Five miles out. Check the airspeed and it is at Zero.
On my way home from Toledo Sunday my first (of three) fuel stops was at Kankakee IL. As I leveled out at pattern altitude I glanced at the airspeed indicator at it was at zero. I looked again to make sure that I was seeing it right and yes, it was zero.
I pondered what might be happening. This is a old style 6-pack airspeed indicator. There was a lot of rain while it sat outside. Some of that got into the airplane somehow. But I hangared it the night before to keep the oil temp up.
Did water somehow get in the system and freeze or into the instrument?
I did not know so I did two things. One was make a mental note of the ground winds so that I could use the GPS ground speed as an aid for airspeed and I changed the runway from the short one to the long one.
I just came in a bit faster than normal in case the seat of my pants were off that day and bled off excess airspeed in the flare over the runway. No problem.
When I got on the ground I found the pitot tube (aluminum tube) bent back about 70 degrees. I made a viable field repair using aircraft grade duct tape and coffee stirrers for additional rigidity and it worked just fine until I returned home.
Once home, I made a permanent repair and a spare pitot tube that is now in my on board tool box.
I suspect that the occasional bumping of the pitot tube by my dog and subsequent straightening caused a fatigue that finally manifested itself on this flight.
Field repair assessment: The aircraft grade duct tape was probably fine but the coffee stirrers lacked adequate rigidity. Splintered popsicle sticks (aircraft grade of course) would have been better.
Last edited by Ron Lee : 10-29-2009 at 05:36 PM.
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