Mailing List lml@lancaironline.net Message #22248
From: Gary Casey <glcasey@adelphia.net>
Sender: Marvin Kaye <marv@lancaironline.net>
Subject: Re: grounding plastic planes
Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2004 09:30:54 -0500
To: <lml@lancaironline.net>
<<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.
Dan Newland>>

On my ES I ran a ground strap (14 gage braid) out the trailing edge, bonding
it into the flap cavity.  At the tip it connects to the fuel tank vent tube.
I also plan to connect a light chain to the outer tube of the fuel sender,
which ends close to the cap.  The chain will be long enough to lay on the
bottom of the tank and connect to the cap.  In this way the fuel, fuel
sender, fuel vent line, cap and tank inlet will all be grounded.  I hope
this will eliminate any worries about static charges in the fuel tank area.
I'm not sure, however, that the ground of the fuel sender is a good place to
connect anything as it might not be well grounded inside the engine monitor.
Unfortunately, my wing was already closed before I started to think about
the grounding problem or it would have been fairly easy to lay in a copper
foil to ground the filler.  I was originally going to use the ground braid
as a return for the wingtip lights, but now I'm starting to worry about
compass effects since the current is going out the leading edge and back at
the trailing edge, creating a magnetic field.

Gary Casey


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