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I have this question is the pressure measured in the entry of the pitot tube the same when the plane is flying headwind or turning a 360 degree turn while maintaining the same indicated airspeed?

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2 Answers 2

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Easiest thing is to imagine you're in a motorboat on a river, with a current, driving in circles at a constant water speed, indicated by a water speedometer that measures the dynamic pressure of the water more or less the same way as an airspeed.

Your path relative to the bottom of the river will be a spiral and your speed over the bottom will be faster or slower as you move with or against the current, as you make a perfect circle in the water, but your indicated speed through the water will be constant.

Airplanes are exactly the same. The air is a big river. You're just in it instead of floating on top.

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  • $\begingroup$ Thanks for your explanation that's almost the same answer I gave to a friend of mine that's the one who is very hard to convince that it will be the same because the plane will be flying at the same indicated airspeed in any direction but he still says that there have to be a difference in the pressure at the entrance of the pitot tube due to the wind coming in a different direction but is hard to convince him and I ran out of explanation to try to make him understand, thanks for your answer $\endgroup$ Mar 12, 2019 at 3:31
  • $\begingroup$ Airspeed is not affected due to wind because although wind direction changes the relative airflow aircraft is facing is always head-on. If it is not, it is called side slipping and pilots usually try to keep slipping as low possible because it adds drag and affects stability. In case of large side slip angles like in aerobatics the airspeed indicator will go haywire. Small side slip angles faced in everyday operations (including engine failures) have neglible effect. $\endgroup$
    – busdriver
    Mar 12, 2019 at 8:34
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Since the airspeed indicator measures pitot pressure, "same indicated airspeed" means same pitot pressure.

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