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By James Chan
#1254719
Flying in rain inside cloud was easy for me too... at some 4000ft... until water droplets entered the system.....

Thinking I was flying straight and level I saw the altimeter suddenly jump by 100ft, then freeze again, which briefly made me suspect some static blockage.
I confirmed this by doing a gentle climb and descend while watching the altimeter and GPS altimeter:
Airspeed under-read on climb, over-read on descent.
Didn't see any evidence of the pitot blocking.

So I pulled out the alternate static knob, then did further gentle climbs and descends again, while cross-checking the change in altitude with the GPS change in altitude.

With another 20-30nm or so to run until the forecasted 'end of cloud', I eventually broke cloud and became VMC-on-top.
The static system eventually unblocked as the sun dried up the droplets.

It had me slightly petrified for a couple of minutes!
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By Timothy
#1254759
Petrified is not a good state of mind on the flight deck.

You had all the information you needed to fly, so take a deep breath and fly.
By johnm
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1255261
I've had pitot static ice up on PA28 twice both in solid IMC no drama just really annoyed at the cr@p pitot heater!
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By Keef
#1255406
I don't think there's a heater on the static port, is there? It's the one on the side, just ahead of the tail.
The theory (I know, don't tell me!) is that you use the alternate static source inside the cockpit if it ices up.
By johnm
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1255546
Keef wrote:I don't think there's a heater on the static port, is there? It's the one on the side, just ahead of the tail.
The theory (I know, don't tell me!) is that you use the alternate static source inside the cockpit if it ices up.


On my PA 28 the pitot and static were combined in the heated blade. I did have alternate static, but since I had altitude from the transponder and AI, turn coordinator and rev counter, I didn't bother using it :oops: