PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - AF447
Thread: AF447
View Single Post
Old 9th Jul 2009, 23:49
  #3401 (permalink)  
Graybeard
 
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: SoCalif
Posts: 896
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Post Pitot Ice

Pitot probes have a liquid drain (bleed) hole, whose air bypass has to be accounted for in the airspeed calcuation. Clog the drain, and pitot pressure rises, giving erroneous high airspeed. Indeed, per reading in this thread, some of the earlier Airbus pitot malfunctions were with poorly manufactured drain (bleed) holes.

Add more ice, and you clog the pitot head itself, and then pitot pressure will lock, or will decrease if there is any drain opening at all.

GB
Graybeard is offline