Pitot tube

Tonight I bent, flared, and fit the Garmin pitot tube. Doing this for the second time (first time was Dynon) was a lot faster, and easier because I could use the Dynon tube bends as a reference.

There are some interesting differences in the Dynon and Garmin pitot tubes. The Dynon is noticeably longer. The tubes are marked “pitot” and “AOA” on the Dynon, but unmarked on the Garmin. I added some heatshrink labels to identify the tubes, after gently blowing through them to confirm which was which.

I’m installing the unregulated Garmin pitot tube, so there’s no controller box needed. The switch on the panel will turn it on, and it’ll stay on until switched off on the panel. This is how it works on most aircraft, and since I’ll hardly ever use it, simple seems best.

Working on the pitot tube
Tubes need to be bent to allow clearance from the aileron pushrod, without contacting the spar
Some thought was required to remember to put the b-nuts on at the right time: after the tube is bent, before the tubes are flared.
The messy touchup paint job on the pitot mast. I could have done a better job, but I’ll worry about it later.