wrote:Anybody else see a contradiction in the
above? I, for one, would NEVER fly

an airplane without pitot heat in IMC, especially anywhere near freezing
conditions.

I was with my first instrument instructor, this was the reason why there was a
seocnd instructor. Fired the first, he did not know very much. We were told to
intercept 394 and he is looking at the OBS for 394 degrees ..I told him it was
V394 and he didnt believe me untill I showed it to him on the map.


Um, do you know that the static port on the Cherokee is co-located on the
pitot stalk, and is intended to be heated with the pitot heater? Your
indicated loss of speed and altitude could well have been due to partial
obstruction of the static port and/or pitot tube.

umm.....the problem could have been several things, one thing is was not was
something clogged. How do I know, because something clogged would be a false
reading, losing altitude and airspeed was real.