Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: gear on January 30, 2006, 08:26:38 PM
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http://carcino.gen.nz/images/image.phpi/377c5253/airplanelightning.gif?cb=1115204527 (http://carcino.gen.nz/images/image.phpi/377c5253/airplanelightning.gif?cb=1115204527)
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Image not found on 2 posts by you to the same site. Perhaps you should give up. You're 0 for 2 so far.
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Boo!
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(http://carcino.gen.nz/images/image.phpi/377c5253/airplanelightning.gif)
http://carcino.gen.nz/images/image.phpi/377c5253/airplanelightning.gif (http://carcino.gen.nz/images/image.phpi/377c5253/airplanelightning.gif)
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nope, strike 2, image not found :)
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I'll keep workn it,there i fixed it:aok
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strike three.
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hosted it on picture hangar (if you right click copy and paste his shortcut it works, i think the site doesn't allow remote hosting)
(http://www.onpoi.net/ah/pics/users/180_1138754231_airplanelightning.gif)
actually WOW :O
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Wow...
Question. the second flash. Would that be another strike of lightning or is that the charge that tends to return back up to the cloud after strikig something?
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Looks like a second strike.
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Originally posted by gear
Looks like a second strike.
definitely looks like two strikes. :O
I wonder how the plane fared after that, and the noise too.
When I was thirteen we were staying in my grandmothers cabin in Pine Az, thunderstorm came up, and we were sitting by a large picture window in the front of the cabin. My mom says something about we shouldnt be sitting so close to the window during the storm with all the possible lightning. About the time we get up to move, lightning strikes about 30 feet from the cabin, hitting a large pondarosa pine and about 10 inches from our 1972 Ford Country Squire station wagon. CRACK!!! BANG!!! BOOM!!! and bright orange light.
We go out side later and theres bark everywhere and a big scorch mark down the side of the tree.
Lightnings cool :cool:
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A: Lightning regularly strikes airplanes. In fact, as far as anyone knows, the odds are that each airliner in the USA will be hit by lightning once a year. (Obviously some would be hit more than once, some not at all.)
But, lightning has not caused an airliner crash in the USA or of a U.S. airline plane anywhere in more than 40 years.
Protection begins with the fact that airliners, and the majority of other airplanes, are made of aluminum, which is a very good electrical conductor. A lightning bolt's electricity flows along the airplane's skin and into the air. As you've found out, one danger is that the flash could blind the pilots for a few seconds, but I've never found any accounts of this causing any problems.
Lightning protection goes far beyond airplanes being good conductors of electricity, and the last airline crash in the USA blamed on lightning was more than 40 years ago. On December 8, 1962 lighting hit a Pan American Boeing 707 in a holding pattern over Elkton, Md. The lightning caused a spark that ignited fuel vapor in a tank, causing an explosion that brought the plane down, killing all 81 aboard.
This led to rules requiring that airplanes have built-in systems that ensure that a spark will not ignite fuel or fuel vapors in tanks or fuel lines.
Then, during a 1980s lightning research project, NASA flew an F-106B jet into 1,400 thunderstorms and lightning hit it at least 700 times. The lightning didn't damage the airplane, but the data the jet collected showed that lighting could induce relatively small electrical currents that could damage electronic systems.
This led to regulations that require aircraft electrical and electronic systems, as well as fuel tanks and lines, to have built-in lightning protection.
As you've also found out, thunderstorms offer plenty of other dangers and pilots try to stay away from them, especially strong thunderstorms. (Related: Why pilots try to avoid thunderstorms).
If pilots try to avoid thunderstorms, how come lightning continues to hit airplanes? A few reasons: All thunderstorms, especially small ones can't always be avoided. Lightning often flashes into the air, and to the ground, a few miles from the thunderstorm that generates it. Finally, an airplane or a rocket flying into a cloud that's built up an electric charge can trigger a lightning stroke even though the cloud isn't producing any lightning on its own.
I've searched the National Transportation Safety Board online database and other aircraft accident databases, and haven't come up with any reports of lightning causing any airline crashes in the USA or Europe since the 1981 crash of a small airliner in Germany that killed 21 people. I also found a report of a Chinese-built airliner crashing in China in 2000 after it was hit by lightning, but no details were available, and I have no idea when the Chinese airliner was built or what kind of lightning protection rules were in force when it was built.
All in all, as long as you are traveling on an airplane built in the USA or Europe or a domestic or foreign airline that operates in the USA, the only danger you could face from lightning would be if you happen to board or get off the plane at an airport where you walk down steps and across the ramp into the building. I don't think I'd want to do that if a thunderstorm were around. But, I'd hope that the airline I'm flying on would not want to expose its employees, much less the paying customers, to the danger of being hit by lightning.
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Airscrew,
Living in Phoenix, I go to the Rim country up around Payson and Pine frequently. One year we were up on the rim there by Woods Canyon Lake turnoff in the summer when the storms creep up on ya. I felt all the hair on my arms and neck stand straight up. B A N G ! ! ! ! Before I knew it, lightning hit the tree I was standing next to. Bright orange and white light. We watched the electricity run down the tree and into the ground. Cut a wicked trench in the tree. Was like a grenade went off in my ear. I seriously couldnt hear for a few hours. Scary.
Off topic, you wouldnt belive what Pine looks like now. We got these tree killing beetles up there now killing off all the pine trees. Still a beautiful and peacefull place tho.
:aok
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Mehehe... this reminds me of a Heathrow-Zaventem flight in 2001. We were struck by lightning (flight was pretty rough already) ... it went "BANG!" a big flash of light... then most of the lights went out. Everyone started panicking... and a fat lady siting two seats from me didn't stop screaming untill the plane had landed and stopped.
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I'll bet everyone was glad she didn't start singing, huh?
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I can only tell you that some of us where thinking of murder after 5 minutes. Of course, I'm not the most patient guy...
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^makes me think of that scene in "Airplane" where everyone lines up to help the hysterical passenger
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Hehehehe Rolex good one!
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Hi ya Repoman, plenty of good memories from there. My mom is from Phoenix, we lived there for a couple of years, i think I did 3rd and 4th grade there, plus visits in the summer for a few years. My grandparents lived on Buckeye Rd. I still have relatives in the Phoenix area. (an Aunt, couple of cousins) We loved going to the cabin. Im sure Payson and Pine look at lot different today after 30 years. ( in my mind I can still see the Union 76 gas station on the left side of the road coming in to Payson)
When my grandmother died in 76 they sold the cabin but kept the ajoining lot. My mom finally sold that lot a few years ago, I dont know what she got for it but in early 80's she told me it was appraised at about 18k, and it was only a 1/4 acre lot.
I'm planning on making a pitstop through Phoenix and Pine this summer on my way to Carson City to visit my daughter and son-in-law, their expecting and due date is in June so going up in July to see the baby
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Well in 76 I was one. Payson is alot bigger now. And that 18k lot would probably go for 50 or 75k now-a-days. The house here in Phoenix my parents bought brand new in 77 sold last year for 310k. They paid 46k for it. This whole area is alot different but still a great place. Congrats on the baby! Drop me a line when you pass through and we'll get a beer!
bustergrn@yahoo.com
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