Watch out for glue! And, more sensationalistic reporting.

Midair? He didn't notice the dead airspeed on takeoff? We had that happen because of bugs.

of course, any pilot worthy of the name can fly sans airspeed indicator at need.
 
Get off my lawn!


Oh, wrong thread. Sorry.






:D
 
It is a felony to tamper with aircraft.
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in the US. This was in the UK, no? I don't think they have felonies over there. Probably a 'High Crime'!
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
in the US. This was in the UK, no? I don't think they have felonies over there. Probably a 'High Crime'!
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In the UK, it's "Serious inquiries will be made."

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NO ONE is prepared for the inquisition!
 

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no pilot should have trouble in VFR conditions but if he had taken off on a pitch black night or into IMC it can be lethal.

If I found out someone did that to my aircraft I would be very very angry.

There is a very good reason why tampering with any aircraft is a felony.
 
Was his preflight inspection sabotaged too?
 
nddons said:
You may or may not be able to see glue in the pitot on your preflight, but on the roll, you will fail the "airspeed alive" test and should abort.
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I failed this test (wasn't taught "airspeed alive") and after rotation I asked my CFI during training while I was still a student pilot why the airspeed said zero. He reached over and flicked the instrument with his index finger. It worked again and we were fine. So in my example, there was no glue in the tube.

And yes, I now look before rotation of course.
 
Failed the airspeed alive test once, continued with rotation and made the 5 min VMC flight home for repair. Nonevent

but that was my specific flight.
 
kimberlyanne546 said:
I failed this test (wasn't taught "airspeed alive") and after rotation I asked my CFI during training while I was still a student pilot why the airspeed said zero. He reached over and flicked the instrument with his index finger. It worked again and we were fine. So in my example, there was no glue in the tube.

And yes, I now look before rotation of course.
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You don't want to spend too much time head down on the takeoff roll, but it was driven into my head by an early instructor to verbalize:

"Gauges are green" (oil pressure, oil temp, RPMs in the green (i.e. 2250 or higher I think in a Skyhawk)), and

"Airspeed alive." Which is also the website of PoA and Wisconsin's own Kate B.! (skyflyer8) www.airspeedalive.com
 
I was taught to call out to my instructor "Airspeed Alive" on every takeoff roll, now it's just a habit to look at it and be sure.

The morning of my check ride, my instructor covered every instrument on the six pack and for two hours we did numerous touch and goes, navigated and flew to another airport using the primary compass, slow flight, stalls, steep turn etc.

John
 
dell30rb said:
no pilot should have trouble in VFR conditions but if he had taken off on a pitch black night or into IMC it can be lethal.
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only for those who don't know how to fly.
 
Tom-D said:
only for those who don't know how to fly.
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I'm not sure that's an entirely fair statement. Sure, an instrument rated pilot would be fine, but VFR at night with a low time pilot who doesn't know pitch/performance or control/response like you learn under the hood might try flaring at 120kts rather than risk a stall and float into a hangar off the end of the field seized with panic.

Hell, I lost my tach on one of my early solos and for half a second thought I had lost my engine while out over the ocean. Really wasn't a bother, but I did have a moment of worry, as I knew certain RPM speeds for flying the pattern. I think people have the same with airspeed -- you aim for a number. Take a gauge away and throw in some night time optical illusions and it's going to be a lot more stressful. Add in a low time pilot and it could turn out poorly.

I get the gist of what you're saying though, and I agree with it.
 
thomascannon said:
I'm not sure that's an entirely fair statement. Sure, an instrument rated pilot would be fine, but VFR at night with a low time pilot who doesn't know pitch/performance or control/response like you learn under the hood might try flaring at 120kts rather than risk a stall and float into a hangar off the end of the field seized with panic.

Hell, I lost my tach on one of my early solos and for half a second thought I had lost my engine while out over the ocean. Really wasn't a bother, but I did have a moment of worry, as I knew certain RPM speeds for flying the pattern. I think people have the same with airspeed -- you aim for a number. Take a gauge away and throw in some night time optical illusions and it's going to be a lot more stressful. Add in a low time pilot and it could turn out poorly.

I get the gist of what you're saying though, and I agree with it.
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Isn't basic attitude flying in the training for PPL any more ?
 
Tom-D said:
Isn't basic attitude flying in the training for PPL any more ?
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Sure, but people die all the time from having a baggage door pop open. I think a low time VFR pilot, at night, losing their airspeed indicator...

I think you're right and people should be able to handle it, but the level of emergency between it happening to you or I versus someone with less experience...

Actually, yeah, I'll concede the point. You're right. I was just trying to say that it's a different level of emergency depending on your experience and some folks might be more likely to panic it into a full blown emergency more than others.
 
thomascannon said:
Actually, yeah, I'll concede the point. You're right. I was just trying to say that it's a different level of emergency depending on your experience and some folks might be more likely to panic it into a full blown emergency more than others.
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IMHO you are both right. The pilot should be able to handle a VFR no airspeed indicator. But distractions for simple things have killed before.

BTW I was taught to the 'airspeed alive' thing too. It is part of my take off role call outs. And one time, at night VFR, I caught the airspeed indicator not working and aborted the take off. It was own damn fool mistake too. I had forgotten to take of the pitot cover. I had only started using it a week earlier in the hangar and had gotten in the bad habit of not checking the pitot if the plane had been hangared.
 
Tom-D said:
only for those who don't know how to fly.
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How about in IMC? I said could be lethal. Taking off into a pitch black night w no horizon or into a low cloud deck with no airspeed indicator (assuming no aoa either) is a recipe for a power on stall during initial climbout.
 
dell30rb said:
How about in IMC? I said could be lethal. Taking off into a pitch black night w no horizon or into a low cloud deck with no airspeed indicator (assuming no aoa either) is a recipe for a power on stall during initial climbout.
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If the airspeed read 0 i'd probably catch it real quick and use my attitude indicator, altimeter and throttle to maintain appropriate airspeed, but ya never know. You only have to get behind the airplane for a few seconds for bad things to happen at low altitude during your takeoff
 
thomascannon said:
Sure, but people die all the time from having a baggage door pop open. I think a low time VFR pilot, at night, losing their airspeed indicator...

I think you're right and people should be able to handle it, but the level of emergency between it happening to you or I versus someone with less experience...

Actually, yeah, I'll concede the point. You're right. I was just trying to say that it's a different level of emergency depending on your experience and some folks might be more likely to panic it into a full blown emergency more than others.
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Another thought here is a VFR low time pilot is running pretty close to the edge on a very dark night, they will be in over their heads very quickly, and may even be IFR before they start. Remember, no horizon is IFR no matter what the vis. compound that with any other mistake and we will have a smoking hole.
 
I'm equipped with 2 standby airspeed indicators and 2 standby attitude indicators/altimeters and never fly without them.
 
nddons said:
You don't want to spend too much time head down on the takeoff roll, but it was driven into my head by an early instructor to verbalize:

"Gauges are green" (oil pressure, oil temp, RPMs in the green (i.e. 2250 or higher I think in a Skyhawk)), and

"Airspeed alive." Which is also the website of PoA and Wisconsin's own Kate B.! (skyflyer8) www.airspeedalive.com
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Wow. That's a lot of screwing around while in close proximity to runway lights.

I mostly focus on keeping the airplane between the edges.

If the oil pressure, temperature, etc. were good during the runup 30 seconds ago, they are likely to still be good. On the other hand, just because a runway light was 30 feet away 1 second ago, well, that was a whole second ago.
 
John Baker said:
I was taught to call out to my instructor "Airspeed Alive" on every takeoff roll, now it's just a habit to look at it and be sure.

The morning of my check ride, my instructor covered every instrument on the six pack and for two hours we did numerous touch and goes, navigated and flew to another airport using the primary compass, slow flight, stalls, steep turn etc.

John
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Good lesson
 
"If any low time VFR pilot loses sight of their horizon, they have a genuine and legitimate emergency."

(Lesson during my ground school training at Golden State Aviation (KSEE) years ago.)

When your landing with no instruments, just remember what your short field approach was like, you should not have a problem. If your landing and can not see the ground, nor the end of the runway, you have a problem. Time to abort your landing attempt and go somewhere where you can see.

John
 
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