Originally Posted by
Danny42C
The initial fault was a failed ASI, caused by ice in the pitot tubes. You don't need an ASI. I flew my first 60 hrs without one, and felt no pain (I knew no better, and thought all aircraft could be flown like that).... You put the nose on the horizon, and your wings level, and if the engines keep running, the bird will keep flying. Never mind anything else. We used to say "Never mind the Altitude - Fly Attitude !".
Your post, and MPN11's, reminded me of Arthur's unpleasant experience of a frozen pitot tube sensor, in January 1955. He was CO of RAF Old Sarum at the time. The trip was a solo flight from Abingdon to Benson and back, in an Airspeed 'Oxford', in order to collect a sofa that had been re-upholstered. [Not sure how easy it is to do that in the modern RAF!] It was a beautiful sunny day and he set-off without checking the weather. All went well until, on the return flight, he ran into dense cloud and snowfall. He couldn't see a thing. This is his entry in his log book:
On returning from Benson, I ran into a blizzard when nearing base. I tried to land at Boscombe Down by G.C.A. but their radar became unserviceable. I made an emergency 'PAN' call and was diverted to Lyneham. My Air Speed Indicator then became iced-up [He recalled he was having to judge whether the aircraft was climbing, descending, or flying level by the sound of the engines]
Lyneham then couldn't accept me when the weather 'clamped down' there. I was then re-diverted to Abingdon, where I landed [guided down by radar]
a few minutes before this airfield, too, was 'blotted out'.
I sense a few cold beads of sweat on his forehead!