St. Elmo's fire 'static charges' over France at 20,000 feet

[MercOilbuner]

Jeez if St. Elmo's fire dosent mess with the planes electronics hows a cell phone going to.

[jong153]

@MynameisElliott ahahahahah, that makes me want to buy too :D

[creativeinventor]

Chuck Norris was piloting the plane...

[MynameisElliott]

Where can I buy this St. Elmo's Fire?

[nocalsteve]

If you listen closely you can hear Scotty in the engine room screaming, "THE SHIELDS CAN'T TAKE MUCH MORE OF THIS CAPTAIN!"

[SenorSpode]

One of the treats of flying, one of the best 48-second experiences on YT. Bravo!

[mira71819b]

初めて見ました。セントエルモの火話では聞いたこと有りましたが­。感動しました。

ありがとう！

[DavidOD11850]

I really wanna become a pilot! :D

[devrajvarma]

@DavidOD11850

Go hard, Kid. Best of luck! :)

[felixfelicis888]

:34 This is someones job. And mine in the future. AWESOME

[ThePlaya12345678]

that's why i want to become a pilot

[aviafilmsproduction]

It would be cool to see these discharges on passenger windows :)

[MrGopherhead]

@aviafilmsproduction I don't believe they will occur on passenger windows. At least I have never heard of this happening. It can and does occur along the leading edges of the wing. I have seen the wings engulfed in small discharges along the entire length of the wing that appeared like a continual discharge of sparks. This usually renders the comm radios useless while it is occuring.

[fathersky5]

I would be scared shitless. I'd flip out and try to land the plane, wherever we may be.

[djomercohen]

whats the worst thing that can happen to a jet?

hydrolic system failure,

just lose the control on your plane and wait untill you die...

[WhiteKestrell]

@djomercohen Well you won't necessarily die out of it as the aircraft's thrust can still give a minimum of directional control... Use airspeed to go down or up and differential thrust to go left or right. IMO, the worst thing that could happen is hearing your Radio Altimeter suddenly announcing 100 feet in null visibility when your standard altimeters read 5000... :P

[kingcarcas1349]

Way better than REX mod for FSX :)

[SandburgSpartans]

What happens if you touch the window?

[highvoltagedrummer1]

I was once at a flight from canada to germany and I was sitting in the first row at night, when a lightning hit the plane and the wall which was between the main entrence and the first row was completely glowing white for a second and the passanger cabin lights were also off for a little while. it was complete horror for me, because at that time I was only 6 or 7 years old...

[huracan200173]

Those are not electrical discharges, that is called St. Elmos Fire, and it's a plasma. Search it on wikipedia.

[fly4fun]

@huracan200173 Yeah, that was the subject of a little debate. The original title was, in fact St. Elmos fire. Then others convinced me that to be fully St. Elmos Fire, it had to expand to the glowing ball of light stage as described in Wikipedia.

So I can't win. Just call it what you want.

But pilots usually refer to it as St. Elmos Fire, yes.

[hindflight]

@fly4fun Just call it a weather balloon.. ;)

[crosswindaviator]

@huracan200173 its not st elmo's fire. Re-read your wiki article. These are static discharges and are seen often. Saint elmo's fire is seen less frequently and better seen in dark. I've seen it a few times around the windows and it looks more like flames only a few cm's tall. Indeed plasma... Look up plasma physics on wiki and the picture shows the blue flames i'm talking about :)

[tomibewi]

@fly4fun didn't it bring speedbird 9 down?

[CrazyCessnaPilot]

@tomibewi Not quite. Their St Elmos fire was similar, but they encountered it in an ash cloud. As this fine ash was sucked into the engines it quickly became more of a molten goo, sticking into the workings of the engine. Once the crew got the aircraft out of the ash, this molten substance hardened and simply fell out of the engines. This is why they could restart and land safely.

[Jakeybabe100]

@fly4fun Fire, and lighting are both Plasma...So you're right to start with, the dude above is a halfwit.

[Jakeybabe100]

@fly4fun Lightning is plasma...electricity is plasma....you're right, the guy above is just a halfwit :)

[justforever96]

@huracan200173 Those ARE electrical discharges, not Elmos fire. St Elmos fire itself is plasma, but it's caused by electricity.

[schlusselmensch]

Occasionally you can find a sweet spot on the glareshield to rest your arm and then the tendrils of discharge will radiate from your fingers to the windscreen.

[MrSaudi999]

is it dangrous?? i mean can the discharges effect on the airplane

[rickalican]

@MrSaudi999

Yes, it is dangerous.. if this static is not discharge properly

as soon as this plane lands, and the ground crew touch the plane, Guess what happen??

DEAD!!

[Deltapilot96]

0:41 WOW that's just one reason to become a pilot!!

[cikgoo83]

haha st. almo fire( st. almo light)... i have experience this..

[a9bomb]

lol the discharges look so fake even though its real

[kingcarcas1349]

It's ET saying hello

[hippotanman]

mhvj

[hippotanman]

ffff

[hippotanman]

Can anyone tell me if my experience was a static charge on my body just before the lightening struck or was it St Elmo's fire

[hippotanman]

ssdded

[Roweman100]

... and they rode off into the sunset.

[opelmadness]

Cool! But I woulds h't my pants if I were on board.. :-P

[Iris421989]

SO AWESOME!!!!!!

[BritishAirwaysAirbus]

You can see so much more from the cockpit windows. I've never been lucky enough to have a look at a commerical aircraft's cockpit. I'm working towards becoming a pilot when I'm older.

[temy2]

it's called st, elmo's fire

[robtai2]

@temy2 I think you are confused. St. Elmos fire is similar as far as I know, but it is only caused by volcanic ash in the atmosphere which causes a sheet of constant static. These are little sparks.

So nope, I dont think its st. Elmos fire, but close. Correct me if im wrong.

[temy2]

@robtai2 i do remember reading many articles about this phenomena ( after encountering it many times during my flights specially over the far east ) and most of these articles refered it to the huge difference in voltage near a thunder storm ( it was discovered by sailors in the sea long time ago . and finally ,, i maybe wrong,, though i enjoyed the video very much and looking forward to see the phenomena again !!

[johant23]

@robtai2 i think it is st elmo's fire. you are correct that it is often seen when electrically charged particals from vocanic erruptions are in the atmosphere but not exclusively. the same phenomenon can also be seen when a plane flies through an electrically charged cloud of the sort that produces lightning. this is also referred to as st elmo's fire.. there is no distinction.

[robtai2]

@johant23 I see, ok, thanks for correcting me there. I thought St Elmos fire referred to volcanic clouds in particular.

Thanks

[boeingdude1]

cool! best job in the world

[alejo2564]

what airline do you fly for?

[WAKEUPshift111]

Miss me with all that

[MogaViorel]

St Elmo´s fire?  I think is St. Telmo´s fire

[Flyglobespan93]

@MogaViorel its St.Elmos fire

[MrMona95]

767?

[aolambros]

Kent, have you ever flown to St. Maarten?

[haitiano1982]

@aolambros i have

[aolambros]

@haitiano1982

I say again, KENT, have YOU (as in KENT) ever flown to St. Maarten?

[haitiano1982]

@aolambros i have haha

[gilz16]

awesome!

[DieterMe]

get out of clouds...ever

[Kezzap48]

0:37 stunning !

[TheJohnnyboy23]

thats is o beautiful, cloud skimming sunset, amazing cant wait till i am a pilot

[craigoz82]

this is great

[dominicanoc]

That is why that is one of the best job's in the world..

[niiiicco]

completely agree with you :)

[BruceCarbon]

@dominicanoc the view over the clouds .... dream job !!!

[cptstubing]

@dominicanoc It is, except for the higher levels of gamma radiation pilots are exposed to because they're above much of the atmosphere that filters it.

[nkhan4]

all that static charge would scare the life out of me. but the sun was beautiful at the end!

[RyanJames1611]

It is not fake and it is not 'lightening'.. It is a static discharge, kind of when you touch something metal and it saps you.. and it does no damage to the aircraft at all and there is no need to worry..

[wingedsuperyak]

Beautiful sunset!!!

[maximus380]

that was freaking scary but the cloud surfing part during the sunset was beyond beautiful

[NJAceSgt]

Love watching and reading your blogs on cockpit chronicles. Great vid!

[fejic]

i would wet my pants

[201andrew]

40 seconds of the vid beautiful view

[KairalaFC]

St. Elmo's fire

[nikia320]

Hey... this "things" from 0:15 to 0:30 are St Elmo's fire?

What are that "St Elmo's fire'?

[boobyboob69]

its the lightning flashes that you were seeing

[SpenzOT]

@boobyboob69

That is St. Elmo's Fire, not lightning strikes. Really good video of it in action.

Impressive

[boobyboob69]

they are... its the build up static electricity on the aircraft releasing into the clouds.

[MrMalthus80]

St Elmos fire are plasma build up around things like aerial masts during thunderstorms. This is caused by the clouds electrostatic charge. This is caused by the planes friction with the air/cloud at high speed. This friction builds up an electrostatic charge which is released as bolts.

[cdtoadams]

in some ways i envy you fixed wing guys, you do get to see some amazing things up there at altitude, but the fun is in a helo guys :-D

[iPMRMakaveli]

this video is truly amazing

[plane63]

it appears to be a definite boeing and most likely a 757 or 767 judging from the way it is flying when the static charges or "elmos fire" is displayed. Quite a remarkable sight and I wondering if the passengers may have seen some off of the wing or outer lining of the aircraft. Cheers!

[agentfazexx]

0:40 wow

[zombieX111222333]

look at that beautiful sunset

[DinamiteBoy90]

boeing 767

[787dreamlinerBoeing]

good video

[mckseal]

its not full lightning, just small static discharges.

[SirQmmiseta]

why are the lightnings always in the same two places?

[lewissmiffy]

They should of spit on there hands and touched the windscreen and watch the show :)

[AA757223]

what woulda happened if they did that? haha

[lewissmiffy]

All the static would spread over the windscreen.

[gopherbar]

Why do you get that effect?

[DJFO81]

st elmo's fire?

[Strawberrycream69]

We flew between two massive thunder clouds outbound from costa Darada during the day..what a sight that was!! :0 wooohooo!

[Kedo93]

the last part looks absolutely amazing!

[Michael5320]

congratulation !!!

Watching your video , seems as fly is fun for real !

NOT any kind of nervous conditions :)

By the way what should the passenger do to have the same relaxation during the fly time ?

[andrew3245]

if you actually touch the windscreen in front it will create little static charges outside... seen it on the 737-600 inflight

[HorsesAndPlanes]

Great video, that was really cool.

[syafiqpilot]

AMAZING!

[myrandomspaces]

was that just on the window or was it lightning from the clouds?

[fly4fun]

It was static building up on the window only. It wasn't lightning though.

[myrandomspaces]

cool ive never seen that before but its cool

is it threatning

[Terr0c1ty]

does this happen on the passenger windows or can the passengers see it happening on the wings? if so do the pilots warn the passengers that its nothing out of the ordinary?

[fly4fun]

It's really only visible on the cockpit windows. I've probably seen it once every two years or so. it's not threatening to the airplane, but it could be an indication of a highly 'charged' cloud that could produce lightning (my theory), I'm sure someone will add to that here.

[Terr0c1ty]

oh okays.. thank you :D

I can't wait till I start learning how to fly.. just got to save the money. Thanks a million. :D

[DeanC993]

hi fly4fun i enjoy wathching your vids i would love to be a pilot i have Flight simulater x (: i fly every day

[o0bluesteel0o]

Do sport also if you want to be a pilot it's an important element ;)

[devanoo2]

@Terr0c1ty and you can see it on the leading edges of the plane

[flygweilo]

@myrandomspaces It's called 'St Elmo's Fire', and it is intra-aircraft discharge of static build-up.

If the entire aircraft discharges static to the surrounding atmosphere, it usually accompanied by an almighty great "craaaack" - virtually indistinguishable in the cockpit from a lightning strike.

St Elmo's Fire can often precede a lightning strike - so, when I see the fire, I begin to get very wary! :)

[dalequarmby]

Amazing, I look forward to being there

[ConorSproat]

That would be an amazing experiance, just cannot wait till i will be flying one of those big birds through a static storm

[dalequarmby]

Same here mate :D

[silviokiller]

My god, i never seen this before really amazinggg

[deltha2013]

wow i would be freaked out

[tinathepilot]

awesome..

[tinathepilot]

magic...

[ijay22]

wow thats amazing

[Learjetjock]

Great clips. I have to get me a vid cam. The SLR is wonderful for those Anet shots but it is not handy when flying. Thanks for posting the ciips though. It really is a "Wish you were here" type of thing when flying sometimes.

[fly4fun]

Yeah, you can touch it. The glass insulates rather well.

[747qantas]

@fly4fun you can touch it? Who was the brave soul to try that for the first time?

[adam3176]

I thought i knew everything about planes... First time i heard of static on the front windshield...Wonder if it would hurt if you could touch it?

If i get my car going fast enough threw the fog will it do it too? LOL

[zoinhobr12]

Muito Bonito :D

[janadal86]

that view from 0:35 is astonishing!

[americanpitbull04]

looks more like a simulator to me

[pilotmolina]

It's hard to find a pilot who is passionate of his work. Lots of people, including pilots, have told me not to perssue an aviation career. I now the ecnomy is bad right now but some folks just dont understand the joys of flying and all the little things that come with it.

[fly4fun]

It's just that the whiners are the vocal ones.

The vast majority of the pilots I work with enjoy what they do. They might have some complaints, but who doesn't?

[airmotojh]

@fly4fun its a labour of love for sure. i make more $ than an airline captian and thats entry level. not airline flyin but using my own plane for work in the oil & gas industry. there job is way cooler but mine pays way more but the quality of life isnt as good but i actally "work" for a living and fly my 150 day/night vfr in the Canadian north. i bring it home and then some. if you knew what you were missing out on you would whine too. fuck your labour of love ! ive got a family to feed !

[airmotojh]

@pilotmolina its a kick ass job.. however its not fuckin worth it if you arent 18 living in your parents basement willing to ride the bus and live on baloni and kraft dinner.and dont have a family to suport then giver !! it cost me 5 yrs 100k and a marrige and i still didnt finish fell short 1 yr & 20 somthin grand. but i have my own airplane and toys, lots of fun and hrs in the log book to show for it. i went about it the wrong way, i have a new wife and two babies.

[qolaxbenchwarmer07]

Were you the IRO this leg?

[fly4fun]

I was the FO. The IRO (FB we call 'em) did the filming (above 10,000 feet only.)

[frequentairbusflyer8]

Unique

[marblehamburger]

st. elmos fiyahhh!!!!!

[pilotmolina]

Did ATC say Boston center or Moncton Center?

[fly4fun]

It was Moncton Center definitely. We did depart Boston, a few hours earlier. Static was over Western France though.

[britts1234]

St. Elmo's Fire. Or a version of it.....

[OwnedByAQH]

Ok, that was pretty cool to see. Thanks for posting that!!!! :-D

[OwnedByAQH]

'wow, i have never seen something like that before!!! thank's

the last sequence is the best with the morning sun :D'

I got to agree here!!!!!

[1053857]

This is not over France, its over Canada.

Notice the " *Cant Understand* Contact Moncton Center... " Moncton is not in France

[fly4fun]

Good catch. But the static scene is over France. Flying through the clouds happened earlier in the flight while we were still over Canada. I just threw it in there because I liked it.

The last cloud scene was after exiting the static.

[Eduprods]

I would be pretty scared if I was flying and saw that static... A polite way of saying "I'd sh*t in my pants".

[Poisonseed]

So, you really didn't need the first sentence since you rendered it useless with the second.

Great video btw.

[frequentairbusflyer8]

Thats pretty funny, I have to admit, nice comment

[ridedirtba]

Very nice.

[SkyWayMan90]

No room for static wicks on the windshield!

I especially like 0:35-0:48.  Thanks for sharing.

[d81840]

Pretty darn cool

[vf747]

amazing...

[HorsesAndPlanes]

That would be really cool to see.

[thebigbrownbox]

you just saw it.

[DESTINATIONGYPSY]

INTERESTING.....

[5OPERA5]

That's so amazing!

[inquries]

Wow, that is so pretty

[wolvekr3w]

after the static shots the rest with the yellow sky was beautiful loved it

[kapkalna]

st elmos fire looks a lot like st elmos just some clouds

[plan101]

i would be scared to death

But its clearly a beautiful site after all that ordeal

[Nikon05]

does this happen anywhere given certain conditions or just above france at 20,000 ft? apologies for the dumb question, just curious

[ArrMeHearties]

anywhere, of course. the name Saint Elmo's Fire comes from the days of sailing on the oceans

[moxdiamond777]

kool

[AndrewsRaynolds]

wow, i have never seen something like that before!!! thank's

the last sequence is the best with the morning sun :D

by

[Nuxmaster]

St. Elmo is actually an apparition, mostly in the form of a cute, foating ball of fire.

[Daviock666]

where was elmo?

[mathiastheok]

Ahhhh a bigger version of what happens when you separate socks after being in the dryer...

[BBGenelie]

wow... so pretty!

[Siyko]

neato

[mattschol]

yea it wasn't there.....

[nldekker]

Hmm. Is the St Elmo's fire behind the lightning?

[fly4fun]

Name changed to reflect more 'truth in advertising.' It was just a series of static discharges.

[Jahostt]

sweet vid

[EmpiricalKant]

fake. The 'fire' came in only four identical patterns, flashed on the exact spot on the windows. Very cheap fake.

[TheBandGeekInvasion]

I beg to differ, each individual strike is a different pattern, some of the branches only had two or three visible fronds protruding, while others had up to 10.