Sender: <marv@lancaironline.net> (Marvin Kaye)
To: lml@lancaironline.net
Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2004 12:06:41 -0500
Message-ID: <redirect-2935093@logan.com>
From: Newlan2dl@aol.com
Subject: grounding plastic planes
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Hi All

Some tests I did recently on carbon conductivity show that the carbon fella's like the Legacy and IV will be OK.  As we all know carbon is electrically conductive (you've seen carbon arc lamps before).  Of course the matrix resin alters the conductivity quite a lot, I was reading 35-90 Ohm's resistance across a 24" x 24" square pattern of #8 screws bolted into the inside carbon skins of my boat.  This means that the conductivity whether along the fiber path or diagonally to it was pretty good.

Mostly I was doing this to see if it was possible to use the skins as a ground plane for the SSB/HAM radios but it would apply to grounding the plane before filling the tanks.

This doesn't do us with glass planes like the ES much good but it's a great point.  I will probably run some 22 ga wire from the filler caps to the engine.

Thanks for bringing it up.

Dan Newland