Last fall, I flew IFR from Santa Monica back to San Jose. Most of the flight was dry or on top, but the last 20 minutes were in the clouds in moderate to heavy rain. On final at RHV, I checked my AOA at about 90 KIAS to verify my approach speed, as I always do, and discovered that I had all the green bars still lit, as if I was still at a cruise AOA (the rest of the pitot-static system was normal). As I flared, there was no change. Back at the hanger, I checked the water drain, but no water came out. I didn't have time to do further debugging then. A week later, I flew and the AOA was back to normal. (My sensing holes are also #60.) I'm not sure what the problem was, but it must have been water. It's the only time I have had a problem with the AOA in 450 hours.


Mike Reinath
N3602M 360 at 450 hrs TT
San Jose, CA (RHV)