FORANE
Well Known Member
Our RV-9A does not have pitot heat. Do I need to install one? After all, it is not required for IFR flight, correct? Just required for flight into known icing, and we are not doing that...
In the years of flying my Lancair I have experienced a frozen static system but never a frozen pitot. Thought it was once after an avionics installer put in an EFIS and excluded the pitot from the system - whoops. So, in spite of flying in icing conditions transiently on numerous occasions, I have never actually needed to activate pitot heat. I know, some may say I should have activated the pitot heat before entering said conditions... This is not a thread about when pitot heat should be used. It is a question of if I need to install a heated pitot in the RV-9A.
We intend to use the RV for VFR flights, IFR training, and eventually some IFR flights but not into known icing. We do have a couple GPS derived speed sources in the plane. What say you? Do I need it? Does the mast have to be long like some I have seen or could I use a short one?
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In the years of flying my Lancair I have experienced a frozen static system but never a frozen pitot. Thought it was once after an avionics installer put in an EFIS and excluded the pitot from the system - whoops. So, in spite of flying in icing conditions transiently on numerous occasions, I have never actually needed to activate pitot heat. I know, some may say I should have activated the pitot heat before entering said conditions... This is not a thread about when pitot heat should be used. It is a question of if I need to install a heated pitot in the RV-9A.
We intend to use the RV for VFR flights, IFR training, and eventually some IFR flights but not into known icing. We do have a couple GPS derived speed sources in the plane. What say you? Do I need it? Does the mast have to be long like some I have seen or could I use a short one?
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