I went to the airport this morning to try and
fly with the temps a little lower. I
made 3-take-off attempts before finally throwing in the towel. The head temps were in line, but the airspeed
indicator would not go above 48 knots.
Each time the airplane wanted to fly, but without 55 knots showing I
aborted each take-off. I taxied back to
the hanger and got out the PAP. I turned
to the pitot test page, hooked up a syringe and attempted to pressurize the
pitot tube. NO JOY!. Nothing shows on the airspeed indicator. I blew into the tube with the same
results. I removed the top cowl to find the
plastic pitot tubing had come off of the pitot tube at the pitot block. This explains why I was unable to get up to
55 knots on the 4th. Before
reconnecting the tubing to the pitot tube I rerouted it over the engine under
some hoses it had previously passed over so there is no tension on the
tubing. I think there may have been some
tension and that is why it became disconnected in the first place. I reattached the pitot tubing to the pitot
tube and safety wired the connection. I
also ran the twisted safety wire to the screw holding the pitot tube in the
pitot block and twisted it in place. I
ran a 1 minute test on the pitot system and it dropped less than 2 knots on the
airspeed indicator. Hopefully I will be
able to get back into the air on Friday the 11th.