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Pitot failure

Mconner7

Well Known Member
59FE874F-1E38-48EB-8FC7-890DFA62DF93.jpgPitot mast failed in flight.
 
I'm not saying I would have done any better, because really, who looks at something like that, but clearly that has been working for a while. You can see the sooty streaks down the side of the mast.

Thanks for posting this, it's one more thing that people can have in the back of their mind during preflight.
 
My mind went first with "This is why you don't let an eager passenger tie down and untie the wing on their side without supervision," but it's probably got another root cause. Hard to imagine a robust air load on a pitot in flight, though. What's the age/time in service on this one?
 
Fatigue

It may or may not be helpful. You could get some really good magnification on the surface of the failure and get an idea how long the fatigue cracks had been working and how much material failed to ultimate load.

I would think a continuous bead should have been applied, but it looks like it was only welded on the sides?
 
I remember reading that early safair pitot masts had bad welds. They changed the welding method and new versions had blue anodizing. Maybe you had an early one.
 
more data please

that is a quite uncommon failure!
Even more interesting though, glad nobody got hurt and no metal was bent.

I would be interested in:
-make and prediction year of the mast.
-how many flight hours did it last before failure?
-what kind of pitot cover do you use (if any)
-do you touch the pitot during preflight? (i always tap very slightly with my finger on the bare metal tip of the pitot tube, just to confirm and remember that i removed the cover. But i have seen much more aggressive routines, i am not saying the OP does things like that...)
-what were the indications (IAS and Altitude) after ist happened?

thanks in advance!!

Peter
 
Weld quality (and potential failure at the weld) of the early production, gold anodized aluminum SafeAir pitot masts is a known issue. The type of weld was changed, and newer masts are blue anodized as pointed out in a previous post. Interior color of the mast appears to be gold and if the metal is aluminum, it's likely that was an earlier SafeAir mast that appears to have failed at the weld. Has nothing to do with having an AOA pitot fitted.

Fly safe,

Vac
 
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Didn't realize the mast was aluminum. Mine is a Gretz, I believe, and is rusting nicely while waiting on me to paint the aircraft. Vibration loads must be a thing, but I don't hear stories of antennas falling off of wing inspection panels, and they're potentially inside the prob blast radius, where a Pitot does not belong.

Carry on.
 
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