PU707 From Uruguay, joined Jan 2001, 64 posts, RR: 0 Posted (11 years 4 months 3 weeks 3 days 6 hours ago) and read 1255 times:
A few days ago a flight from Montreal to
Toronto (YUL-YYZ) was delayed by 3 hours
due to "static electricity on the runway," as the captain put it. I never heard of this so I was wondering if anyone can share some light...
OPNLguy From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 3, posted (11 years 4 months 3 weeks 2 days 8 hours ago) and read 1148 times:
The only thing that even remotely makes any sense to me is that the aircraft was missing a grounding strap, commonly mounted on one/both main landing gear assemblies. If missing, it's almost certainly a no-go item (never seen it in the MEL/CDL as being deferable), so it sounds as if the delay was awaiting repair/replacement. I can't see that taking 3 hours, unless the parts were elsewhere and had to be sent in fron elsewhere, but that's the best guess I have as to your situation...
Metwrench From United States of America, joined Aug 2001, 750 posts, RR: 2 Reply 4, posted (11 years 4 months 3 weeks 1 day 18 hours ago) and read 1094 times:
Never heard of it either. The Flight Crew was undoubtably experiencing some problam. Aircraft can't be grounded to earth like a house, or they couldn't fly. Static dischargers on the trailing edges of flying surfaces take care of the rest.
Twotterwrench From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 8, posted (11 years 4 months 3 weeks 1 hour ago) and read 1001 times:
Grounding straps on landing gear used to be very common, however, they aren't used nearly as often as they used to be. All it generally consisted of was a strip of a bonding type material (rubberized carbon in some cases) that was attached to the MLG so that as the wheels touched the ground, the bonding strap would provide an earth ground and discharge any static charge the aircraft may have built up in flight. If you didn't do this, the first person who had his feet on the ground and touched something metal on the aircraft would be in for a hell of a surprise. On the CV-580's that i used to work on, it was a no go item, until about 5 years ago when it was decided that airframe bonding and static wicks were enough to take care of any P-static charge the aircraft may have. Hope that helps.
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