Pilots!
Late spring brings us all manner of fauna and flora - wildflowers, geese returning home, and a huge collection of... bugs!
On a car, bugs are good for peppering windshields, and not much more. Aircraft, though, seem to collect them like magnets, and this can cause a few specific problems:
1. Our leading edges are in need of additional washing. Sorry. :) If you wish to wash planes in the evening for flight time, or know someone who does -- we would be very appreciative. Wed-Fri is ideal. We will be seeking line support for weekday evenings to supplement our weekend wash schedule.
2. Bug-in-the-pitot! This one is actually very serious. Since the pitot tube is an air pressure instrument, working on ram air taken from the forward airstream - it is not uncommon for bugs to be "ingested", literally, by the pitot tube. We can get them as often as 3x a week on the fleet.
Imagine for a second the effects this will have. The failure modes are insidious:
Partial blockage: Your airspeed will read lower than actual. Think your approach speed is "a little fast" ? It might be.
Full blockage: This can happen in flight, causing your airspeed indication to "freeze" at your last speed. Imagine if it freezes at 40mph and you don't notice until your takeoff roll -- will you rotate at 2/3 field, or will you stay on the ground until you see trees? (kinda-correct answer: A)
(correct answer: You noticed the airspeed glitch on your runup and aborted flight)
A generally unreliable or "suspicious" airspeed indicator is dangerous! We rely on the airspeed for many critical operations, many of which are at final or departure.
Remember that the stall warning horn cannot be blocked by a bug and will continue to work. Should you depart with the plane hanging off of its prop and the stall warning horn blaring? NO. But if it goes off at 80mph you can stop and wonder about your airspeed.
If you have any questions regarding proper operation or diagnosis, please ask a flight instructor. Better safe than munching oak trees, and this is one of those interesting scenarios that sparks more theory than fact! :)
Blue Skies!
- Mike
