Originally Posted by
Uplinker
At this airport mud wasps can apparently put mud into a PITOT tube within 30 mins of an aircraft arrival. So PITOT covers need to be fitted and left ON during and after the pilot's walk-around.
According to CASA, mud wasps can build nests and significantly block pitot tubes within
20 minutes. Another study found that wasp activity could be observed around the nose of the aircraft within a few minutes of arrival at the gate (
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ar...type=printable).
3: Both pilots open their DVs and lean out to check that covers have been removed just before push-back. (A real pain to have to move EFB / plates from window, then unstrap and take headset off etc).(On some aircraft, not all the PITOT probes can be seen that way).
Not all aircraft have sliding DV windows. The A350 that was involved in the latest incident is one such aircraft.
6: At least do something to mitigate the mud wasp problem. Whatever procedures are currently in place are not working safely enough.
The Brisbane Airport Corporation has taken steps to reduce (but not eliminate) the mud wasp population. According to a recent media release, wasp activity has been reduced by 64%.
(
https://newsroom.bne.com.au/success-...asp-reduction/)
In my view, the most practical 'solution' is a Tech Log entry combined with:
1: Ground crew holds up the three PITOT covers and the steering pin to PIC during the wave-off before taxi.