Pitot blockage failure, unable to resolve in air.
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I had a pitot blockage failure during a descent into KCOS. Airspeed dropped to 0 spontaneously, instead of getting stuck at last indicated value, so definitely indicates pitot blockage. This happened around 10,000, OAT > 0c, no visible moisture. Pitot heats were on the entire flight.
I ran my checklist for airspeed anomaly - pitot heat on, alt static air Pull on. No improvement.
I continued with my approach and checked the tablet on the ground. Indeed, pitot blockage failure. However, I noticed that toggling the pitot heat on and off didn't cause the annunciator to come on. The circuit diagram in the tablet confirmed this - the pitot heat was stuck on. Once I reset the failure the pitot heats could be toggled on and off, confirmed with annunciator and circuit diagram.
I'm wondering why a blockage would prevent me from toggling the pitot heats on and off? I have a short clip on the ground, if it is helpful. Just figured I would start by describing the issue before uploading something.
If I had more time, I would have liked to troubleshoot the issue more, though I'm not sure what else I would do?
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Here's a screenshot showing the pitot heats selected off, no annunciator, and the circuit diagram showing they were still active.
I tested my annunciators and the lights were functioning.
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This has been covered previously for the Dukes. I was very surprised to discover that the pitot failure logic in MSFS, which has probably been unchanged since the 80's, also affects the pitot heat events... One of my long time back-burner items has been to create my own entire pitot/static simulation, which would obviously take care of this. It's just not a priority right now. Thanks for letting me know. These things are often little errors that I can fix quickly, but this one has been in the core simulation for at least 20 years.
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@Black-Square That is so strange! Ok, I'm glad it's not just me then. Seems like it was just a MTBF situation and likely not ice, given the conditions.
