Wed Feb 19, 2014 6:09 pm
#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!
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!