Pitot Probes

[llondel]

This one got through all the holes in the cheese except the last one.

Seems that a refueller on an adjacent bay spotted the covers and alerted the ground crew, caps on pitot probes removed a couple of minutes before pushback.

https://www.atsb.gov.au/media/news-item ... be-covers/

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

I am pleased to see fatigue and change management policies are up for careful attention. I suspect overwork is where the problem lies.

[ExSp33db1rd]

Not overwork or fatigue when I did that myself when once flying Mrs Exs - who was not a fan of microlight flying and had reluctantly agreed to this trip as the only reasonable option to on offshore island - but distraction by friends and relatives whilst I was doing the ground checks before departure. Unfamiliar airfield, aircraft parked outside during our visit, so not normal pre-departure sequence. On start up and taxy away all visitors, including a pilot who would have noticed, were waving goodbye on the port side and the still covered pitot tube was under the starboard wing. Full power, normal acceleration but no airspeed ! Immediately knew what had happened and realised that the lack of airspeed indication was 'probably' only my error not a serious problem and not a very long runway, so got airborne by "feel" and then applied the known wind velocity to my, fortunately, already operating hand held GPS ground speed !

On arrival home "assessed' the W/V from the angle of the windsock, fortunately light, and applied to G/S. After landing I managed to remove the cover before Mrs ExS climbed out. To this day she doesn't know ! ( and doesn't normally read Ops.N - Shhhh ! )

[llondel]

And inexperience, looks like they have a lot of new hires who haven't been properly trained. I assume the refueller was an experienced hand who could see what was about to happen and shouted really loudly.

[TheGreenAnger]

Earlier this year had just got back from some long distance spam canning when I noticed another PA28 taxiing to the holding point with the big red pitot cover on and associated warning label fluttering in the slipstream. An urgent comment with reg. on frequency resulted in a return to remove the cover.

Getting out sequence or rushing the preflight checks is often the cause of such stupid and potentially dangerous oversights.

My biggest faux pax came when after take off from Cardiff Airport I realised that my handheld radio, always carried as a backup was not to hand. An embarrassed call to ATC had a FOD team out on the runway. The undamaged radio was found at the designated power check point short of the runway. The offending article having been left on the wing by me, was carried to the power check point where it blew off. If it had done so on the runway I suspect I would have been prosecuted by the CAA, Cardiff being a busy commercial airfield at the time. As it was the conversation with airfield management when I returned was enough to disabuse me of rushing checks in the future.

[ExSp33db1rd]

The offending article having been left on the wing by me,

A friend put his hand-held on the top of his car as he unlocked the door, then got in and drove off - with predictable results !