Tried a different method for bench testing pitot static systems and got weird readings

I normally use the manual test set at our shop in Orlando, but last week I hooked up a digital one a new guy brought in. The numbers were all over the place, like 50 feet off on altitude and 3 knots off on airspeed. Spent two hours chasing it before I realized the digital set had a leak in its own hose fitting. That thing cost the company $1,200 and was trash out of the box. Anybody else run into test equipment that was faulty right from the start?

2 comments

2 Comments

caseyfox15d ago

Oh man, that's rough. I've had a similar thing happen with a digital manometer that was reading way off out of the box. Just a heads up, sometimes the calibration cert is actually for a different temperature/pressure range than you're working in, which can throw things off too.

harperb4615d ago

Check the cert temp range first, that'll save you a headache.