Go down to the vet supply store and get one of those big horse hypodermic
needles with the smallest needle you can get.

Go to the craft store and get a suction cup that will fit over the static port.

CAREFULLY and with GREAT CAUTION put the suction cup over the static port. If
you have two static ports, put another suction cup over the other port. (A thin
coating of spit on the suction cup works well as a vacuum seal, so does a thin
coating of vaseline.)

Pick ONE of the static ports and push the needle through the backside of the
suction cup. SLOWLY and with GREAT CAUTION suck down the suction cup until the
altimeter reads about a thousand feet above airport elevation OR the airspeed
indicator reads just at the yellow arc, whichever occurs first.

You MUST support the syringe so that the needle doesn't cock and let the suction
cup leak. I've got mine arranged so that there is a 6' length of plastic tubing
between the syringe and the needle, tied off with tiewraps. Don't believe that
the aircraft system has a leak until you've tried your little setup on a known
good airplane and it doesn't show leak.

Let the system come to equilibrium for five minutes or so. If the ASI is still
slowly bleeding off speed after five minutes OR the altimeter continues to wind
down, you've got a static leak. You can repeat the suckdown after five minutes
if you wish, but if the thing doesn't stabilize after two or three iterations,
you've got a leak on your hands.

You may want to do the mason jar accumulator trick I showed when writing about
the altitude encoder test jig (www.rstengineering.com and go to bibliography or
www.rstengineering.com/kitplanes and download the article).

Of course, I would NEVER do this test on a standard certificated aircraft.
Nosirre, not me, not never. Huh, unh.

{;-)

Jim


This test should have been performed as part of
-the pre-buy so that you wouldn't not have been responsible for the
-entire cost of the instruments and the labor.
-
-*sigh*
-
-it's an educational opportunity, right?
-

Jim Weir (A&P/IA, CFI, & other good alphabet soup)
VP Eng RST Pres. Cyberchapter EAA Tech. Counselor
http://www.rst-engr.com