Sticky Altimeter

[Kyle Boatright]

My altimeter "stuck" this afternoon when I was returning to my home field
from SnF. It seemed to work fine until the last 5 minutes of the trip - the
altitudes looked right, but as I descended towards pattern altitude, my eyes
told me that I was lower than the altimeter showed, so I tapped the
altimeter face and its reading dropped by about 1,000'. It stuck at that
position until I tapped it again after landing.

I'll check the static line going to it, but if that isn't the problem, is
there anything else I can do other than send it to a repair station?

Thanks in advance,

KB

[Jim Carriere]

Kyle Boatright wrote:

> My altimeter "stuck" this afternoon when I was returning to my home field
> from SnF. It seemed to work fine until the last 5 minutes of the trip - the
> altitudes looked right, but as I descended towards pattern altitude, my eyes
> told me that I was lower than the altimeter showed, so I tapped the
> altimeter face and its reading dropped by about 1,000'. It stuck at that
> position until I tapped it again after landing.
>
> I'll check the static line going to it, but if that isn't the problem, is
> there anything else I can do other than send it to a repair station?

If it turns out your static line is clear, may the altimeter has an
electric vibrator? Some altimeters have these built in to make up
for friction in the gears.

I know, I'm leaving myself wide open with this one, please keep
humorous responses subtle enough to be family oriented :)

[Bill Daniels]

"Jim Carriere" > wrote in message
.. .
> Kyle Boatright wrote:
>
> > My altimeter "stuck" this afternoon when I was returning to my home
field
> > from SnF. It seemed to work fine until the last 5 minutes of the trip -
the
> > altitudes looked right, but as I descended towards pattern altitude, my
eyes
> > told me that I was lower than the altimeter showed, so I tapped the
> > altimeter face and its reading dropped by about 1,000'. It stuck at
that
> > position until I tapped it again after landing.
> >
> > I'll check the static line going to it, but if that isn't the problem,
is
> > there anything else I can do other than send it to a repair station?
>
> If it turns out your static line is clear, may the altimeter has an
> electric vibrator? Some altimeters have these built in to make up
> for friction in the gears.
>
> I know, I'm leaving myself wide open with this one, please keep
> humorous responses subtle enough to be family oriented :)

Sticky altimeters are a frequent problem in sailplanes. Silent
vibrationless flight just doesn't shake an instrument intended for a powered
aircraft enough. The tiny DC motors with an eccentric weights used as a
vibration source in pagers and cell phones can be taped to the altimeter and
activated with a push button switch.