Today's Message Index:
----------------------
1. 08:24 AM - Static Events On Composite Airplanes (William Hunter)
2. 01:46 PM - Test (William Hunter)
3. 01:56 PM - Re: Test (Charlie England)
4. 02:57 PM - Re: Test (Stuart Hutchison)
5. 03:24 PM - Re: Static Events On Composite Airplanes (Sebastien)
Message 1
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| Subject: | Static Events On Composite Airplanes |
Greetings,
I fly a composite airplane that is built using a foam core with regular
fiberglass BID material bonded to the core for most of the construction
and flight control surfaces and then in some small sections there is
some carbon fiber bonded in to certain places of the structure where
needed for extra support so essentially the airplane is mostly core foam
and regular fiberglass.
There has been one static event in the community where the pilot of this
type of airplane who had a full EFIS system was climbing through dry
snow and his Garmin EFIS screen blacked out and then a few minutes later
the screen returned however the autopilot was still operating as usual
so it seems that it was only the EFIS screen that was affected during
the event and not the rest of the system. The data was downloaded and
sent to Garmin and they determined that it was a static discharge. I
have not heard what their remedy was for this concern.
So the questions that popped up are the following...
-How does the builder/ pilot mitigate the risk of this type of issue
from happening in a composite airplane?
-Is this a common concern in airplanes designed like this?
-There are commercially available static wicks that could be attached to
the structure however if the structure does not have any kind of
conductive material/ mesh embedded in the fiberglass I would not think
that the static buildup would get to the static wicks.
-The plans do not call for any type if bonding cable be installed to
electrically connect the flight controls to the fuselage so the question
is...should there be bonding straps in this type of airplane?
-What risks does an airplane like this have when flying near lightning?
-If the fuselage was not conductive and there is no practical way to get
it to discharge the static through static wicks then what other
technique is there to mitigate the risk of static buildup damaging/
disabling the electrical components of the airplane?
-And other questions that we are not smart enough to know to ask?
THANKS all and as always I am very grateful for your advice and expertise.
Bill
Message 2
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Hey there again,
I wanted to send this test email to ensure that my emails were getting
to the collective. Can someone please reply and let me know that this
was received?
Bill
Message 3
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On 3/3/2022 3:45 PM, William Hunter wrote:
> Hey there again,
>
> I wanted to send this test email to ensure that my emails were getting
> to the collective. Can someone please reply and let me know that this
> was received?
>
> Bill
>
Got it; replied to list and to your email address.
--
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Message 4
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All good Bill
Kind regards, Stu
Sent from my iPhone
> On 4 Mar 2022, at 09:09, Charlie England <ceengland7@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>> On 3/3/2022 3:45 PM, William Hunter wrote:
>> Hey there again,
>>
>> I wanted to send this test email to ensure that my emails were getting to the
collective. Can someone please reply and let me know that this was received?
>>
>> Bill
>>
> Got it; replied to list and to your email address.
>
> --
> This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
> https://www.avast.com/antivirus
>
>
>
>
Message 5
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| Subject: | Re: Static Events On Composite Airplanes |
Hello Bill,
I don't have any data, just anecdotal evidence that flying IMC with a
composite amateur built aircraft is risky. You could look up the bonding
section in the certification requirements for composite aircraft, that
would probably give you a good idea of how thorough you have to be to make
a composite aircraft safe for IMC flights.
I have flown several different models of certified fiberglass aircraft IFR.
These aircraft are designed and built with conductive mesh throughout the
airframe to dissipate any static electricity build up. Despite this, on two
different occasions I have had severe problems with static while IMC
requiring a diversion. In one case it was so bad that the student was
getting electric shocks through the yoke. The other incident took out half
the avionics and magnetized the compass.
As for lightning, I think usually the aircraft gets destroyed by turbulence
induced loss of control before getting close enough to be hit by lightning
but I know of one incident with a glider in the UK which was flying near
what they thought was stratus cloud but had an embedded CB in it. The
composite glider (factory built but with no bonding material embedded)
basically exploded when it was hit. Very high resistance = very high
temperature during a lightning strike and the entire airframe
disintegrated. They found themselves falling in free air but both
successfully deployed their parachutes and survived. The passenger was on
his first small aircraft flight.
I think anyone flying IMC regularly in a composite amateur built aircraft
is going to run into a problem sooner or later. I know of no solution,
everyone just seems to roll the dice and hope they keep getting 7s.
On Thu, Mar 3, 2022 at 8:28 AM William Hunter <billhuntersemail@gmail.com>
wrote:
> Greetings,
>
> I fly a composite airplane that is built using a foam core with regular
> fiberglass BID material bonded to the core for most of the construction and
> flight control surfaces and then in some small sections there is some
> carbon fiber bonded in to certain places of the structure where needed for
> extra support so essentially the airplane is mostly core foam and regular
> fiberglass.
>
> There has been one static event in the community where the pilot of this
> type of airplane who had a full EFIS system was climbing through dry snow
> and his Garmin EFIS screen blacked out and then a few minutes later the
> screen returned however the autopilot was still operating as usual so it
> seems that it was only the EFIS screen that was affected during the event
> and not the rest of the system. The data was downloaded and sent to Garmin
> and they determined that it was a static discharge. I have not heard what
> their remedy was for this concern.
>
> So the questions that popped up are the following...
>
> -How does the builder/ pilot mitigate the risk of this type of issue from
> happening in a composite airplane?
>
> -Is this a common concern in airplanes designed like this?
>
> -There are commercially available static wicks that could be attached to
> the structure however if the structure does not have any kind of conductive
> material/ mesh embedded in the fiberglass I would not think that the static
> buildup would get to the static wicks.
>
> -The plans do not call for any type if bonding cable be installed to
> electrically connect the flight controls to the fuselage so the question
> is...should there be bonding straps in this type of airplane?
>
> -What risks does an airplane like this have when flying near lightning?
>
> -If the fuselage was not conductive and there is no practical way to get
> it to discharge the static through static wicks then what other technique
> is there to mitigate the risk of static buildup damaging/ disabling the
> electrical components of the airplane?
>
> -And other questions that we are not smart enough to know to ask?
>
> THANKS all and as always I am very grateful for your advice and expertise.
>
> Bill
>
>
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