Pilot's Life Blog

APRIL 9, 2024

Moving air from outside feeds into the pitot tubes and fills a pressure diaphragm. The sensor detects the amount of force from the pitot impact pressure and gives it airspeed indications by converting those values into speed. Airline pilots also need to know airspeed so they can know when to engage the landing gear.

Pitot Tube 52

Pitot Tube Indicated Airspeed True Airspeed Calibrated Airspeed 52

AeroSavvy

OCTOBER 26, 2020

Airlines are upgrading older cockpits with newer displays, so this old indicator will soon become a relic. Ram air from a pitot tube and static (undisturbed) outside air from a static port, usually a hole on the side of the fuselage. V MO on the 767 is between 340-360 knots (depending on aircraft serial number).

Pitot Tube 52

Pitot Tube Indicated Airspeed Knot Altimeter 52

Air Facts

MAY 5, 2025

The general prognosis indicated no icing in the clouds, no turbulence and a quartering headwind from the west resulting in a mere five knots of headwind component. Instead of a gentle breeze out of the west, we had over 20 knots of headwind blowing out of the south. Obviously, the winds aloft were nowhere near forecast.

VOR 52

VOR Weather Approach Runway 52

Fear of Landing

MAY 9, 2025

The most recent case, when Singapore Airlines flight SQ321 experienced extreme turbulence in May 2024, led to thirty passengers injured and one death by a passenger who suffered a heart attack. Before that, the most recent turbulence-related passenger flight with a fatality in the NTSB database was United Airlines flight 826 in 1997.

Turbulence 99

Turbulence V Speed Rudder Air Traffic Control 99