Airspeed Indicator Failure

[35 AoA]

A slight blockage may have no effect, or it could cause the indicator to be sluggish. A complete blockage in flight (extremely rare) could result in a higher than actual reading if you were reducing power in level flight and we're expecting to see a speed reduction. Don't ever blow anything into a pitot static port.

when I was a brand new pup, we had a slew of incidents where wasps made their homes in the pitot tubes of our jets. All resulted in high speed aborts with a maximum of 48 knots indicated in the HUD (in the F/A-18, 48 knots is equivalent to zero airspeed). I think each of these must have been the result of a complete plug. Afterwards, somehow pitot tube covers were found and installed at night when the bugs generally made their nests.

 

[DesertNomad]

Always been a fan of having pre solo students do a few laps in the pattern with zero reference to the instrument panel.

As a PPL student, my 80-year old CFI had me fly a pattern from takeoff to landing with a towel draped over the entire panel.

 

[35 AoA]

yeah, I remember my PPL pre-check with an in house instructor had me do a full stop landing with zero instruments……….just the feel of the airplane and the wet compass.

 

[flyingron]

I've had one bug in the pilot (well Margy was flying) and a few static plugs. Amusingly my log book says the mechanic removed a "doober" from the static line. This occured when I was evacuating my plane from VKX five weeks after 9/11 when they finally let us fly out "pseudo IFR". At least Dave Wartofsky got us all void time clearances so we could clock out of there in sequence.

I presume the "doober" was really a "dauber." Don't know who was stuffing joints into my static ports otherwise.

 

[Ted]

yeah, I remember my PPL pre-check with an in house instructor had me do a full stop landing with zero instruments……….just the feel of the airplane and the wet compass.

That sounds more challenging to do in an F/A-18 than a 172.

 

[35 AoA]

That sounds more challenging to do in an F/A-18 than a 172.

haha no, that was in a cessna well before I started flying in the military.

 

[Ted]

haha no, that was in a cessna well before I started flying in the military.

I know, I was just making the point that it would probably be harder in the F/A-18.

 

[dell30rb]

I've had one fail on the swift, no stall horn on that plane. I used about 3000' of runway but it worked out ok.

 

[flyingron]

I've had one fail on the swift, no stall horn on that plane. I used about 3000' of runway but it worked out ok.

Any plane without a stall horn was likely required to give other notice of the stall (typically wing buffet). If you're tuned to such things you can detect the start of a stall way before even a stall horn would sound. It's quite distinct in things like a 172.

The other part of our plugged pitot story was that it was on our initial takeoff heading for Oshkosh one year. We were in the bar at Friar Tucks waiting for a table recounting the story. The guy next to me told me he had an alternate pitot in the cockpit. Margy kicked me before I could ask him how fast the air inside his cockpit was moving.

 

[dell30rb]

Any plane without a stall horn was likely required to give other notice of the stall (typically wing buffet). If you're tuned to such things you can detect the start of a stall way before even a stall horn would sound. It's quite distinct in things like a 172.

The other part of our plugged pitot story was that it was on our initial takeoff heading for Oshkosh one year. We were in the bar at Friar Tucks waiting for a table recounting the story. The guy next to me told me he had an alternate pitot in the cockpit. Margy kicked me before I could ask him how fast the air inside his cockpit was moving.

Yep you get some buffet before the stall, not much though. Been awhile since I stalled the airplane.

 

[Fearless Tower]

That sounds more challenging to do in an F/A-18 than a 172.

You don't really need instruments. The Hornet does everything itself so the pilot can focus on blowing stuff up.