No Airspeed??

During flights 1 and 2, as I mentioned in previous posts, I had no airspeed indication. It read zero for most of the flight duration. On the second flight, when I was much more calm, I seen the airspeed come alive on takeoff roll...and then go to zero about the time I left the ground (verified from video). When I slowed to do some slow flight...it flickered alive again, but it was clearly not reading correctly. It was reading 25-30 kts.

 

If you're reading along, hopefully what I've described has made the lightbulb go off in your head as to what my problem was. This is what I knew...at high AoA's, the airspeed came alive...but was not reading properly. At low AoA's...it went to zero. That, coupled with the fact that I have a Dynon pitot system should solve the mystery.

 

The Dynon pitot, for those unaware, has two functions. One, the obvious airspeed, and two is AoA. I suspected that I had these two lines crossed up. A call to Dynon pretty much confirmed it. I was told they had a batch of pitot's go out that were mislabeled...bam, that's my bogey!

 

Once I had that information, I spent about five minutes (I love five minute fixes) swapping the two lines at the pitot. Put the inspection cover back on and decided to fly...to test the fix.

 

After my first two flights, of approximately 1 hr 45 mins circling above the airport, I figured for flight #3 I was ready to venture away from the nest. There are plenty of open fields in my northern flight path in case of trouble. So flight 3 was a short 30 minute flight to verify my airspeed fix and get away from the airport for the first time.

 

Airspeed was now, indeed, working. But it seems to be reading about 11-12 kts slower than my groundspeed. I realize groundspeed can and is certainly different than indicated airspeed in a lot of cases. But even in a no wind situation...they don't match. I had it checked for leaks before getting my airworthiness...but maybe I need to check again? Scratching my head on this one.

 

Other than that, another successful flight in the books. We are off and running now, it was great to get away from the airport. One thing to note, if you think that once you start flying...you're done, you're being naïve. I am learning phase I has plenty of bugs to work through. The plane is not "done" yet...this is normal.