Lightning detector

[eloigorri]

Hi Forum,

 

I have been flying during the monsoon season here and in Thailand, and the experiance has very much increased my respect for weather forecasts and how vulnerable we (especially small aircraft) pilots are to it.

 

My home town is Phuket, where there was a very tragic accident here recently due to appaling weather.

 

I fly a Tecnam P92JS and have decided to fit a lightning detector unit to it. If I had the space and weight allowance I would fit a weather radar, but that is not practical.

 

My theory is that I should try and equip myself with as much early warning equipment as possible for weather avoidance. Even though I will not fly knowingly into bad weather, the localised nature and unpredictablilty of thuderstorms in this region has meant I have had some close encounters with unexpected weather which were not at all pleasant.

 

My question to the forum is to find out if anyone else has a lightning detecor fitted and how they rate it. This particular model http://www.insightavionics.com/strikefinder.htm clains to give a 200 Nm range.

 

Many thanks for any valuable insight.

 

Ed

 

 

[Guest sceadu52jr]

Ed, I remember following Richard Collins (FLYING magazine from the states) columns about 20 years ago when he regularly wrote about his experiences with a Lightning Strike plotter he had fitted to his Cessna 210 (pressurized). He regularly flew through or around bad weather and often compared the plotter strikes to what the area controllers were seeing on their radars. He found setting a course through the areas showing fewer lightning strikes had less turbulence than where the strikes were but not always less rain.

 

Wayne

 

 

[eloigorri]

Many thanks for the reply. I have now fitted the unit and so far it has been ok, apart from some interferrence it is picking up from the engine on the 200Nm range scale which I am working on supressing. We are now in the good weather season here in Thailand, so will only really know how good it is later on in the year during the monsoon.

 

E