Comments on: Dead airspeed indicator

By: david

david — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 16:10:26 +0000

The PA-28 has two drains near the floor beside the pilot’s seat — one for the static system and one for the pitot system. Opening each one to let out water is a standard part of the pre-flight checklist (I’ve never seen any). I don’t remember how things work on a 172.

In this case, there was so little water that it probably just evaporated away.

By: Viennatech

Viennatech — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 15:39:06 +0000

Nice job David, like you said you already know what the attitudes are for a given airspeed and it sounds like you did well. On a recent flight while under the hood my instructor covered everything but the AI to see if I had a good feel for flying this way. He had me perform some shallow banks and straight and level. As we neared the airfield he removed the covers on all but the airspeed indicator. I knew that we were already trimmed for cruise flight and as I entered the pattern simply left the trim alone. This would guarantee that I’d be comign in fast, but that I’d not stall. (so long as i was reasonable with the power) we ended up landing quite long but it was a success nonetheless. I think we all make the same mistake when flying “blind” we go too fast, because too fast in most cases is better….feels better, looks better. The place it matters is on short final. With 5000′ of runway I’m sure you weren’t concerned at all.

My question is, where doe the water go when it goes into the pitot line? Is there a drain or does it just sit inside the asi?

By: Blake

Blake — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 15:34:32 +0000

Kinda reminds you (if you can remember that far back ;) ) when your FI put a sticky on your ASI when on final.

By: PlasticPilot

PlasticPilot — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 14:02:17 +0000

Good work David ! So many VFR pilots think icing is not for them… Anyway I’m sure your instructor also prepared you for such things, as mine did (more on this under http://www.plasticpilot.net/blog/2008/03/24/planes-are-loaded-with-useless-equipment-about-failures-training/)

Keep flying !

By: Julien

Julien — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 23:04:42 +0000

Thanks David, great post! It’s not like we get much snow here in sub-tropical Brisbane, Australia, but there’s a host of other reasons why the pitot system may fail, so thanks for sharing the story.

By: Billy

Billy — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 12:56:22 +0000

“make as few configuration changes as possible when you’re close to landing”

Amen, and a fine article, David.