Pitot tube on Piper Archers

panampilot

New Member
No one can seem to give me a straight response on this question. On the Archer there is a pitot mast that comes down from the left wing. The front hole is obviously where the ram air is received. There are two more holes on the mast that I can't figure out. One is at the bottom and one is on the backside of the mast. I imagine one is a drain hole and the other is the static port but again I can't get a straight answer. There are no static ports found on the aircraft so I know one has to be the static port. Any help would be appreciated. /ubbthreads/images/icons/confused.gif
 
Well that sounds good to me, but I think the Cherokees/Archers had static ports on the aft fuselage area. I'm not too sure!
 
That'd be it! On the Arrow the static ports are on both sides of the fuselage, aft. That's how it is on the new Arrows, I'll have to look at an old one. Funny thing is the mast still has the static port in the back of it but they decided to stick the ports on the fuselage. I'm sure they have their reasons... anyone know why?
 
The hole on the back is the static port. The whole on the bottom is the drain hole. On the Arrow, you'll find the static ports as noted above on the rear fuselage. However, if you look at the pitot tube, it still has the hole for the static port on it. Just so they manufacturered them all the same I guess.
 
Thanks a lot for your help. I noticed that the Arrow has the same tube but the static ports are still on the side of the plane. That's cleared some confusion up.
 
its panam so the oldest plane is maybe 2 years old. i think the side fuse. static ports are probably an upgrade or something. because some of the new ones have it, and some don't. i know a few of the planes were bought post 9-11, they were canceled orders so we got a good deal or something and they have some extra goodies.
 
Actually, the bottom hole is connected to the rear hole. It isn't a drain, it's to provide true static pressure in high AoA situations (so any errant ram air entering the bottome port doesn't effect the static pressure)

Chunk
 
Are you sure about that chunker? If that is true, where is the drain hole for the pitot tube.

On our school's Arrow IV, the static port if on the aft side of the pitot tube and is the size of a pinhole...I mean, it's really small. The hole on the bottom is the drain hole.

Surf
 
Actually, it is a drain hole. Static pressure will not be affected at high AOA on that tube. Look at the Piper Arrow III. It has static ports on the fuselage, back by the empenage. However, they used the same pitot/static tube as in the Archer III series, since it had the drain hole.
 
On Cherokees the static pressure is taken from the back and the bottom hole, they are connected. There is no drain hole, the drain is located inside the cockpit on the left side wall. If you don't believe us, go out at night with a flashlight and shine it in the bottom hole, or just blow in the bottom hole. The Arrow uses the same pitot/static mast, but has separate static ports on the rear of the fuselage, one on each side.
 
Just an offshoot about that style of piper pitot/static tube - it is on some arrows, and be sure to turn the heat on well before any chance of encountering ice. I don't know if it was just our particular aircraft but even with the heat on for a long duration a slight encounter with ice would almost certainly lead to a pitot/static failure. Fortunately we had alt. air which added a nice safety backup.
 
48940
48941
 
Back
Top