Warbird Information Exchange

You sure are clueless when it comes to aircraft construction and systems, aren't you?
Without a static wick, there is noplace for the charge to dissapate to. Unless you have a bonding strap at each hinge, you are still going to have a charge try to transfer at each point of contact, ie, hinge bearing.

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If God had wanted man to fly behind a flat motor, Pratt Whitney would've built one.

Well Hello! You sure sound friendly, and you certainly see the best in others! A bit salty are we?

The Canadian built Harvard has more bonding straps in it than the T-6. read the manual.

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"No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth!" R.R.

Welcome to the USSA! One Nanny State Under the Messiah, Indivisible with Tyranny, Higher Taxes, Socialism, Radical Environmentalism and a Loss of Income for all. Boy I'm proud to be a part of the USSA, what can I do to raise taxes, oh boy oh boy!

skymstr02 wrote :

I was just wondering who is clueless here because this is not true.

The purpose of a static wick is to lower the level at which the discharges will happen , this will result in less radio "noise" and therefore improves the radiocommunications. There are a million fast high altitude planes out there without wicks who doesn't create a spark when they touch down.


skymstr02 wrote :

You are probably right if :

- you look at a static electricity point of view
- you don't use the airframe as negative ground for your taillight
- you don't have an orginal radio set from WW2.

The first bonding straps were introduced because normally all equipment ( incl startermotors ) used the airframe as negative ground. Using bolts and nuts only was not enough.

Later the first radio equipment were installed in aircraft. These first radios were very sensitive and the total electrical airframe capacity ( mass ) influenced it's tuning. So if an aileron intermittently "connected" to the airframe the radio would de-tune. This is when they started connecting all the metal parts with bonding straps.

Static electricity shouldn't be a problem for a Harvard / AT-6 in normal conditions but I can imagine that in the cold winters of Canada they found out that it was and to be sure added more bonding straps.

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Pim Pouw

Early Birds Foundation www.vroegevogels.org/
the Netherlands

Fokker G1 replica project www.fokker-g1.nl

North American AT-6's, SNJ's, and T-6's were not delivered with static wicks. They were constructed using bonding straps. You are confusing the two in the conversation and the context.

Yes, bonding straps on the rudder provide a ground for the tail nav light, if one were installed. Not all T-6's had tail nav lights on the rudders, some had them on the verticle stabilizers. In that case, a bonding strap on the rudder serves the same purpose that a mammary gland serves on a male swine.

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If God had wanted man to fly behind a flat motor, Pratt Whitney would've built one.