Lightning anyone?

Capt

Wasn't lightning one of the problems that caused the failure of Lears
'plastic' bird. First one FAA looked at to certify and they (FAA) were
making up the rules as he went along. Ran him and his wife after he
died out of money trying to meet their certification requirements.

Didn't they finally put some metal in the epoxy to get FAA ok for
composite fueslage ????

Maybe some others have more detailed info on this.

Big John
Point of the sword


On Thu, 10 Jul 2003 04:47:32 GMT, "Capt. Doug"
wrote:

Frode Berg wrote in message Has anyone experienced being struck by
lightning in a small plane? Can it be dangerous? What happens? Loud bang?

I was hit 3 times in 1 year. Flying at the freezing level with big
propellers seems to make one more susceptible. The damage was minimal. Being
pressurized, we didn't hear any of the strikes even as the flash of the
lightning caught the passengers' attention. One strike knocked the
generators off line, but they reset okay. Another crew was hit in the
propeller and the metal erosion indicated that the charge traveled from the
prop through the gearbox and exited off the trailing edge of the wing. That
mandated a prop overhaul and gearbox inspection which was quite costly.

Recently, lightning hit the car as it sat in the driveway. The side mirror
took a direct hit and the debris field had a 20' radius. The charge traveled
through the steel belting in the tires and the front tires blew out. The
rubber was charred were the charge exited from the belting. The concussion
from the blast imploded the side glass. There were glass fragments covering
the entire interior. The concrete driveway had a 4" wide chip blown out.
When I started the car to see if it still ran, it did run but the wipers
came on, the clock time had changed by several hours, the radio presets had
vanished, and the warning lights wouldn't go out.

Lightning is funny. I don't worry too much about being struck in flight as
long as I'm in an aluminum plane. Composites on the other hand, worry me
because I'm not convinced that the manufacturers have adequately protected
the structure from exploding when lightning hits a composite airframe.

D.