Why no electronics during Take off

[OTTOL]

If distraction was the problem wouldn't they be worried about books, magazines...etc?

That would mean less exposure to all of the

[SilverFox441]

OTTOL, you should see what happens if the mount for the wick gets corroded. You can watch it arc-over in the right weather. You can also get bonding failures wherby adjoining panels aren't bonded together electrically...a lightning strike under those conditions will weld the panels together.

The affect inside the plane is normally pretty tame...but up high in an active storm front ( a place smart people stay away from) you can get some very powerful discharges.

[OTTOL]

No offense but I've been in many thunderstorms, where the static buildup was so intense that the windshields looked like jacob's ladders and the static actually "showers" forward from the radome(looks like a purple headlight from the cockpit  8) ).   Maybe I'm just fortunate enough to have had good maintenance but I've never had anything worse than paint damage.

[SilverFox441]

The effect you describe is pretty normal in medium-large thunderstorms, or big storms at medium altitude.

In big storms at high altitude (above 40K) you get all the neat effects. I've seen the static crackle across the wings, St. Elmo's fire racing across all the windows and the static wicks glowing from the discharge energy.

Basic rule of thumb that I was taught was that you get more current flow at low altitude, more voltage at high altitude. This means more damage at low level, more cool effects up high.

When I was in the Air Force we used to cut through storms that no civvie airliner would go near...saved a lot of time.

[Scottler]

When I was still with CAL, my sister flew a buddy pass, and to this day won't step foot on an airplane, due to a discharge.  This was such a loud, violent static discharge that it shook the entire cabin, blinded everyone on board and made a noise so loud that many passengers thought a shotgun had been fired.

The entire crew turned white, which didn't exactly alleviate passenger concerns.  It wasn't until the F/O made an announcement explaining what had transpired that anyone even knew what it was.

[SilverFox441]

Sounds like a low-level lightning strike...

First time it happened to me I actually looked around to see if the wings were still attached.