Glad your okay and for sharing your experience. My static is not connected and never thought about the change if the door was opened. I am probably going to hook my static up now. Been a very hot summer in Alaska and have had my doors open on several occasions.
Thanks
If you do install a new static port, I'd install a three way valve in the static line while you check out your new port. Then you can switch back and forth between the cabin and the new port.
When I bought my Model IV, there was a static port installed on the boot cowl, but it wasn't hooked up. Not long thereafter, while I had the boot cowl off, I checked that the port was clear, then reattached the static line. On my next takeoff, I was fat, dumb and happy a few hundred feet in the air as I cleared the end of the runway. When I pulled my eyes back in the cockpit for a quick instrument scan I nearly laid a brick - the VSI showed several hundred feet per minute DOWN.
After a few seconds of confusion laced with a pinch of terror, I realized what the problem was. If the VSI was that much in error, so was the altimeter, and to a lesser extent, the airspeed. But I couldn't reach the static line to pull it off the outside port. So there I was in a plane I wasn't very familar with at an airport I also wasn't very familar with. Boy, was I happy to get back on the ground that day.
After that, I made a proper, if clunkly, hemisperical-nosed static probe and clamped it to the strut bracing. Using a three way valve to switch between the probe and an open tube under the panel, I decided there wasn't just much difference between the two. (I didn't try that with the door open.)
I've since removed the test probe, but am still considering permanently installing a hemispherical-nosed pitot-static probe. Figuring out how to mount it and drilling another hole in the rear spar (for the static line) slow me down, though.
Anybody else have an installed a pitot-static probe?
Lousy ending to a great day
in Close Call's and dumb stunts
Posted
If you do install a new static port, I'd install a three way valve in the static line while you check out your new port. Then you can switch back and forth between the cabin and the new port.
When I bought my Model IV, there was a static port installed on the boot cowl, but it wasn't hooked up. Not long thereafter, while I had the boot cowl off, I checked that the port was clear, then reattached the static line. On my next takeoff, I was fat, dumb and happy a few hundred feet in the air as I cleared the end of the runway. When I pulled my eyes back in the cockpit for a quick instrument scan I nearly laid a brick - the VSI showed several hundred feet per minute DOWN.
After a few seconds of confusion laced with a pinch of terror, I realized what the problem was. If the VSI was that much in error, so was the altimeter, and to a lesser extent, the airspeed. But I couldn't reach the static line to pull it off the outside port. So there I was in a plane I wasn't very familar with at an airport I also wasn't very familar with. Boy, was I happy to get back on the ground that day.
After that, I made a proper, if clunkly, hemisperical-nosed static probe and clamped it to the strut bracing. Using a three way valve to switch between the probe and an open tube under the panel, I decided there wasn't just much difference between the two. (I didn't try that with the door open.)
I've since removed the test probe, but am still considering permanently installing a hemispherical-nosed pitot-static probe. Figuring out how to mount it and drilling another hole in the rear spar (for the static line) slow me down, though.
Anybody else have an installed a pitot-static probe?