Spider in Pitot Tube!!!

[Whirlybird]

I'm posting this to let people know the sort of things that can happen. Two of us set off yesterday to go flying. The aircraft lives outside, but the pitot cover was on as usual. However, during the A check we happened to notice something tiny, just inside the pitot tube. Closer inspection revealed it to be a tiny spider! We looked at the cover, and found another one in there. It sounds almost impossible, but they must have crawled round the back, as there were no holes in the cover.

The CFI asked if we could hang on while he got a camera to take a photo....said you didn't often get photos like that. Then we tried to fish out the spider with a bent paperclip, but it didn't work. So off we went to maintenance, fast taxiing to confirm what we had already deduced - airspeed indicator not working at all. A few minutes later, all was well...and we got going, with nothing more exciting happening except avoiding some humongous showers, and a glider pilot who didn't seem to know which runway he was landing on.

But we could very easily not have noticed till the take-off run...I mean, do YOU expect a spider to crawl round the back of your pitot cover, right inside, and then into the tube? Well, I'll be checking extremely carefully in furture.

The more I fly, the more I realise that ANYTHING can happen. And now I know why thoroughness of preflight checks is often in direct proportion to number of hours flown by pilot.

[david viewing]

Just thinking out loud, but could this be an argument against pitot covers? You can imagine how the spider might have found the cover itself inviting, with the bonus of a ready made nest inside!

We don't use a cover on the PA-28 and had been debating the potential merits of one recently.

Sorry if I'm opening a bag of worms (literally!). Anyway, thanks for posting this interesting story.

[nouseforaname]

Same thing happened to me only never realised it until after i'd taken off, spider had laid egg's in the pitot tube, even though it was on. According to the engineer who sorted it in Sandown it was very common this time of year.

TD

[AerBabe]

When Genghis-T-E was going through the pre-flights on our Thruster with me, he said to carefully check inside the wings...

Apparently, a cat was found napping in some Thruster wings once.

[montster]

David V - can I put the lid back on your can of worms by telling you that I found a spider in the pitot tube of a PA28 that doesn't have a pitot cover?

It was removed by gentle poking with a small twig which persuaded it to come running out.

[Whirlybird]

When we poked ours it just ran further in.

[Genghis the Engineer]

I've found that disconnecting the tube from the back of the ASI and blowing down it from the cockpit end works well - but won't shift any eggs, only things that are still mobile.

G

[Maude Charlee]

Fortunately the reason for checking the pitot tube was explained to me on my very first flight, and it was for this very reason - insects crawling inside the hole. Similarly, checking inlets and exhausts for nesting birds in the engine.

Nature is bizarre.

[trevelyan]

My Club has had a couple of instances not too long ago of ASI failure, closer inspection revealing Maggots in the Pitot Tube!

Yukkk.

[helicopter-redeye]

was it that Brazillian Wandering Spider that went missing?

[Send Clowns]

All you PPLs out there learn nouseforaname's lesson - don't pay lip service to the rolling checks. A good ASI check will tell you before you lift. As for instructors - have all your students done a circuit without ASI, just in case this happens to them?

[Gertrude the Wombat]

As for instructors - have all your students done a circuit without ASI, just in case this happens to them?

I did one on a recent trip when I needed a check ride anyway. This was the first time I'd done a circuit with no ASI - I'd not seen this done on the PPL course.

I asked to do it having read too many reports over the last little while of people killing themselves due to absence of the ASI - turned out not to be a problem, although I did use up rather more runway than usual.

[Whirlybird]

It shouldn't be a problem, and people shouldn't kill themselves just because they don't have an ASI. I suspect it's the surprise element that did it; if they hadn't flown without one before, they could easily panic. It's far, far easier to deal with something if you've practised it first.

[AerBabe]

Part of my PPL instruction were a couple of circuits with a 'failed' ASI. This was fairly early on in my training too. I had been given a hint by being told just before to 'learn the picture' - it worked. Although I was initially flustered and, like Gertrude, used a bit more runway than usual, I didn't even come close to flying dangerously.