Whew - ASI died in flight
Marc CYBW wrote:
Had my first "incident" in flying after some 175 hours in 172s mostly but
also Warriors and Arrows.
After 4 hours dual and solo learning how to fly my new fractional
ownership 182S, I decided I needed some solo practice and went out for an
hour of flying the circuit. Started my takeoff run and did the usual
checks (power, engine, airspeed) and after I got up to a little over 50
KIAS, noticed that the plane wanted to fly off. Odd I thought, seemed a
little
low, but up we went and once off the ground (maybe 50') noticed the ASI
going DOWN from 50 to 40 to 30 to ZERO. Great - 4 hours into a plane I
have just learned to land and no ASI.
Fortunately the tower (CYBW) was most helpful and called out my ground
speed (no wind today thank goodness) and I carefully stabilized my full
flaps
descent at 60 Kts (by the Tower) and landed uneventfully.
Looks like a bug in the pitot tube was just far enough in that I did not
notice it on my pre-flight but the forward motion forced it to completely
block the airflow.
Certainly caught my attention!
When I fly very seldom watch the ASI indicator.
The first time is when I rise flaps on takeoff.
Very often the second and last is on final.
The rest of the time I watch RPM and MAP together with attitude because I
was taught to do so.
(readers, don't take this as a rule since I may be plain wrong and with 90
hours I don't have much experience to share).
Steve
(from Italy)
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