<< >> NASA ASRS Report 827693, March 2009

Failure to turn on pitot heat results in a possible altimetry error on the part of a PA32 private pilot.

Attributes
ACN	827693
Time
Date	200903
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	IMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	PA-32 Cherokee Six/Lance/Saratoga/6X
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Route In Use	Vectors
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Pitot/Static Ice System
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Private Flight Crew Instrument
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 50 Flight Crew Total 600 Flight Crew Type 350
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Altitude Crossing Restriction Not Met Deviation - Procedural FAR Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Inflight Event / Encounter Other / Unknown Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence

Narrative:

Approach had me descend into cloud tops. Pitot heat was inadvertently not on. The static port iced over and I noticed suspicious readings. The alternate static was opened and pitot heat turned on. Loss of static was reported to ATC. At that time I observed I was approximately 200 ft below the MEA for the approach (which could have been in error due to alternate static source error). Corrected and landed safely.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Failure to turn on pitot heat results in a possible altimetry error on the part of a PA32 private pilot.

Narrative: Approach had me descend into cloud tops. Pitot heat was inadvertently not on. The static port iced over and I noticed suspicious readings. The alternate static was opened and pitot heat turned on. Loss of static was reported to ATC. At that time I observed I was approximately 200 FT below the MEA for the approach (which could have been in error due to alternate static source error). Corrected and landed safely.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.