I thought so too. Apparently, the instrument knew better. That's one of
the reasons it was an exciting event!

BTW, it was water in the static line. Maybe that is different from a
complete blockage?

I made my instructor go up with me to prove to someone else what was
happening.


"Gary Drescher" wrote in message
...
"dlevy" wrote in message
...
I had a pitot/static problem as a new PPL (clear weather) that was very
exciting. Airspeed was fine till about 20 feet off the ground. At that
point airspeed would start dropping. I kept pushing the nose over and
airspeed kept dropping. I then realized rpm's were normal, the propellor
was attached, and everything sounded right. It scared the bejezus outta
me. Turned out to be water in the static line. Afterwards, I realized I
was way too dependant on that one indicator. Had it been IMC, it could
have been very ugly.

Hm, shouldn't a blocked static line cause the airspeed indicator to show
an increase in airspeed, rather than a decrease, with increasing altitude?

--Gary