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Fixed a stubborn pitot-static leak with a drop of superglue after 3 hours of chasing it
Was tracing a 50-foot-per-minute altitude drift on a Cessna 172 in the hangar last Tuesday and ended up slapping a tiny dab of superglue on a loose fitting nobody thought to check first, anyone else have a hack that felt too sketchy but totally worked?
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keithbennett1mo ago
Yeah, been there. That sinking feeling when you realize the fix was that simple after all that hunting... it's almost worse than the problem itself. @the_sam nailed it with the silicone sealant story, I've done the same thing on a Piper Arrow's static port once. For me it was a little blob of RTV on a fitting that had a hairline crack you could only see with a bright light at the right angle. Felt like I was cheating but it held for two years until I sold the plane. Sometimes the sketchiest fix is the one that works best when you're already three hours deep and your back hurts from being stuffed under the panel.
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davis.noah1mo ago
Question how serious a 50-foot drift really is, since most of these planes fly IFR with tolerances way bigger than that and you'd never notice it in normal flight. A static leak that small might not even matter unless you're shooting a tight approach in actual instrument conditions where every foot counts against minimums. Sometimes we chase these little gremlins out of pure OCD and the plane was probably fine before we started messing with it.
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the_sam1mo ago
Man, I feel that pain in my bones. Last year I spent a whole Saturday chasing a 100-foot-per-minute climb error on a 172 and finally found a little crack in the static line right behind the instrument panel that was covered by some old tape. A tiny smear of silicone sealant fixed it in two seconds after four hours of work, felt like cheating but it held perfect on the next test flight. Sometimes the janky fix is the best fix when you've been hunting that gremlin all day.
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