aircraft speed sensor used as auto speedometer

Any body used a pitot for a speedometer ?

 

won't give you a ground speed - only air speed, so if you are sitting still on the ground in a 50 MPH wind that is the speed that will show. Not very usefull for a car other than being fun to watch.

 

I've seen guys use them at Bonneville, don't know if it really worked. I'd to know more about it.

-Saint

 

looks: awesome.
functions: well, it looks awesome!

 

Sept 09 issue of HotRod deluxe has a spread on an aircraft themed roadster. It uses one and says it " is surprisingly accurate once speeds exceed 20 MPH . There is an active , old grass strip airport near by , I'm going to pay the owner/pilot/mechanic a visit Monday too see if he thinks it will work and if he has one i can experiment with .I will follow up for those who might be interested LFE

 

Maybe a flat black GPS ?

 

Just guessing here, but if most planes will stall at speeds around what we can do on the freeway, it would seem to be like using a 3/4 torque wrench to tighten to 30 INCH lbs.

 

i would look for one from a small and slower airplane so the scale was something like 0 to 140..no need to go up to something like 300. keep in mind that some airspeed indicators show MPH , some show KNOTS ( not kilometers) , some show both. the Piper Cherokee i used to fly showed both , the Piper Tomahawk only had knots , the Alon Aircoupe only MPH. maybe something from an ultralight aircraft?

 

Yes I think its better left to aircraft for accuracy, however, you can use the old "use it when I get this thing off the ground" or "this thing really flies"

I would give it a "neat gadget level" of 7 (out of 10)

 

most small planes stall from 30 to 50 mph, if thats what you are doing on the freeway you have other problems

 

With my old Piper J-3 I used to slow fly it at around 55 mph air speed at altitude with a 65 mph head wind. Relative to the ground I was going 10 mph backwards. On the other hand if I made a 180 deg turn and went down wind I would be doing 120 mph relative to the ground.

 

Don't forget you are still below 100 odd ft, ground effect will make it somewhat inaccurate even for airspeed. Cross wind from as little a 10-15* off directly forward of the pitot can also give you a false reading.
Airspeed even in an aircraft is only one of a number if instruments used to identify true speed.
Its also a bit too gimmickie for me on a car, unless its something like a streamliner that could seriously use it.
Doc.

 

I once saw a DHC4 Caribou put down in a strong head wind with about a 70-100ft roll out!! I would love to have seen the airspeed and the actual ground speed!
It was for a cas-evac, I swear to god it got off the ground in 20ft! (I know, 20ft is impossible even for a DHC4 but it was a short run no matter what!)
I talked to a long time Caribou pilot back in about 93-4ish, he flew them in Viet Nam!! He claimed that in a strong headwind that they had a negative ground speed while on operations near Kashmir, (India/Pakistan) during op UNMOGIP in 76'.
(Wow, I kinda get O/T when airplane's are mentioned, sorry)
Doc.

 

If you're going to use one, make sure you get one of these from a P51, the ORIGINAL Mustang!:

 

Nah, not a mustang, you need one from A Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation CA-18..............

 

We had this same thread a few months back. One of the Cheaters has an AS indicator in his coupe.

 

Something I used to play with - an altimeter in my Volvo 142 during long boring night time Arkansas hill driving. Ya know that feeling? - Am I going up or down a hill or is this thing just starting to loose some power?

 

I have an altimeter in my off topic car, anyone thought of taking the guts out of a speedo and putting them in the airspeed indicator? after a while you could figure out your actual speed relative to the indicators on the face

 

Don't they make a speedo that runs off GPS like in some newer boats Could make it look old and have no speedo cable to boot.

 

Well, the highway thru town here has a speed limit of 45, and my current running HAMB car is a stock '47 4 door chrysler with the flathead 6 and fluid drive.
I didn't know that they had such a low stall speed, but it was just a guess...

 

I say run both air and ground speed, just make sure both gauges look similar or match, would be pretty cool
Mark

 

Just replace the whole dash of a model A with this:



That would deter theft, anyway

 

How cool would this look in a modified??!!


Doc.

 

luckyfasteddie, don't let the naysayers dissuade you. Go for it! Lets say you're planning a 250 mile trip on the Interstate: Buy 250 of the airspeed sensors. Have a friend (250 of 'em, actually) hold one at each mile marker with a cell phone in the other hand. When you pass, they call out their reading; you, or a navigator, do the math and VOILA!! Hot rod ingenuity wins again.<SCRIPT type=text/javascript> vbmenu_register("postmenu_4132874", true); </SCRIPT>

Kidding, of course. But a club could do the prank for 5-6 miles, with a friendly news reporter covering the thing for the evening news. What a way to advertise your club!

 

Aircraft parts belong on aircraft. Know anyone whose put car parts on an aircraft and lived? I dont, and have a lot of years working / rebuilding both.

 

Find one off of a SH-60B. They are heated, and look quite a bit like .30cal barrels. Make sure you hook up the compensating static port, or it will be innacurate when you go into higher altitudes. Just my pair of pennies.

 

Tell that to Gabriel Voisin.

 

Probably the guy who built the Aerocar

 

Well Monday I went and talked to the old guy at the airport,told him what I was interested in . He said come back Wed ( today ) , went this afternoon and he had the parts ready . Guage has knots and mph on it . Knots go to 100 and mph to 115 . Hooked them together with a plastic hose from Lowes got in the grocery getter truck and took them for a ride . Was kinda hard holding the peeto SP out the window and look at speedometer and the guage . I was also getting funny looks from people passing me , as the peeto sorta looks like a handgun which I was waving in the air out the window . I set the speed control at 50 mph and the guage red 54 mph . I think it will get more accurate when I mount it in some clean air . Will take some pics Sat if any body is interested .LFE

 

It's called "Peeto", but spelled "pitot" tube, or head..............

I take it you have one??????

Shoot me a P M, plz.