Pitot play time

["R. Wayne Owens" <wamowens@bellsouth.net>]

Jeff Barnes,
 Jim Hocut, a Cozy Builder and I have both built heated pitot tubes that
require much less power (about 7 watts) than standard a/c hardware. We
heat so much less metal mass than the standard tubes that it takes less
to keep the pointy end hot.Neither  of us have flown them soooo. Anyway
high temp fiberglass insulating tape around the metal probe  then
wrapped with enough nichrome wire to keep it just below the melting
point of nylaflo (or better still teflon) tubing .  This was then
glassed over on Jims cozy. Mine was insulated again and inserted in my
step/pitot tube. I machined a teflon tip for my tube to replace the
aluminum  one provided.  It seems that ice would have a harder time
attaching to the teflon.
Wayne Owens
SVX and other follies buildin