Originally Posted by
RR_NDB
...Pitot tube heating design...
It was posted earlier in these threads that Heating is ON full any time weight off the landing gear. Wind Chill on the outside of the Pitot means that it can never get much above ambient whatever power - but monitoring current could turn it into a hot-wire anemometer! It must be difficult to heat up the core of the Pitot when the outside surface is near -40 deg C, and it is this detail which will differentiate between suppliers.
For a chilling report of an incident with possibly striking similiarities to AF447 but with Goodrich Pitots see the recently published ATSB report on the
Investigation: AO-2009-065 - Unreliable airspeed indication - 710 km south of Guam, 28 October 2009, VH-EBA, Airbus A330 202
Is this the incident that triggered the recent AD warning not to re-instate auto pilot too soon?