Got struck by lightning

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Was a bad strike. Blinded my FO and I for a good 10 seconds. The bang had our ears ringing the rest of the night. Huge glow and smell in the cockpit so I diverted. Fun times!

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The track
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As a new pilot I was wondering. did the strike affect any of the instruments. With the bright burst of light, how did you get your vision to adjust to the dark again.
I am facinated by this and wonder what I would do in a small plane (172/182) if I was struck.
Thanks
 
I have been close, very close to lightning a bunch of times, just comes with the territory. I have also had friends get struck and not know it. When I was hit, I thought the plane had exploded. I legitimately thought the nose was gone and we were on fire. I am guessing now the extended flash in front (about 3-5 seconds) was St. elmos fire. The jolt from the hit disabled the autopilot and smacked the airplane into a dive and bank, not horrible but if we had onboard telemetry I would guess it slowed the airplane down 30 kts for a second, it threw us forward into the dash. Once we got our eyesight back after about 10 seconds we started to assess the damage. We were IMC so having the eyesight adjust back to the lighting conditions wasn't the biggest deal ever, at least I dont remember it being so.

I do remember 3 distinct flashes. The initial lightning hit, then a very pronounced eye-blinding glow outside, as well as a flash inside the cockpit. Still not sure if we lost anything in the cockpit as what I needed at the time still worked. But the associated smell inside leads me to believe that something got zapped.
 
Tell the truth...was that not the best feeling in the world when you had the wheels finally stopped?? My introduction to the joys of a lightening strike came with a bang and a fire light from #4 and an electrical issue or two. We were about 350 miles south of Oahu, a coin toss between going back to Johnston Is. (And through the squall line again) or humping on to Barbers Point. I really felt good when the wheels stopped. Now the fun part......paperwork. :D
 
scottd said:
You said you were IMC, but what were the flight conditions otherwise? Night? Flying around some convection? Flying over it? Turbulent or smooth? Altitude? OAT? Flying through precipitation?
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The system we had was very weird and unpredicted (Northern CA). Not a whole lot of convection. We were being vectored in between to areas of moderate precip. It was dusk, 14k feet. OAT was about 2c. At the time we were getting light chop, light rime. We were actual when it happened, so flying through it.
 
Threefingeredjack said:
Tell the truth...was that not the best feeling in the world when you had the wheels finally stopped?? My introduction to the joys of a lightening strike came with a bang and a fire light from #4 and an electrical issue or two. We were about 350 miles south of Oahu, a coin toss between going back to Johnston Is. (And through the squall line again) or humping on to Barbers Point. I really felt good when the wheels stopped. Now the fun part......paperwork. :D
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Ya it was good to get on the ground for sure. I knew we took the hit somewhere on the nose, so I was worried about just how much damage occurred. Luckily the nose gear came down, wasn't damaged. The radome was damaged enough to where it actually blew out the sides as well. With the smell, and a nose compartment full of cargo I was really worried about smoldering boxes. The airplane was still flying which was a good thing, but I was really worried about an associated fire. The rescue personnel tested the dash for heat and found my side of the cockpit to be +30c hotter than the right, and they monitored as a precaution. I am sure something took a poop inside there.

Paperwork is the worst part :(
 
I figured it was aircraft induced, as we found the only strike in the area really. After that there were many other strikes though. After our relief airplane arrived and I was getting a ride to SFO we were dodging cells left and right, they were all over the place. Interesting night for sure.
 
Inverted said:
Ya it was good to get on the ground for sure. I knew we took the hit somewhere on the nose, so I was worried about just how much damage occurred. Luckily the nose gear came down, wasn't damaged. The radome was damaged enough to where it actually blew out the sides as well. With the smell, and a nose compartment full of cargo I was really worried about smoldering boxes. The airplane was still flying which was a good thing, but I was really worried about an associated fire. The rescue personnel tested the dash for heat and found my side of the cockpit to be +30c hotter than the right, and they monitored as a precaution. I am sure something took a poop inside there.

Paperwork is the worst part :(
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So......I'll take the high road and assume you meant something in the nose had an issue and that the extra heat on your side of the cockpit wasn't........well never mind. :D
 
What type equipment were you operating?
 
DaytonaLynn said:
I am facinated by this and wonder what I would do in a small plane (172/182) if I was struck.
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If you were close enough to a thunderstorm in a 172/182 to get hit by lightning, you'd have other problems like extreme turbulence and icing conditions. Good way to get killed.

Dan
 
Just prior to our purchase, our B-200 got strikes on consecutive flights in the ATL area. The second flight was the day after the lightning inspection and repairs were completed.

Inverted said:
BE99/G
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Dan Thomas said:
If you were close enough to a thunderstorm in a 172/182 to get hit by lightning, you'd have other problems like extreme turbulence and icing conditions. Good way to get killed.

Dan
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I have been in really nasty stuff, but this strike was in pretty ok weather. I would have had no problem being in this type of weather in a 172. Now over mountains at 14k feet is a different story.
 
Sounds some what similar to what I experienced several years ago flying from PHL to CLT on USAir. I think we were in a 767 as I recall being in the middle row of seats. IIRC we were in our decent to CLT in solid IMC it was December and in the morning. I recall the approach as practically 0/0. I mean I moved to the window seat and don't think I saw the runway till we were feet above it.

The strike was the loudest crack I had ever head. Crack is the only way to describe it. It was also accompanied by a flash of light. I don't know why but I immediately knew what it was which is odd as I had never been in a plane when it was struck, and I really wasn't freaked. The rest of the Pax however.... Wow. It was quite a LOUD experience.
 
I see where it went in, where did it exit?
 
Dan Thomas said:
If you were close enough to a thunderstorm in a 172/182 to get hit by lightning, you'd have other problems like extreme turbulence and icing conditions. Good way to get killed.

Dan
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Now thats not true. Lots of aircraft get struck by lightning and are not in extreme turbulence and/or icing.
Your 172/182 would most likely handle the lightning just fine if not better than some of the composite part to most larger aircraft. All the lightning strikes I have seen like to blow out composite pieces. The metal parts of the airplane can range from burn marks to missing static wicks. I see no reason why just because the airplane is smaller that it would not be able to handle the lightning.
 
Dan Thomas said:
If you were close enough to a thunderstorm in a 172/182 to get hit by lightning, you'd have other problems like extreme turbulence and icing conditions. Good way to get killed.

Dan
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Oddly enough when I got hit we had just exited the front of a squall line complete with some really interesting turbulence and screaming rain at 1000ft. We had commented that we were glad that was over and weren't looking forward to going back through it, (we were running a grid search), when BANG!!!. End of mission. :yikes:
 
Henning said:
Any avionics loss?
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Nothing permanent, we had an initial total electrical system dump, fire in #4,(which turned out to be just an erroneous alarm), and severe fabric crumpling in left seat cushion. :D We got the electrical issue isolated, left #4 off as a precaution, and tucked our tail and ran for home.
 
Threefingeredjack said:
Nothing permanent, we had an initial total electrical system dump, fire in #4,(which turned out to be just an erroneous alarm), and severe fabric crumpling in left seat cushion. :D We got the electrical issue isolated, left #4 off as a precaution, and tucked our tail and ran for home.
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Good to know, I was in a wood schooner when it took a strike. We had a blue glowing ball of St Elmo's fire condense and roll through from bow through out the back at the prop. You could smell ozone for days but it killed a bunch of rot smell as well.
 
A t-210 landed at OJC after a strike that hit the prop and exited through the trailing edge of the r/h flap. The entire length of the trailing edge of one prop blade crumbled when touched on the ground.
Dan Thomas said:
If you were close enough to a thunderstorm in a 172/182 to get hit by lightning, you'd have other problems like extreme turbulence and icing conditions. Good way to get killed.

Dan
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Did you have cockpit glass instruments (maybe G1000) or legacy steamgages?
 
If the question is directed to me, the event preceded glass by roughly 25 years.

kontiki said:
Did you have cockpit glass instruments (maybe G1000) or legacy steamgages?
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