Ok, so a week ago me and my friend went walking around Torrance Airport (KTOA). They have an SNJ-5 Texan parked there, so we went and checked it out. He then noticed a long pointy tube with a red cover coming out of the right wing and wondered what it was. I quickly pointed out the it was a pitot tube.

A few days later he tells me that he watched the History channel, and said that it was a "lighting rod," lol. Needless, we got into a long argument about what it was. I know it was a pitot tube, but since he's huge WWII plane fan, he knows it's a lighting rod.

I asked him why a lightning rod would have a cover on it, and he hesitates, and then says "to keep it from getting rusty." Lulz. Better keep that lightning rod from getting clogged as well.



Is it a lightning rod?

 

I've got over 500 hours in an SNJ. That is a pitot tube. If your friend wants to argue the fact he's welcome to but anybody with the smallest modicum of aviation knowledge knows that is a pitot tube.

LIGHTENING rod!! That's rich!

Tell your friend that it's never to late to stop smoking crack.

 

Could be a static wick
fbh

 

CNN.com - Contact Us

Tell him CNN is looking for an aviation consultant

 

Wow that's cool. It looks like a thrilling machine to fly in. But I'm sure your 500 hours behind the controls mean nothing because he saw it on the History Channel

The argument was pretty pointless, but I just couldn't help it. A lightning rod, seriously? Since when did the history channel show an SNJ and say "this tube on the right wing is a lightning rod. it's used to protect the airplane from being struck by lightning."

I remember the time I first took him flying. On the way there, he started to worry and I asked him what was wrong. Well, he was worried of the "small chance that something could be internally wrong, and that the wings could fly off." I tried to tell him that wasn't going to happen, and doing a traffic pattern in a C172 was no less safe than driving on a busy LA freeway, but he would not listen.

I then concluded it and told him we must also worry about the flying goats and how they do significant structural damage when struck. Gotta watch out for those.

 

I'll let him know. However, he has a busy schedule, being a psycologist, aerospace engineer, doctor, and nutritionist.

Lol, I'm not trying to bag on him. I'm just making fun of his know-it-all attitude, and I knew there would be someone here with some first-hand experience on the SNJ. I feel kind of bad, now.

 

There thousands of unemployed pilots out there, why is it so hard for the media to spend $50-100 bucks to have one review their material???

 

Socal.

The At-6/SNJ is a big, noisy, smelly pig of an airplane. It's slow, underpowered, it's heavy on the controls and it's a boat load of fun to fly.

 

By the way here is the definition of a lightening rod. It's used to pass electricity from a structure harmlessly into the ground. So we must ask ourselves WHY IN WORLD would an airplane ANY airplane have a lightening rod attached?

Definition

A lightning rod (USA) or lightning conductor (UK) is a metal rod or conductor mounted on top of a building and electrically connected to the ground through a wire, to protect the building in the event of lightning. If lightning strikes the building it will preferentially strike the rod, and be conducted harmlessly to ground through the wire, instead of passing through the building, where it could start a fire or cause electrocution. A lightning rod is a single component in a lightning protection system. In addition to rods placed at regular intervals on the highest portions of a structure, a lightning protection system typically includes a rooftop network of conductors, multiple conductive paths from the roof to the ground, bonding connections to metallic objects within the structure and a grounding network. The rooftop lightning rod is a metal strip or rod, usually of copper or aluminum. Lightning protection systems are installed on structures, trees, monuments, bridges or water vessels to protect from lightning damage. Individual lightning rods are sometimes called finials, air terminals or strike termination devices. The United States Patent Office labels "Lightning protectors" in Class 174 (Electricity: conductors and insulators), Subclass 2 (Lightning protectors) and Subclass 3 (Rods). The lightning rod was independently invented by Ben Franklin in the Americas in 1749, and by Prokop Diviš in Europe in 1754

 

Tell him it is a landinglight'ning rod

Harald Sakshaug
www.imfk.no