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water in the static system

turbo

turbo

Well Known Member
the plane went thru a few strong storms in st pete fl last weekend. the end result was a vfr departure with the vsi and altimeter all over the place. when i got home i pushed back from the static line near the panel area and saw a few drops of water exit the static port. sure glad it was a vfr flight. any ideas on installing a cockpit alternate static port hookup? always learning. :)
 
The safeair toggle is nice. Piper used to favor a Curtis valve. Other guys say they know where the line is and would cut it with a knife.
 
All of our airplanes have tubes "T"ed off both pitot and static that are tucked up under the panel and used for transponder/static system testing. They have Stein's QD's on the end, with plugs in them. Easy to pull them down and remove the plug in flight (we use orange tubing for pitot, clear or white for static, so identifying the static line is easy)
 
A leg from the static line behind the panel down to the panel edge just out of site with a simple valve attached can act as a test port and alt. static source.

You may be surprised how little difference there is between your exterior static port and one that you open in the cabin.
 
I have the toggle and it works great.

You might be in for a surprise if you open the toggle in flight and you are using the auto pilot! Everyone should try this just to know what to expect!
 
I had a similiar thing happen to my Navion, only it had been parked overnight when it rained. When I took off, the Altimeter & VSI were really jerky. The static system layout in the tail is the same as Van's. After landing, I very gently sucked on the static openings and was surprised how much water came out.... (both sides). It was obvious the static ports/lines worked by capillary action and drew water inside the lines during the rain storm.
 
This happened to me conducting an approach in heavy rain during my IFR training. Instructor next to me so no real problems.

I can't recall exactly what happened but I am sure the Skyview ATTITUDE display became jerky and unusable (Skyview attitude uses static input) - sure gets your attention approaching minimums in cloud and rain. Went to the backup MGL Extreme Mini which does not use static input for attitude display.

I have since installed alternate static air and replaced the Vans static ports with Cessna style ports which I think are less susceptible to water blockage.

Fin
9A
 
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