Showerthought: Why do so many people skip checking the bonding jumper on a static discharge install?

I was out at KDAB last Thursday swapping out a static wick on a King Air and the owner mentioned his last shop never even looked at the bonding strap. They just slapped a new wick on and called it a day. That strap is what keeps the charge from building up across the panel gap, and if it's corroded or loose, you might as well not have the wick at all. I've seen three planes this year alone where a missing or broken bond was causing P-static noise that got blamed on the com radio. It takes five minutes with a multimeter to check continuity between the wick base and the airframe ground. Why is this step the first one to get skipped when it's literally the difference between a fix and a bandaid? Anyone else run into shops that rush through the bonding part?

3 comments

3 Comments

taylor_patel5d ago

Wait, did that shop even open the access panel to look at the strap? That's the whole point of the job... I've seen corrosion so bad the strap was basically green dust, but the wick itself looked brand new. A multimeter check takes no time at all, it's just lazy not to do it.

grant.parker5d ago

Multimeter is the cheapest insurance there is. Lazy mechanics are the worst.

julia_hayes5d ago

Yeah, a buddy of mine had this exact thing happen. His shop charged him for a full strap replacement but when he got home and popped the panel himself, the old strap was still in there, just cleaned up a bit. Multimeter would've caught it in seconds but they just didn't bother.