AOA Gauge

[pete duncan]

Angle of attack indicator gauge. Why do we not see them on RAAus aircraft?

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

cause with all the high tech glass, radios, gps plotter and other nic nacs there is no room left for em.

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

to offer a bit more of a serious answer.

 

an AoA indicator is probably more usefull in aircraft that have a wide operating weight.

 

with only an ASI when setting up for your appoach to land or climbout you have to refer to the aircrafts operating charts and work out your weight/ airspeed reference figures. in the lighties that we fly the figures would only vary a few knots and would not be as critical to the safe approach and climbout speeds.

 

the major benifit of an AOA indicator is that all you have to do is put the needle near the red line and your approach speed is as low as you can get it no matter what your ref speeds are in relation to the aircrafts weight. pretty handy when you really need minimum speeds to land on a short runway or aircraft carrier.

 

So to answer your question i would suppose that the reason you do not see AoA indicators in Ultralight aircraft or the average GA types are that we are taught to fly by reference to the numbers in the operating manual. there is not much of a difference between minimum and max weights and therefore only a few knots difference between them. possibly also the initial cost of puchase and setting up and continued maitanence of an AoA.

 

the US navy use them as the primary instrument for approaches to aircraft carriers because of their ease of use and accuracy.

 

ozzie

 

 

[pete duncan]

Thanks ozzie that, made things a lot clearer. How about that, a one liner from me and a very helpful a couple of paragraphs from you, that was good value for a slow typer such as I

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

schools in

 

Angle of Attack Awareness and Angle of Attack Management [Ch. 2 of See How It Flies]