Narrative:

It appears the 'remove before flight' fabric became detached from the rubber pitot tube cover for my blade type pitot tube while the plane was parked outside in windy conditions for 2 days. I completed my standard preflight and final walk around and distinctly recall noting that the tie down chains had been removed and the stall warning plug and pitot tube cover were not visible on the pilot side wing before entering the plane. However; on my takeoff roll as I went to call 'airspeed alive'; I noticed that the airspeed was indicating '0'. I did not deem there to be sufficient runway to safely abort the takeoff so I continued my departure and informed ATC that I needed to return and was cleared to land. I returned with no incident. I parked and removed the remaining rubber portion of the pitot tube cover. I then departed on my flight without further incident. It is my custom to physically touch the pitot tube during preflight as I remove the pitot tube cover; however with the missing red fabric failing to alert me to the presence of the pitot tube cover; I failed to do this. Without the fabric the small rubber portion fitted around the blade type pitot tube was not easily noticeable. I have changed pitot tube covers to one that is one uniform fabric; so a separation of the fabric from the cover can not happen again. I have adapted my preflight routine and flow to ensure that removal of all covers is a separate action from the physical 'touching' of each component before flight.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: DA40 pilot takes off with the pitot cover installed and returns safely to remove it. The red flag normally attached to the cover had apparently disappeared during windy weather.

Narrative: It appears the 'Remove Before Flight' fabric became detached from the rubber pitot tube cover for my blade type pitot tube while the plane was parked outside in windy conditions for 2 days. I completed my standard preflight and final walk around and distinctly recall noting that the tie down chains had been removed and the stall warning plug and pitot tube cover were not visible on the pilot side wing before entering the plane. However; on my takeoff roll as I went to call 'airspeed alive'; I noticed that the airspeed was indicating '0'. I did not deem there to be sufficient runway to safely abort the takeoff so I continued my departure and informed ATC that I needed to return and was cleared to land. I returned with no incident. I parked and removed the remaining rubber portion of the pitot tube cover. I then departed on my flight without further incident. It is my custom to physically touch the pitot tube during preflight as I remove the pitot tube cover; however with the missing red fabric failing to alert me to the presence of the pitot tube cover; I failed to do this. Without the fabric the small rubber portion fitted around the blade type pitot tube was not easily noticeable. I have changed pitot tube covers to one that is one uniform fabric; so a separation of the fabric from the cover can not happen again. I have adapted my preflight routine and flow to ensure that removal of all covers is a separate action from the physical 'touching' of each component before flight.

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.