Can I ask a different question? Has anyone ever detected a pitot heat failure where the expected current draw was observed, but the pitot tube didn't get hot?

once. The thermal cut out was shot so it used to chop the current after about 30secs so a quick flick on and check and off again wouldn't have spotted it.

1. Turn on.
2. Touch gingerly.
3. Yelp and jerk hand away.
4. Turn off.

Seemples.

re. Post #8
 

"I once had a vacuum failure on an approach and was fortunate enough to have a G430 which displayed groundspeed so I made a faster than normal approach to give myself a greater margin for error but it wasnt something I enjoyed."
How does vacuum failure affect the ASI?

I check pitot heat and heat to gear auto-extend mast by hand with battery only at initial walk around. (along with nav lights. landing light , strobe and stallwarner)

20-30 seconds max: not time enough to burn my hand or flatten the battery.

Ammeter after startup with landing light.

Works for me.

Without an airflow over it pitot heat element runs risk of burning out.

Cusco

Pitot heat on, pitot cover on!!! Check not just thy SOP...
 

Be very careful when pre flighting and confirming that the pitot heat cover has actually been removed. It will depend on the aircraft type and the checklist, as you can easily end up with a very expensive piece of egg on your face :rolleyes:

I recently started to taxi out from the ramp having been given an immediate takeoff clearance by ATC ahead of a landing heavy jet and as I began to transit from the hover to forward flight I noticed that there was an unusual orange flag flying in front of the windscreen :confused: I happened to be flying an AS350B3 Eurocopter Squirrel, which according to the standard Eurocopter checklist requires that the Pitot heat is switched on as the caution panel will show an amber "Pitot" caution if left off.

Ordinarily I live with the caution warning but I decided to switch it on for that flight as I was doing some low level work and didn't want the distraction on the panel.

I immediately switched off the Pitot, told ATC I was aborting and made a fast return to the ramp. One of our engineers ran up and saw the flag and started to remove the cover. He left a trail of molten plastic over the pitot, but luckily there was no major melting and the pitot opening was unaffected.

I had done a walk around in the hangar and another just prior to start while having a chat with the engineer and we both missed the cover :ugh:

If I had actually gotten airborne and had not immediately noticed that the cover was on there would have been a large lump of molten plastic in the pace of the cover!!! Try explaining that to your chief pilot and senior engineer.

Always CHECK!!!!!!!!!!!

A2B Ferry I would not take any of the comments given personally but I am with mad_jock, ChampChump, Poltergeist and Pilot DAR on the need to learn to fly by feel and visual references.

And I would apply it to both fixed wing and rotary. I certainly do not regard myself as a dinosaur using old fashioned instructional techniques but I was taught by my instructors to fly by feel and alway taught my ab-initio students and expected my experienced pilots on annual or recurrent training to be able to fly without reference to the panel, both Day and Night. It is not a black art, but good airmanship.

If you intend to gain an instrument rating you will also be expected to be able to fly partial panel approaches, under the hood with multiple instrument failures.

Go and do a couple of hours with a competent instructor and practice circuits and PFL's by feel and visual clues and you will leave with a smile on your face and your flying skills greatly enhanced :ok:

Mao 1

I think the vacuum failure ASI incident must have been confused with the day he/she had a pitot static problem. On that occasion the DI and AI were all over the place and it was impossible to maintain straight and level flight. Fortunately the GPS still worked, thus avoiding imminent danger to schools and hospitals.

Warning to instructors - do not ever attempt to cover the flight instruments with stick-it notes or similar to show your students that flight by reference to the horizon is possible. It is not. Modern aircraft require, as a minimum, the following:

Glass panel PFD and MFD (e.g. Garmin 1000/600/500)
Autopilot
Twin G430/500
FADEC
and failure of any of these is not possible because the manufacturers guarantee their 100% reliability.

;)

http://www.aaib.gov.uk/cms_resources...AB%2009-09.pdf

BJ

FFS. Only on ******e can such a simple thing run on to 2 pages: The pitot heater is supposed to keep your ASI working. It stops you losing control and crashing. alternater is fairly far down the list compared to ASI. Aviate Navigate Communicate etc. Wet and cold=Ice= ASI might not work: so check it goes warm when you want it to in the pre flight checks. touch it ( It takes about a minute before anything happens), highly unlikely to fatally burn yourself unless you get seriously distracted. Then it gets slightly warm. Turn it off before you drain the battery. Go Flying. Turn it on if you might go into some cold cloudy stuff. Use your superior flying skills to avoid such complications. Live another day to speak s*it on pprroone private flying section.

I know that I'm on the left side of the Atlantic and everything, and so lack the English sense of humour so valuable to appreciate many of these posts in context, but;

Really?

In any plane I'm flying, I stop me from loosing control and crashing, the ASI provides just a bit of information, which at times is helpful...

Well, yes, I agree, most of the time, but I have certainly flown many long legs over unwelcoming territory where if I had to loose one, I'd much rather loose the just ASI, than the alternator. During a long leg of IMC in ice, if you loose the ASI, you loose airspeed information. Loose an alternator, and you'll loose the pitot heat (so ASI), plus a whole bunch of other equipment you'd like to have, once the battery goes flat.

But, as I said near the beginning, the use of pitot heat, and checking the function of an alternator, are, in my opinion, not closely associated.

Pilot DAR

Flying by attitude is something that every pilot should be comfortable with.

If you can not fly an accurate safe approach without an airspeed indicator I would not let you fly my airplane.

Nor would I allow you to rent an airplane from any flight school I were in charge of.

What happened to basic flight training?

Chuck,

I absolutely agree with you. Everyone should try flying circuits by attitude. I've had two ASI failures.

Once in a 182, at Red Deer, due to a mud-wasp's nest, when I didn't notice the lack of needle movement until after takeoff :uhoh:, so a quick circuit was required.

And once in a Scout at Claresholm, where I noticed it during the takeoff run, but because I had a ballasted Open Class glider behind me, I decided that continuing was a better option than risk having the glider run into me during an abort. It turned out to be water in the pitot line, which cleared itself during the tow.

Sorry A2B Ferry...
 

...you lost ASI because of vacuum failure? "Vacuum" as in gyro power?

OK, I'm getting old here..but how does that cause ASI failure? :confused:

I would not depart with a faulty pitot heater, except for a low level flight in the summer.

Sure one can fly without the ASI but why chuck away a damn useful instrument even before departure? Why not chuck out the GPS while you are at it, on the grounds that one can follow roads, lakes, etc? Actually one could unscrew the yoke and chuck it out of the window also, because one can roll with the rudder and do the pitch with the elevator trim :)

Took the Turb. out of the hangar to check something - forget what now - but no intention of going flying, getting dark, anyway.

The VW is always difficult to start, as I've already discussed, but thought I might have learned a new technique so gave it a swing - and it started ! no one more surprised then me, so what the Hell, let's do a quick circuit, let's not waste one !

Full power, keep it straight, speed rising and then airborne - with a speed of 160 kts i.e. full scale deflection on the ASI. I couldn't see it, but I just knew that the pitot tube flag was gaily waving in the breeze under the wing. Still, wasn't stalling, so lowered the nose a bit to gain a bit of fat, continued climbing until the cows looked the right size, reduced to cruise power and completed the circuit, set the normal approach power and attitude - no sweat, but a lesson learned, never change one's mind and rush into flight !

Pito heat check
 

I am not a licensed aircraft engineer but in the PPL training didnt we have to show a basic understanding of the operation of instruments ? I can remember after my skills test while still sat in the aircraft having to explain what pressure's worked each instrument.

ASI operates on dynamic pressure from the pito head and static pressure "depending on aircraft type" the static is a small hole on the side of the plane which is small and can get blocked easily,
It is part of pre flight checks to inspect for blockage's on the static hole as well as the pito head "both equally important"

Austerwobbler :ugh:

:ok: A2B, the secret of flying is "Power plus attitude equals performance" Your training has been a bit lacking.

Is this sort of debate not what pprune is for???
 

My Auster does not have a pitot heater, does this mean I cant go flying?

Only if the vacuum cleaner isn't working. :}

What the discussion does show though is that there are two groups out there.

First group the failure of an ASI or Alt is a problem proberly worthy of a pan maybe a mayday change of pants and many a story in the bar afaterwards.

Second group its mearly a bit of pain but not something to go screaming telling the world about. The only people that get told are the engineers.

Now given that the PPL course is pretty much the same in most countrys how has this come about?