We all know what happened to Hoyt Flemming’s airplane during a repainting project.  The fuel tank was emptied and after sanding, and blowing the dust off with air there was flash and fire that ruined the airplane.

 

Shortly thereafter I painted my airplane.  I can honestly say that I was aware of the problem and paid particular attention to static buildup when working with the wings.  The wings had been removed from the fuselage.

 

I was amazed at how little effort it took to build a static charge.  When polishing or buffing I could feel the static when the hair on my arms would stand up.  So I made sure that the floor was wet and that I didn’t go very long without doing something to eliminate the static.  Especially around the fuel filler ports.  I used the plastic inexpensive fuel caps and made sure the ports were sealed off with tape over the fuel caps.  I also wiped the wings often with damp cloths.  I made it through the painting process without any problems but I was nervous.  Another option would be to paint the wings before any fuel is introduced to the system.

 

During refueling I would think that if you devise a way to positively ground the fuel nozzle to the metal fuel filler port ring that this would be a good thing.  I make sure the fuel nozzle is always touching the ring.  

 

In a carbon fiber airplane I would think that the nose gear strut or exhaust pipe would be a good point to attach the static cable in addition to the nozzle metal ring contact.  In an ES there really is not a good place to ground the static cable.  But FBO’s have to attach it somewhere so I use the tow bar plate.

 

Perhaps during building and closing the wing and sealing the fuel bays it may be a good idea to add a ground wire that attach to the metal ring and then to a common ground that ultimately connects to the engine/nose strut/tow bar plate etc.  But after the wing is closed this is not going to happen.

 

There has been some conversation on the Lanciar ES Yahoo group about using metal based primer and gaining conductivity for both ground handling and in flight static wick discharge.  I don’t know where this ever ended or what products were available.

 

Bryan J. Burr

N132BB

 

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Lancair Mailing List [mailto:lml@lancaironline.net] On Behalf Of marv@lancair.net
Sent: Saturday, February 24, 2007 5:40 AM
To: lml@lancaironline.net
Subject: [LML] Re: Fuel tank camera for inspection of Lancair fuel tanks

 

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