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#11
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On Wednesday, September 25, 2019 at 12:13:26 PM UTC-7, wrote:
As I understand it, lightning is seeking the path of least resistance to the ground. It went through the fiberglass trailer top and entered the ship at the top of the fin, question would be; where did it exit? The ship is sitting on rubber wheels (tail wheel and dolly wheels), so did it exit at the tail wheel into the aluminum floor, then to the rear legs, if they were down? Or, did it run the full length of the fuselage and exit through the saddle aluminum arms, then jump the rubber tires then into the floor out to the tongue and into the chains. To the tie-down point? Also, did it fry that good looking instrument panel on its way to ground? I believe other lightning strikes followed the metal push-rods, which offer less resistance than carbon fiber structure. Food for thought, before placing your bid + that Cobra trailer is worth something close to 10K. Cheers, JJ It looks like the current went down the pushrods and exited somewhere near the nose and thru the trailer floor. Carbon fiber is conductive, but high resistance to the point that commercial composite aircraft must include conductors to handle lightning current (https://www.compositesworld.com/arti...site-aircraft). I guess that the fuselage is okay with the possible exception of welded pushrod junctions. The instruments condition is unknown, but could be inspected. The most vulnerable instruments are the radio and transponder, and current could have jumped from them to other instruments. Tom |
#12
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Dear Rex,
This are quite impressive pictures. From my point of view, at least the fuselage is impossible to repair. The lightning must have left the glider somewhere and everything in between might have damages. The control system and also the carbon layers in the fuselage shell are conductive, so without destructive investigations it seems not possible to determine what is damaged and what not. The best would be to cut the fuselage in pieces. So the lightning damage could be investigated more in detail and this would secure that this potential unsafe structure cannot brought back to service again. The wings might be okay, if no traces of smoke or burnt areas were found. But finally this have to be decided by the local inspector. |
#13
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So what's welded on the trailer:
Wheel bearings or chains? |
#14
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On Wednesday, September 25, 2019 at 7:21:40 PM UTC-5, 2G wrote:
On Wednesday, September 25, 2019 at 12:13:26 PM UTC-7, wrote: As I understand it, lightning is seeking the path of least resistance to the ground. It went through the fiberglass trailer top and entered the ship at the top of the fin, question would be; where did it exit? The ship is sitting on rubber wheels (tail wheel and dolly wheels), so did it exit at the tail wheel into the aluminum floor, then to the rear legs, if they were down? Or, did it run the full length of the fuselage and exit through the saddle aluminum arms, then jump the rubber tires then into the floor out to the tongue and into the chains. To the tie-down point? Also, did it fry that good looking instrument panel on its way to ground? I believe other lightning strikes followed the metal push-rods, which offer less resistance than carbon fiber structure. Food for thought, before placing your bid + that Cobra trailer is worth something close to 10K. Cheers, JJ It looks like the current went down the pushrods and exited somewhere near the nose and thru the trailer floor. Carbon fiber is conductive, but high resistance to the point that commercial composite aircraft must include conductors to handle lightning current (https://www.compositesworld.com/arti...site-aircraft). I guess that the fuselage is okay with the possible exception of welded pushrod junctions. The instruments condition is unknown, but could be inspected. The most vulnerable instruments are the radio and transponder, and current could have jumped from them to other instruments. Tom I think once a factory representative takes a position of "Fuselage impossible to repair" and "potential unsafe structure cannot be brought back to service" that's pretty much it. Not much to guess at really, is there? Scott |
#15
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On Wednesday, September 25, 2019 at 3:06:53 PM UTC-7, Steve Leonard wrote:
On Wednesday, September 25, 2019 at 4:46:02 PM UTC-5, Bob Kuykendall wrote: On Wednesday, September 25, 2019 at 12:31:34 PM UTC-7, Tony wrote: The attached letter from Schleicher reads... ...The best would be to cut the fuselage in pieces... It's nice how they say the best thing would be to cut it up, but without offering to actually buy it for that purpose. SAWZALL!!!!!!! Party at Bob's. Can we crowdfund it? |
#16
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On Wednesday, September 25, 2019 at 7:22:24 PM UTC-7, Scott Williams wrote:
On Wednesday, September 25, 2019 at 7:21:40 PM UTC-5, 2G wrote: On Wednesday, September 25, 2019 at 12:13:26 PM UTC-7, wrote: As I understand it, lightning is seeking the path of least resistance to the ground. It went through the fiberglass trailer top and entered the ship at the top of the fin, question would be; where did it exit? The ship is sitting on rubber wheels (tail wheel and dolly wheels), so did it exit at the tail wheel into the aluminum floor, then to the rear legs, if they were down? Or, did it run the full length of the fuselage and exit through the saddle aluminum arms, then jump the rubber tires then into the floor out to the tongue and into the chains. To the tie-down point? Also, did it fry that good looking instrument panel on its way to ground? I believe other lightning strikes followed the metal push-rods, which offer less resistance than carbon fiber structure. Food for thought, before placing your bid + that Cobra trailer is worth something close to 10K. Cheers, JJ It looks like the current went down the pushrods and exited somewhere near the nose and thru the trailer floor. Carbon fiber is conductive, but high resistance to the point that commercial composite aircraft must include conductors to handle lightning current (https://www.compositesworld.com/arti...site-aircraft). I guess that the fuselage is okay with the possible exception of welded pushrod junctions. The instruments condition is unknown, but could be inspected. The most vulnerable instruments are the radio and transponder, and current could have jumped from them to other instruments. Tom I think once a factory representative takes a position of "Fuselage impossible to repair" and "potential unsafe structure cannot be brought back to service" that's pretty much it. Not much to guess at really, is there? Scott I think the guy just looked at the photos, not the actual glider. Tom |
#17
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On Wednesday, September 25, 2019 at 4:46:02 PM UTC-5, Bob Kuykendall wrote:
On Wednesday, September 25, 2019 at 12:31:34 PM UTC-7, Tony wrote: The attached letter from Schleicher reads... ...The best would be to cut the fuselage in pieces... It's nice how they say the best thing would be to cut it up, but without offering to actually buy it for that purpose. Why would Schleicher want to buy one of their own "toasted" gliders? A destructive tear down inspection by the engineering teams as an academic exercise? To what end? To design a fix to allow a glider to survive this seemingly rarest of event? |
#18
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Question: Would a CF glider in an aluminum topped trailer have survived a lightning strike?
Expiring minds want to know (that happens to own a '27 stored in an aluminum Cobra trailer). - John |
#19
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I know of an aluminum glider that was struck by lightning once. The strike came through the wing cover at the wing tip and then jumped across the tire to the ground. I suspect the hit traveled along the skin, rather than internally (controls/spar/etc), as the glider was inspected and flew again quite quickly.
Any other stories (aside from a cottonwood tree on my property that has been hit TWICE!)? |
#20
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At 13:02 26 September 2019,
John_DeRosa_OHM_Ω_http://aviation.derosaweb.net wrote: Question: Would a CF glider in an aluminum topped trailer have survived a lightning strike? Expiring minds want to know (that happens to own a '27 stored in an aluminum Cobra trailer). - John Is an "expiring mind" a form of memory loss? |
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