The static is produced from the rotors turning thru the dust particles in the air. Kind of a friction thing. In the air it's not a problem because there's no ground. I have yet to see a rope used in hoist Ops, normally it's a steel braided cable. 7/28 if you know what that is. That cable and whatever is hanging from it better touch the ground before a you decide to grab it without a glove or you become the conductor. I've seen it knock a fella off a 40 foot conex trying to hook a tandem sling. He was real cool with his shirt off wearing some sunglasses but no gloves. He looked even cooler lying on his back.
In my world of flying chinooks for the army, unless it was a tandem sling leg, our flight engineer would hook the load on the center hook without the help of a load team while we hovered over the load. If it was a long line, 200 foot sling, we would land beside the load. Hook the slings on the hook and then hover the load before picking it up.
Since the chinook has tires, static whips are installed on the rear landing gear and they hang below the tire. Therefore touching the ground before the tires to discharge the static. Every helicopter I've seen with tires has these static whips installed. Every chopper I've seen with fixed skids, does not have these static whips installed. However, they do have steel shoes installed the length of the skid tube.
In every hoist op I've been involved with, the jungle penetrater or whatever is attached to the cable, must touch the ground first before being handled by non-gloved hands.
