From a ground pounding perspective, 
 
 > JD: If I may butt in: a few years ago at Cancun, Mexico, I watched 
 > JD: a Mexicana B727 being overwing refueled with the apu running 
 > JD: andthe refuelers overfilled the tank and theexcess fuel ran down 
 > JD: the wing near the running APU exhaust. I moved back, way back! 
 > JD: Later they tried to clean up the spill with an ex-US Army WW2 
 > JD: firetruck using common garden hose and a little water. 
 
When I first saw the dock at Progresso back in 1965 as a pilot and also a 
First Telegraph ticket holder and the Sparks for the Texas A&M University 
Research Vessel Hidalgo, I saw the following. 
 
This *LONG* pier juts out into the Gulfo de Mejico and *WAY* out on it nearly 
to the end of it is this little hut that has a sign on it: 
 
                  "En case de fuego, grita fuego" 
 
It also had a tiny fire extinguisher mounted on the wall with a long hose. 
 
On a more serious vein on-thread, 
 
At my low band ham station with big towers and directional arrays, I get hit 
REGULARLY by lightning.  Over ten years, it has averaged a direct hit every  
18 months.  Out in the country not only does it take direct hits, but it  
takes much more frequent slams over the power lines.  The grounding is good  
enough for the low band tower arrays that, after I learned about lightning  
protection the hard way, virtually all of my damage comes from power line  
induced hits.  During frontal passage seasons, the site takes several each  
passage.  If I am in the building during the passage, I have noticed the  
average is about six complete power faults a trip, and I've plotted out the  
spikes; several dozen major blips each squall line. 
 
I've learned something about lightning, starting with heavy research into  
the subject when I was 15 in 1954 and doing the wiring harnesses and  
machining slip rings and stuff at the Texas A&M EE department in the  summer. 
 We did the first weather radar conversion project ever for the  Weather crew 
at A&M here.  I also helped build the first lightning  detection system 
sferics counter system ever built, the forerunner of the  Ryan Storm scope 
for aircraft and what you see on the weather channel for  the lightning 
counters today on TV.  The first ever was built here at A&M  as well, plus 
the first ever color weather radar storage image system for  which I got to 
build the equipment as a kid. 
 
Notice I said after I learned to stop damage to the computer systems.   There 
is a long gap from 1954 to a few years ago when this happened.  We've  and 
I've learned a lot more about lightning since 1954! 
 
I can tell you that for real direct hits, all of these surge protectors  that 
you buy in the stores, APC, Tripplite and so on with the MOV varisitor  surge 
protection devices are an almost guaranteed route to blow your  computer 
totally away.  They do a nice job for just simple spikes, for a  while.  But 
the MOV surge devices weaken with each spike and after a couple  years, each 
of these so-called protective strips must be replaced for  nothing but fire 
hazard reasons. 
 
 
To be continued, 
 
 
Mike @ 117/3001 
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