Spent 3 hours chasing a ghost on a Garmin G1000 in Atlanta

I was troubleshooting a weird altitude encoding error on a Cirrus SR22 out of PDK last Thursday. Turns out the pitot static drain valves were slightly open from the last annual, and nobody closed them properly. Has anyone else had a simple mechanical check eat up half a shift like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

angela_ross5d ago

Just read about a Cirrus out of Centennial that had similar weirdness with altitude readings... turned out the static port covers were left on for a preflight that went wrong. Heard from a guy at the FBO who said the pilot taxied half the length of the ramp before someone flagged him down. Three hours is brutal for something that basic though... especially when you're dealing with Atlanta's airspace.

paige_harris5d ago

oh man @angela_ross, that is brutal but ive totally been there lol. last year i was flying out of KAPA and my altimeter was showing me like 500 feet low during runup. i spent a solid 45 minutes on the phone with the mechanic thinking my transponder was toast. turns out i left my headset case sitting on the static port on the passenger side from loading bags. felt like such a clown when i finally noticed it. three hours in atlanta airspace though? thats next level pain. i wouldve been sweating bullets trying to explain that to approach while they kept asking me to verify my altitude every 5 seconds.