I decided to do a little flying yesterday afternoon out of 4B7 in Schroon Lake, NY. Not real cold, high teens or low 20s, but took a while to preheat everything and get the frost and some ice cleared off the wings but I finally got everything ready to go. After a long idle to get the oil temp off the peg, off we go. After flying over the local ski resort a couple of times I headed back to get in some landings. On the way I wanted to get the engine temp up to evaporate any moisture in the oil. I started at around 1500 AGL and began a full power climb at an angle of attack that was chirping the stall horn regularly. In the cold air the mighty O-300 was really taking me up. I looked over at the airspeed indicator to find that I was accelerating in climb like never before! No kidding, the more I climbed the faster I went. Up and up we went, faster and faster! It was a beautiful thing. My speed went until I had well exceeded VNE and was approaching the upper limit of the ASI at 180+mph! I felt like I was flying an F18. If I'd have climbed long enough I would have been able to break the sound barrier. Not wanting to have the wings come off due to the excessive speed (or damage the ASI), the only prudent option left to me was to level off and begin a descent. Only after beginning a descent was I able to get my speed down and under control. As I got lower and lower my speed thankfully continued to decline and I finally dropped down to the speeds one would expect of a 1956 C172, and still they dropped. I'd heard local woodsmen talk of areas in the forest where compasses weren't reliable, but never a complete inversion of all rules of physics as I was experiencing. As I approached pattern altitude I had to fly the tachometer since my ASI was now pegged low and not showing any airspeed at all. If I could have figured out how to get it turned around I would have backed down final because by all instrument indications I was no longer going forward. Since my straight tail has no back window and no rearview mirrors, that would have been a trick. I was glad to have practiced many "rate of closure" landings because I'd never flown at negative airspeeds before.

It was an incredible day, kind of like an out of body experience. Either that or my pitot tube froze some moisture after being warmed as part of the preflight.

All kidding aside, I'm glad I practice flying and landing "head out of the plane". I fly my plane as often as I can so wasn't overly concerned about landing but was glad that winds were light. I've never heard of a static port freezing but you can bet I'll be practicing the skill of estimated (eyeballed) pattern altitude versus indicated, just in case.

Frank

Kinda like leaving a pitot cover on, not that I know anyone who's actually done that.

Gump

With a little practice a calibrated eyeball can be more accurate than an airspeed indicator or altimeter anyway. In flight school I often flew with a guy who had been a Golden Knight for the prior six years. He would look down and call altitude very accurately according to the altimeter. When I pointed out a slight mistake, he claimed the altimeter was off. I think he was right.

And I bet a little Dynon D2 or similar contraption would have been great to have had along for the ride.

My only ASI now is the digital MINI, I got rid of the old round one along with the VSI. The MINI has it all, but the pilot needs to remember to turn it on But it is an easy way to practice no instrument flight, I'd rather have no ASI then one not reading right.

Kinda like leaving a pitot cover on

or having dirt dobbers (mud wasps) decide to take up residence in the pitot tube.

The pitot tube on my 180 has a flapper deal that tilts back when there is forward motion. A few years ago I flew around for a half hour looking at the scenery and didn't notice I was going 0 until I came back into the pattern and looked to see if I was going slow enough to put the first notch of flaps in. Somehow it stuck in warm weather and only did it that one time.

180 Marty,

Did the old spray mechanics, up your way, just cut the pitot off when they put new fabric on a wing? I flew more than one Pawnee with no pitot.

Contact

Loved the write-up!

Too bad the Air France 447 pilots hadn't read it, before they dumped the Airbus 330 in the Atlantic.

The only time I've had a pitot freeze was on the way back on a 135 flight to Cody from Laramie in an Archer. We flew through a small snow shower, not enough to restrict visibility much, but enough to freeze the pitot, which wasn't a heated version. Since it wasn't an IFR flight, I didn't have to notify ATC, but I did anyway since I was in contact with them on flight following. It was a little troubling, because my experience with the Archer at that time was relatively limited. As it turned out, it was a non-event, just like yours.

Cary

Unreliable airspeed in an Airbus at the higher flight levels in IMC conditions is an entirely different animal. Yes, we train to deal with this situation and they could have done something different if someone would have been aware of what was actually happening.

It's great how you kept your cool and continued to fly the airplane!

Not sure Contact. I'm bettin' they tried to keep it.