On Apr 14, 5:26 pm, Mike Lindsay wrote:
In article . com,
jeplane writes

There is an article in this month of "Business & Commercial Aviation"
regarding lightning.

It says that in 1999, a ASK21 desintegrated large sections of the
fuselage, while flying in clear air, about 800 yards from a cloud.
Both pilots were ejected from the strike, but fortunately were wearing
parachutes.

The same article goes on to say fiberglass, especially carbon fiber is
conductive. So if you are on the ground and a thunderstorm is over the
airport, to seek shelter inside a building and NOT inside the glider
which has no protection.

Has nayone heard this before? Do you know someone who had a lightning
strike in a glider before?
I am just curious as I never heard of this before.

I would have thought that if fibreglass was conductive it would protect
you from the Thunder God. But it isn't, at least not to the extent that
it could carry the heavy current a lightening strike produces without
getting hot enough to disintegrate.

The K21 which was destroyed near the London Gliding Club's Dunstable
site had some control rods which took so much current they more or less
exploded, much like a fuse wire when it takes about 50 times it's rated
load. This explosion blew the skin off the wings.

I once read a book about a glider which fell apart in a Cu-nim in
Germany, the pilot was killed because his parachute carried him up to
even higher levels. But I don't know if this was due to lightening, or
over-stressing the airframe. I believe this happened in about 1928.
I wish I could remember the name of the book and its author, it was what
got me into gliding in the first place.
--
Mike Lindsay

I too live in Central Florida, where overdevelopment and heavy T-
storms are common during the summer months. The power pilots will tell
you to avoid a convective cloud by 10 miles for every 10,000 ft of
cloud tops. I use a simpler formula, if I can't see the sun because a
cloud is blotting it out I go inside and play X-box.

N