BA Lightening Strike at PFO
Speaking as somone not employed in the aviation industry......
What enthusiasts, spotters, wannabe's and those with a casual interest in aviation need to remember is that this website is provided by, and for, aviation professionals.
Lightning strikes, emergency landings, diversions etc may sound dramatic, but to a professional pilot they are just part of the job and hardly newsworthy.
There are far too many threads started about routine matters like this, and far too often the casual enthusiasts are the culprits (and the first to get prickly when the real professionals are dismissive of the 'news'). PPRuNe is not an enthusiasts chat site. We are tolerated here through the goodwill and endless patience of the moderators, and should respect that by either posting to the appropriate forums or considering whether we need to post at all.
If I invited someone into my home and objected if they started smoking, it would be impertinent of them to tell me that I can always go outside if I don't like it.... Unfortunately, that's the behaviour that some people are exhibiting here.
Thank you for your time.
What enthusiasts, spotters, wannabe's and those with a casual interest in aviation need to remember is that this website is provided by, and for, aviation professionals.
Lightning strikes, emergency landings, diversions etc may sound dramatic, but to a professional pilot they are just part of the job and hardly newsworthy.
There are far too many threads started about routine matters like this, and far too often the casual enthusiasts are the culprits (and the first to get prickly when the real professionals are dismissive of the 'news'). PPRuNe is not an enthusiasts chat site. We are tolerated here through the goodwill and endless patience of the moderators, and should respect that by either posting to the appropriate forums or considering whether we need to post at all.
If I invited someone into my home and objected if they started smoking, it would be impertinent of them to tell me that I can always go outside if I don't like it.... Unfortunately, that's the behaviour that some people are exhibiting here.
Thank you for your time.
Lightning Is A Serious Hazard
This is a Professional Pilots site. And a lightning strike is definitely not news.
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Please calm down, fellas.
If you don't want to read it, don't click on the thread.
If you don't think it was worth reading, don't add a comment?
Are the forums getting more like the proverbial 'how to change a lightbulb' joke, or is it my imagination?
If you don't want to read it, don't click on the thread.
If you don't think it was worth reading, don't add a comment?
Are the forums getting more like the proverbial 'how to change a lightbulb' joke, or is it my imagination?
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If I invited someone into my home and objected if they started smoking, it would be impertinent of them to tell me that I can always go outside if I don't like it.... Unfortunately, that's the behaviour that some people are exhibiting here.
Why you should invite smokers to your house and let them tell you that you can go outside if you do not like them smoking....would it easier to avoid to invite them?
AN
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Perhaps a more constructive approach ( pun not intended but may as well include it ) would be a brief description of the fact that aircraft are tested extensively - at model stage - for lightning tracking, and dispersal measures.
As Smilin' Ed describes, it's not always a bore.
Same goes for carbon fibre aircraft - and yes I have personal experience, in a way, having been dragged a long way to photograph carbon fibre fighter wings after lightning strikes - the boffins were alarmed, and I'm still not convinced I fancy this material for airliners !!!
So if not 'news' in the case of this being a regular type stike - enough to ground ( that wasn't intended either ) the aircraft, worth at least a polite discussion; if you don't feel like it here, let it be shoved to 'Flight Testing' or similar.
As Smilin' Ed describes, it's not always a bore.
Same goes for carbon fibre aircraft - and yes I have personal experience, in a way, having been dragged a long way to photograph carbon fibre fighter wings after lightning strikes - the boffins were alarmed, and I'm still not convinced I fancy this material for airliners !!!
So if not 'news' in the case of this being a regular type stike - enough to ground ( that wasn't intended either ) the aircraft, worth at least a polite discussion; if you don't feel like it here, let it be shoved to 'Flight Testing' or similar.
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If we reported every lightning strike on here there would be no room left. Likewise every time a piece of ground equipment hits an aircraft. Everyday occurrences aren't news. This isn't a rumour either, off to spotters' corner, mods?
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May affect your job
To the experts like Breecher and others who think that lightning strikes don't affect your job, I will tell you they most certainly do.
After being hit by lightning on the way in to Tunis many years ago, we looked for signs of damage and saw a few small pinprick holes in the paint on the forward fuselage. We couldn't find any discharge point so we flew back to base in UK later that evening.
The engineeer was asked to look for any signs of where the discharge might have been.
Imagine my surprise when I was told the Chief Pilot wanted to see me.
On the upper surface of the port elevator, a static wick discharger was missing and the attachment torn and twisted. The skin of the elevator had a three inch slit in it at the trailing edge. This constituted 'damage' and as such I knowingly flew a damaged aircraft without getting it properly inspected.
The punishment was severe and it most certainly did affect my job!
So don't go telling people that lightning strikes are non-events, They are not, and nor did the Captain of the BA aircraft in Paphos think it was not worth mentioning.
Don't read, much less post replies to this type of thread if you know so much about it. Get your news elsewhere.
Get off your pole and shut up if you have nothing useful to say.
After being hit by lightning on the way in to Tunis many years ago, we looked for signs of damage and saw a few small pinprick holes in the paint on the forward fuselage. We couldn't find any discharge point so we flew back to base in UK later that evening.
The engineeer was asked to look for any signs of where the discharge might have been.
Imagine my surprise when I was told the Chief Pilot wanted to see me.
On the upper surface of the port elevator, a static wick discharger was missing and the attachment torn and twisted. The skin of the elevator had a three inch slit in it at the trailing edge. This constituted 'damage' and as such I knowingly flew a damaged aircraft without getting it properly inspected.
The punishment was severe and it most certainly did affect my job!
So don't go telling people that lightning strikes are non-events, They are not, and nor did the Captain of the BA aircraft in Paphos think it was not worth mentioning.
Don't read, much less post replies to this type of thread if you know so much about it. Get your news elsewhere.
Get off your pole and shut up if you have nothing useful to say.
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Eliciting the "sprite" report is news, good pointer
Perhaps restarting a thread with the "lightning bolt going straight up" report and the link to the site collecting those rare observations would be worthwhile.
That _is_ news, and I bet a lot of pilots don't know how valuable their observations could be to the scientists.
That _is_ news, and I bet a lot of pilots don't know how valuable their observations could be to the scientists.
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Paphos-Gatwick
Talking about the cancelled Paphos-Gatwick flight, does anyone know what happened to the very handsome first officer who came down from the aircraft to tell us what was going on. 
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This is a Professional Pilots site. And a lightning strike is definitely not news.
It might be news to you, but a waste of bandwidth to me.
It might be news to you, but a waste of bandwidth to me.
The last time I looked though there were forums for Private Pilots, Spotters, Cabin Crew, Hypochondriacs, on PPRUNE
which will presumably waste a similar amount of bandwidth for the "Professionals".I can understand the "professionals" getting irate with plane spotters commenting in serious threads but in the Spotters forum?
PS - I'm a "Private" and at no time during my registration did it say I had to be a "Professional"
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Originally Posted by Andy_S
We are tolerated here through the goodwill and endless patience of the moderators
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Dear Nerik
What Nerik described is rare but does happen, these upward lightening strokes are known as sprites - What Nerik described is very rare, They are usualy visable at night as upward streamers from storm systems. - Complex phomenea - the Earth is a huge capacatance at -ve - What he or she saw was a very energetic stream of electrons into the ionsphere. Facinating any more details please.
CAT III
CAT III
