Radome paint stripping changed my lightning strike repairs entirely

Back in March I had a CRJ come in with a small burn mark near the static wick. We used to just feather out the paint and re-seal, but this time I stripped the whole radome section down to the base coat. The difference was night and day, the old paint was trapping moisture and hiding micro-cracks in the substrate. I re-did it with a two-part primer and now I'm checking every radome for that same issue. Has anyone else switched their repair process after pulling paint off and seeing what's underneath?

2 comments

2 Comments

elizabethmason1mo ago

Yep, that's how you find corrosion hiding under radar paint. Good catch.

lewis.finley1mo ago

You can find corrosion hiding under radar paint' is exactly right, but the part nobody talks about is what that trapped moisture does to the bonding between the radome layers. I pulled one apart that looked fine from the outside and the honeycomb core was basically spongy in a spot the size of my palm. If we hadn't stripped it, that moisture would've kept eating at the bond until the whole radome delaminated in flight. Now I tell our guys to treat any burn mark like a full inspection trigger, not just a cosmetic fix.