Question for Joe A and Singpilot: How common?
 

How often do you guys get struck by lightning? I would think more than we think?

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/planelightning.html

Another question for our fly boyz...have U ever seen anything up there that you couldn't explain....and or have any of your piot friends....thats something I've always wanted to ask somebody who was in the proffession.

Gassy,

It happens but not that often. Been flying 34 years and its happened less than 10 times with me. It can do either a bit of damage or really weld things together. Have not or do not remember of any plane ever brought down by lightening though.

Tabs,

I did see something that was totally beyond comprehension years ago. A pilot I flew with actually paid for a drink! Can you imagine that?!!

Truthfully, no. No UFO's or the like. Seen lots of secret type stuff that I could not explain until the airplane or such was announced. Was based down in the desert years ago and saw funny shaped planes flying out of a base you do not need to know about.

Always happened at dusk or dawn or during the night. Turns out that they were some of the stealth proof of concept birds along with some of the first generation drones that are so popular these days. There are a lot of AF and Army special airbases that are not announced to the public and are used for "interesting work" so to say.

Still hoping to find out what happened to the Aurora, the supposed successor to the SR-71. Hope its out flying right now and we just do not know about it!

Hey Tabby, may be in Buffetland on the 31st for a day or two. You in town?

Joe a

I never leave this He11 Hole of a town.....

In about the same number of years as JoeA, have been struck about the same number of times. A couple of hair raisers, perhaps later this evening, I'll write them in here.

As far a things unexplained, about the same. I have seen a flight attendant render (special) services to a client, and think that forever exempts her from normal duties thereafter. That was unexplainable.

Maybe it depends on the client she gave that "special" service to...

singp, i didn't know you flew for the clintons.

My old man flew with an old captain in the '70s . . . at FL 330 at night he would fly with the a/c lit up, landing lights on. Which you aren't supposed to do, because they stick out of the wings when operating and cause aerodynamic rumble.

When asked why he did this repeatedly he would only reply "They're out there."

John;

He was probably responsible for most of the UFO sightings across the midwest during his time.

For $400 what is St Elmo's fire?
From others I've heard its some sort of electrical discharge with a green cast that travels through the plane ???
Is that true? details?

The current lighted air ships seem to get some attention these days. Glowing and hovering...:)

I have heard that it really isn't in their best interest for military pilots (civilian too?) to return from from flights with tales of seeing flying saucers and green men.:D oh I just saw another, :D

When my dad worked at KSAL Radio (Salina, KS), the building got struck by lightning and fried lots of equipment. The lightning came in through the front picture window, through the lobby, through the AM studio, past the racks of equipment, and out the back door. It was a straight-shot through the building, iirc. Anyway, my dad was standing at the racks of equipment trying to get them back on the air when he saw, from his description, a perfect ball of fire hanging in the air about 8 feet from him.

A 10 mgd iron removal water plant would get hit at its lightning ground spikes and it sounded like a bomb going off shaking the plant.

A friend's small boat got hit with him alone in it. They boarded and found him knocked out on the deck. He woke up and had no idea what happened. No injuries, only a dizzy feeling waking up.

I was at an outdoor cafe once eating lunch. Storm thundered in and lightning hit the roof of the building across the street. I saw it hit, and then felt it and heard it. Damn near wet myself.

reading about lightning protection for sail boats is full of simple interesting info.

The modern composite homebuilts and kitplanes have a metal mesh embedded in the surface. It's to create an equipotential ground plane in the aircraft so the whole thing conducts-- you do NOT want to have lightning enter the a/c and not pass smoothly out. Similar to grounding of sailboats.

St. Elmo's is just a static electricity that builds up-- but you can feel it, and it plays havoc with the radios.

Its a trip to be near a storm and look down and see the hair on your arm standing up, attracted to the static electricity outside the plane. You know then that its a good time to turn the lights up in the cockpit as it may get very bright shortly...

Radios? In this situation you give up on the radios until you are out of the storm.

JoeA

One of the coolest things I have ever seen was as a passenger in a 767 taking off out of Denver one very nasty summer afternoon, the plane was climbing and just about to enter a very distinct cloud layer. About probably a quarter of a mile or so directly off to the side of the plane I witnessed a bolt of lightning come down out of the cloud and strike the ground below us. I could actually see the lightning hitting the gound below me. Amazing. That's the roughest flight I've ever been on, BTW, I've never seen a 767 thrown around like that. Stuff was coming out of the overheads and everything...

Also, once when we were climbing out of Atlanta during a summer thunderstorm our plane (MD-80 type) was hit by lightning. The pilot was actually on the intercom telling us that we were going to try and climb above the storm when the lightning hit. It sounded like a bomb going off and it looked as if giant flashbulbs went off simultaneously in every window of the plane. The aircraft interior lights (and the intercom, needless to say) went off at this point...

After a few very nervous minutes, the pilot came back on and apologized for flying right thru the center of a thunderstorm.

Mike