Free sim
Pitot-Static Failures
Three instruments run on two pressure sources — the pitot tube feeds the airspeed indicator, the static port feeds all three — and every blockage question on the oral follows from knowing which port feeds what. Pick a failure, then change altitude and airspeed: the solid needles show what the panel tells you, the ghosts show the truth.
Readouts comparing what each instrument indicates against the actual aircraft state for the selected blockage scenario.
Block a port, then climb, descend, or drag the sliders — the solid needles are what the panel shows, the dashed ghosts are the truth. Every behavior here is a row of the guide's blockage table: pitot-only kills just the airspeed indicator, pitot-plus-drain turns it into an altimeter, and a static blockage freezes the altimeter, zeroes the VSI, and makes the ASI lie in whichever direction you changed altitude. Climb and descent run at a modeled 500 fpm, time-compressed so you aren't waiting minutes to see the split.
Two things worth knowing beyond the needles: the fix for a blocked static system is the alternate static source — it feeds flight-deck pressure, slightly lower than outside, so expect small indication errors per your POH. No alternate source installed? The field-expedient last resort in an unpressurized airplane is breaking the VSI glass — sacrificing the least important static instrument to expose the static line. And the static-blockage airspeed errors here are not exaggerated: a few hundred feet of altitude change carries more pressure than your whole cruise airspeed, which is why the ASI pegs or zeroes so fast.
Drilling for the checkride?
The blockage table this sim animates lives in chapter 3 of our ACS-organized Private Pilot Quick-Review Study Guide — systems, gyro sources, compass errors, and the failure-response answers examiners actually ask for.