Hi,
On our recent trip to Croatia we left the aircraft for two days on a
very hot airfield. When we came back to depart we discovered that the
ASI was reading 70 knots... (Luckily our pitot system is air tight
otherwise we would have discovered it during our take off run or later).
Investigation (which is no fun on a very hot tarmac without shadow)
revealed that the pitot tube was internally sealed off by some
substance. Even poking and moving with a piece of wire inside the pitot
it was not possible to get air flow through it, despite all the stuff
that came out. Whatever was in there was even past the 90 degree bend.
Some insect had made a whole nest or something inside the tube.
I finally had to take the pitot/static assembly out to get it cleaned
with compressed air.
To avoid this in the future I would like to use a pitot cover, but in
the past I could never find a standard cover that fits, so after many
hours without a cover I thought I could live without one. Clearly not.
So, has anyone found some suitable standard cover or do I need to make
something myself?
Frans
|