Idle hands
Something to share with fellow AS350 drivers out there - I had a 20 minute dead leg today out over the water, and in an idle moment of curiosity stuck my arm out the window (as I like to, funnily enough) - never noticed this before, but if you do that, it can seriously play havoc with the pressure instruments.
I was experimenting with the effects of the 105 kt breeze on my hand when I saw the altimeter needle jump around like a punk in the mosh pit and the VSI waver crazily anywhere between +/- 1000 fpm. Thinking the static system might be playing up, I did some further exploration and found that, lo and behold, if you stick your arm out and move it around in various positions and angles of attack, you can confuse your static instruments no end - somewhat surprising when you consider that the static source is way down underneath the cabin, out of the way, you'd reckon. Obviously not!
Anyone else come across this phenomenon?