...just trying to work this out in my mind. I can think of two types of fueling risks: 1) The airplane has a charge on it when you bring it to the pumps. If it were a spam can, the airplane would lose that charge when you attach the grounding cable somewhere. The risk would be that the fuel nozzle itself is the fastest path to ground when it gets near the tank area. Having the filler bonded to wherever you attach the ground cable from the pump would be a help on that wouldn't it?
2) The fuel nozzle develops a charge as the fuel flows through it. In this case again, wouldn't it help if the fuel filler were bonded to where the ground cable is?
On Jun 27, 2012, at 6:41 PM, CavittP wrote: When we're having low humidity I always use a damp rag around filler opening and make certain nozzle is touching the rag before beginning to pump fuel. Pete Cavitt - N320PL +1-619-701-0784 Cell
Ron,
Randy is correct.
Grayhawk
PS I stand back at each refueling after the line person attaches his ground
to the nose gear or exhaust. That takes care of grounding to the
electrical system which is only connected to electrical things. I worry
more about the induced static indication from the AM radio playing in the
hangar while I am waxing the fuel carrying wings. Just don't brush your
dog when the relative humidity is below 20% while sticking your free finger
in the wing tank.
Ron, it is pointless to try and ground a fiberglass airplane. I would bet
99 percent of the non carbon lancairs are flying with no grounding. I have
never heard of anyone having a problem..
Keep it light and leave it
off..
Randy Snarr
Sent from my iPhone
Another couple of queries for those who have built the
L320/360 aircraft. 1.
I notice that the instructions make no mention of earthing the
fuel filler on the header tank. On my kit, which I purchased partly built
with the wings completed, I notice that all the metal parts of the wing
tanks are electrically bonded, including the fuel filler port inserts.
However in the instructions for building the header tank, there is no
mention of bonding the filler port. It would be quite simple to do with some
copper bonding strap glassed into the inside of the forward deck, and
passing through the flox bond where the tank is bonded to the forward deck.
What has everyone else done? 2.
I am researching the firewall forward part of the manual, and
notice they talk about using 2 layers of fibrefax behind the stainless steel
fire shield which covers the firewall, all bonded into place with “ high
temperature silicone”. As this section of my construction manual is dated
1994, I am wondering whether this is still the recommended process, or have
fibrefax and high temperature silicone been superceded by something more up
to date. I appreciate any suggestions offered. Regards, Rob Stevens Perth, Western Australia. =
|