| You are treading into the land of voodoo and witchcraft talking about static charges and dissipation. A big factor is where you fly and how much precip because you may not notice a difference until you get into specific conditions and then you can lose radios and other avionics depending on where the antenna for each piece is located. Otherwise, fair weather flying may not make any difference in my experience.
I don't know if a "composite" aircraft can transmit a charge from the paint surface to the static wick because of the bonds and glues and so forth so I wouldn't depend on carbon components alone to provide the necessary dissipation without expert guidance or getting the plane mapped for static by an avionics shop (few hundred bucks I recall). The purpose of the PPG coating is to take that charge from the paint surface to the exit point on the wick which also includes paths through bonding straps from the airframe to the ailerons, for example. Otherwise, you can get pinholes in the paint, arcing between components and more. The leading edges, tips, antennae, cowls all get hit pretty hard in dry air, precip, snow. Each external antenna will have a anti-static coating already applied which is why it will be marked "do not paint". The frontal surfaces of the airplane are the major areas of buildup and concern so just look where the precip will hit the airframe and that's where the static will source from.
I don't know how much extra work the coating would be and I don't know if it would be worth the weight, cost, time. It probably is a tradeoff with your expected flying conditions which, if like my Legacy, may be 95% VFR even on my cross countries from Florida to Calgary. However, dry snow, low relative humidity, fast speeds, virga could be a problem and I lose radios once or twice a year in precip.
I went through some rain on my last trip and peeled off most of the leading edge coats of clear and some of the topcoat down to the composite. Imron was the paint. Makes the pinholes from static a minor problem in comparison so the choice of paint and protection of the leading edge may well be more important in the long run.
Paul Legacy Calgary
I am trying to finalize my selection of paint systems and think I have selected PPG as the vendor as they have been very helpful thus far. However I am trying to decide if I use their Aerospace for General Aviation products CA 8620 primer and CA 8000 or CA 8800 topcoat product. I have seen a beautiful paint job on an ES using PPG automotive paint system (K36 primer DBC basecoat with DCU 2002 clear coat). So if anyone has experience with these paint systems your input would be greatly appreciated. Lastly, PPG makes an antistatic Coating 528x310 that is conductive that they recommend over a composite surface first. If anyone could share their thoughts on use of this over the entire surface or just in selective areas it would also be appreciated. Blue Skies, Tom
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