The argument that you may forget to take it off does not fly for high wing aircraft. If you haven’t spotted the cover still on while ready for departure in a C-172, well…
ALWAYS use Pilot Covers if leaving the aeroplane parked and you are going to walk away from it, period.
Oh, and always leave the towbar where you can see it from the cockpit if going flying – inside aeroplane or outside the aeroplane…
I would argue that for aircraft used my many people some of who may not be regularly users – no cover. Simply the risks of it being left on (and it will be, I know), are not outwieghed by the benefits.
In other circumstances I would use a cover.
What are the risks of it being left on?
If VFR I can’t see a major issue. Yes you’d want to get down and sort it as soon as reasonable but it shouldn’t stop the aircraft flying.
If launching into IMC I’d hope one would notice the airspeed wasn’t alive and would abort the take off, or if airbone would be able to make a circuit back to land before getting into it.
Maybe I’m missing something
Don’t just cover the pitot.
Cover the instrument and go flying.
VMC or IMC, it doesn’t matter. Set power and pitch and, hey presto! by the laws of Newtonian mechanics, you have set airspeed.
In VMC, once we have a bit of a feel for our machine, we should be able to cover the whole panel, except the oil pressure gauge.
I have dayglo yellow covers to go over the pitot and static probes (we actually have a static probe with holes on the side, next to the pitot – rather than the port on the side of the fuselage a lot of planes have).
Our pitot tube has a wider opening than the typical Cessna/Piper ones – big enough for something larger like a wasp to crawl inside. However, if I’ve forgotten to take the covers with me on a trip, it has always been water ingress that’s been the problem (because rainwater goes down our pitot tube rather easily).
My flying boat has a pitot which cannot be seen from the cockpit (like a Cherokee), so I have a line and a flag with pins to the wingtip float, in sight of the cockpit, so if you’re taxiing out, you can see the flag.
A little worse is the pitot cover on a Cessna floatplane, as, while floating, it’s really hard to reach – you have to get it at the dock, or return to the dock (which is a pain).
Or, you could install one of these, though I don’t like them…
Let’s face it: The Pitot-Cover is one of the most simple things to see during preflight inspection.
If one fails to see this, I don’t want to know what else you miss out on during preflight.
Plus you will realize a forgotten pitot cover during taxi or the latest at the startup roll – therefore in contrast to all the other things you have missed out on preflight it might be embarrassing (“D-E… rejecting takeoff and taxiing back to ramp to remove pitot cover”) but not dangerous at all.
I have to admit, I have forgotten it once. And yes, my key learning was that in this event the entire preflight was crap and I should not have done it that way…
You can buy the pitot cover that blows off if you forget it anyway…
They are very worthwhile, nothing spoils a good aeroplane more than errors or blockages in a pitot system. You rely on that being accurate to the last knot, and you only need to fly one with it broken to appreciate it.
William, can you tell me where to get these covers which will blow off by itself? This is perfect for a plane owned by a lot of persons…
