St. Elmo's Fire

[Wowjack]

Can someone refresh my memory about St. Elmo's Fire?

 

[chuychanga]

It think it hit the box office in the mid-80's. Typical 80's cast. Rob Lowe, Demi Moore, Emilio Estevez, etc...

If I recall, Demi Moore has a full-frontal nude scene in that movie. Or wait... maybe I'm thinking of About Last Night.

 

[banned username 2]

Mmmm... Demi Moore....

 

[banned username 2]

St. Elmo's fire is the static electricity discharged by moving an object through precipitation at high speed... usually light snow works the best...

Also you can get it if you are in a highly charged environment without precip, like near a thunderstorm that is very active...

It is basically just static electricity similar to what you get when you drag your feet across the carpet and touch a light switch...

Hope this helps...

Now were is Demi Moore!?!?!?!

 

[tarp]

see also "corona"

Static electricity discharge that creates a visible luminesence.

For some folks, it looks like "fire" dancing on wings or on the fuselage. For me, I was lucky enough to see it on the windshield. It looked like moving bright white and green spider webs all across the glass - very cool.

However, would I want to see it again or Demi Moore--mmmm.

 

[Wowjack]

Thanks

Thanks all for the refresher.

 

[acaTerry]

We get it all the time in the Jetstreams. Also call it "purple fingers"

 

[B52GUNNER]

We got it in the BUFF one night in the middle of the winter over denver. It looked like one of those tesla coil things. Blue lightning all over the windscreen. That was one of the coolest things I have seen flying

Well....besides Demi Moore. (young Demi that is)

 

[atldc9]

One of the most embarassing moments in my career. It was my first real job, hauling checks out of BUF down to CMH. Unpressurized, in the winter, with no experience, except that which was conveyed to me during the company's training program. First night out on my own, I'm getting St. Elmo's fire like crazy, all over my windshield, right about where the electric hot plate is. I am getting nervous thinking this thing is shorting out, and turn it off, on, off, on. I finally leave it off, get the windscreen nice and iced up, then towards the end of my flight, figure, well I've got to see to land, so I turn it back on to clear a spot for landing. When I get on the deck, line MX asks how the airplane is, and I start telling them, you guessed it, "this F***ing POS was arcing all over the place, shooting little purple fingers all over the windscreen" !! I have never seen a mechanic call more people over to here my incredible story of aviating with an obviously about to fall apart and burn airplane, what a marvelous piece of flying, you should go in and tell the Chief Pilot. As I start to walk away, the whole group, which now includes a bunch of other pilots, drops on the snowy ground just howlling. At least one of them was nice enough to grab me before I got to the CP's office.

Funnier than Sh**.