DPM20J

When I was briefly diagnosing, I believe the breaker pops when the Master is turned on, without the flap switch engaged. Wouldn't that point to a hot wire in the flap circuit grounding issue rather than the actual flap motor?

I flew back from Wagner, SD in moderate to occasional severe (for me) turbulence yesterday. I landed with full flaps and retracted flaps at landing. When I was parking plane, noticed flaps still down. Figuring I forgot to retract, I turned on Master and tried raising. Nothing. I looked and discovered Flaps circuit breaker popped. Reset breaker with Master off and it stayed in. As soon as Master turned on, it popped. I also tried it this morning, same result. No previous flap issues. Where do I start? My plane is parked outside in Tower, MN (12D). It's supposed to be relatively warm Friday/Saturday. It would be nice to get it figured out, if possible. Any help appreciated!

I figured I’d start at the pitot tube first. Drilled out access panel rivets. The tube connection to ASI was fairly easy to access. Disconnected this line. I only had a 2 gal air compressor. I set the pressure to 50 psi and tried several times to reverse blow the pitot. Although air was exiting the pitot tip, it didn’t seem like it was nearly as much as was being put in. I let the tank fully charge and fully opened the tank valve to 125 psi. This time something shot out the tip with a BB gun sound. From the foul smell on my hand, it must have been a large insect. The air was now free flowing through the pitot. I didn’t have countersunk rivets. I’ll get some from our FBO in the morning to reattach the panel. My pitot will now always be covered when parked. As noted above, you take for granted an error free ASI, especially when the reading is far from normal at takeoff, with your gear alarm sounding. Thank you all for your help and thoughtful comments!!

Thanks... I will let you the outcome.

I tried removing the four screws that attach the pitot to the wing. The pitot will slide down, but not far enough to disconnect it from the pitot air line at the top. I hate to pull too hard as to create further issues.

Thanks, I do realize that. I need to isolate and disconnect the line going to the pitot tube and blow compressed air back toward the pitot tube to reverse the blockage. I believe the best location to do this would be at the pitot drain beneath the left wing root, or at the ASI itself. Getting at the rear of the ASI itself is definitely a process.

I noticed my pitot tube was blocked a couple weeks ago, seemed like a very fine material (a mud dauber?). I tried to remove it the best I could. On Monday, upon take-off, my gear warning sounded and the by-pass button light was flashing. My ASI was showing 60 knots and was not moving higher. I kept a slow climb, afraid to raise the nose as may ASI airspeed was not increasing. I pressed the by-pass switch and cycled the gear. Eventually, my ASI showed an increase. My pitot system has to be blocked somewhere. I spoke to our FBO mechanic. They are swamped and not able to get to it. He said, (tongue in cheek) if it was in their shop, they would blow out the pitot line in reverse to try and remove the blockage. I tried to find an access to the pitot line. Obviously, it ends up at the ASI, but there has to be an easier access point where I am able to get compressed air to the plastic pitot line. I tried unscrewing the pitot tube itself, but it does not drop down far enough to get at the tube connection where I could at least blow out the pitot itself. I am thinking the pitot drain would be a good location to get at the pitot line. Where would I access the pitot drain, from the belly? Does anybody have experience with this issue? In hindsight, after I found the pitot blockage, I should have rigged up a vacuum or something to suck out any material from inside the pitot tube. Lesson learned. Any help will be appreciated.