots to min-sink resulted in arm hairs laying back down and clicking
noises halting. Hmmm...

Perhaps tempting fate (or a form of curiosity maybe *actually* killing that
cat!), increasing speed again, brought the return of "clicking" and vertical
arm hairs...which well and truly satisfied my curiosity, just then & there!
Thenceforth, I was content to fly slowly enough to avoid the apparent charge
build-up on the canopy associated with both the "clicking" and vertical
forearm hairs, despite the increased time-exposure to the rainfall. Happily,
getting back home proved to not be an issue...

Then there was the early morning when - from an utterly cloudless sky, while
doing something now long-forgotten in the "puttering vein" - a single bolt of
lightning flashed/struck nearby...as-in well under a mile distant (I
habitually count seconds until the associated-toonder's heard). If it hadn't
startled/scared me so much, I mighta disbelieved what I'd heard...had I not
actually seen the bolt from the corner of my eye. *Almost* unbelievable!

Bob W.

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