ON SPEED Angle of Attack Video

[Vac]

Hi Folks,

Team ONSPEED will have a small booth in the EAA Innovation pavilion (IC-29) and will be conducting a couple of AOA forums. Our skunkworks will be talking about our HUD project as well. We'll be sharing lesson's learned and technical information with anyone interested. We will have some hardware and simulator displays at the booth. We are a non-profit, open source group and happy to chat with anyone interested. We are getting close to finalizing the hardware configuration for the "Gen 2" AOA computer and just shoehorned all of the latest/greatest equipment into the Jurassic RV-4 test bed. When we do finally declare configuration victory, we'll get a GitHub site set up for collaborative software work and update the hardware info on the flyonspeed.org website. The plan is to be in beta test with the new hardware this fall--we'll see how that plan survives all the foibles of a bunch of volunteers with good intentions

Our AOA forums will be Monday, 22 July 1300-1415 in Workshop Classroom B and Friday, 26 July 1430-1545 at Forum Stage 1. During the AOA forums, we?ll talk about what ?ONSPEED? AOA is and how it?s applied during flight. We are also working on an F-18 inspired DIY HUD and will be conducting a forum on that project on Thursday, 25 July 0830-945 at Forum Stage 3. We look forward to meeting anyone that wants to talk AOA, Heads Up Displays, warning systems, energy management, RV?s or just share a beer and spend some quality time shooting down watches.

Another part of our mission is to develop and maintain the RV training resources that Doug so graciously hosts here on the VAF Safety Page. We are always happy to chat with any instructors or folks undergoing transition training that can use those resources.

And, as always, we are looking for feedback and happy to accept any critique or collaboration.

Happy 4th of July,

The FlyONSPEED Team

[Flash]

Vac,
Really hope to make this. For nothing else but to raise a glass!
Cheers
Flash out

[bruceinusa]

I am a RV-4 owner and also a test pilot for one of the large airliner manufacturers. Today I had the opportunity and privilege to fly a demo/data gathering flight in Vac's RV-4, which is equipped with the audible AoA tone system. I wont bother to describe the system in this post, as there is plenty of information and links about it already on this thread. But here is my impression of the concept as integrated so far:

Love it! It provides an intuitive cue to flying your plane at the most appropriate AoA for the phase of flight without having to think too much about it. The learning curve for adapting ones flying technique to incorporate this device was measured in mere seconds for me. I did not find the tones intrusive or distracting at all and they allowed me to keep my eyes out of the cockpit significantly more for orientation, trajectory control and traffic acquisition.

Once I was out in the operating area I carried out a couple of gentle, level decelerations in both clean and full flap configurations. This got me familiar with the tones/beeps and the airspeeds that they occurred at in level flight. Then it was on to the fun stuff: maneuvering and basic aerobatics. It was a joy to be pulling smoothly around the puffy cumulus clouds which were forming at around 5000ft, in a loose sequence of wingovers and lazy-eights, all flown on the reassuring on-speed tone with my eyes firmly out of the cockpit. A couple of loops followed, and I found that when the on-speed tone changed to the higher pitch "too-slow" tone over the top of the loop, all I needed to do was to relax the back stick pressure a little to regain the on-speed tone. Eyes stayed out, looking for the horizon to come into view and there was the nice reassurance that I was not about to depart the loop into a stall or spin.

Back in the visual pattern, flying the on-speed tone around a 180 continuous base turn and then down final was a piece of cake. A couple of times the tone changed to either "too slow" or "too fast" but a small pitch input with the stick quickly brought us back "on-speed". Which, when you think about it, is consistent with how we were all taught to control speed on approach in a GA prop plane: adjust speed with the stick and adjust rate of descent with power. As you start the flare, you just let it transition to the slow tone down to touchdown. The system is so impressive, you almost have to remind yourself that this technology only assists with angle-of-attack/speed: trajectory control, ground track, wind allowance, etc is still up to you. But now I think you have freed up some brain capacity to fly more accurate, consistent patterns and look out more.

All-in-all, it's a win-win enhancement for safer flights.

Bruce Macdonald.

[olyolson]

Vac,

E-mail sent,
Oly

[FlyFastJP]

I am anxiously awaiting the 2.0 stuff, either to buy or build. This is a great addition to flight safety.

[Pilot135pd]

Originally Posted by scrollF4

I can also take you up in KELLI GIRL and demonstrate it with one of Vac's gen 1 boxes...I'm a tester. Using F-4 Phantom-style AOA energy management cues totally changes and improves the way you can fly your RV. My traffic pattern/landing ops are now near-perfect...

I'd love to try it in real world conditions if possible.

Originally Posted by Vac

Here's a couple of photos of the system described in the paper

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bSO...ew?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IQR...ew?usp=sharing

The test rig is on a standard RV inspection plate and will fit in any -7/8/9/10 or 14.

I'm planning on installing my Dynon heated AOA pitot tube on the inspection plate too but this removes the headache of installing a new 1/4" tube from the wing all the way to the panel in an already built plane.

Should I hold up on buying the Dynon pitot and just build this stand alone instead or is this setup in addition to the Dynon heated AOA pitot tube?

Would another option be to use a Dynon heated AOA pitot with the Gen1 system and turn down the volume of the Dynon AOA and only use this audio?

I'm wanting to install a heated pitot tube so I still have some doubts on how all of this comes together.

[Vac]

Hi Carlos,

The Dynon pitot heat unit and our computer could be bolted to an inspection plate, as long as there is no interference with your aileron bellcrank. I have one of our computers on my inspection plate in the RV-4, but I pulled the pitot heat unit out to have sufficient space and re-purposed the wiring going to the cockpit so now my Dynon probe is unheated; which is fine for flight test work. It's not too difficult to run an additional 1/4" flexible tube to the cockpit, which would allow you to use one of our computers in lieu of the Dynon progressive stall warning tone. If you're handy with a soldering iron, the Gen 2 has a lot more capability than Gen 1; but the Gen 1 will give good baseline AOA performance in the RV-3/4/6/7/or -8.

My 2 cents would be to install the heated pitot and control box were it makes most sense to you and run wires/tubing to the cockpit and hook up the basic Dynon AOA system in accordance with the Dynon installation manual. After that, you can add a Gen 2 (or Gen 1 box) with minimal fuss.

Since there is an IMU (inertial measurement unit) in Gen 2, it's nice if its roughly on the longitudinal axis of the airplane. This isn't required for AOA, but may be for future capability we are adding to the system.

Happy to help, feel free to email or PM any time.

Cheers,

Vac

[Pilot135pd]

Originally Posted by Vac

Hi Carlos,

The Dynon pitot heat unit and our computer could be bolted to an inspection plate, as long as there is no interference with your aileron bellcrank. I have one of our computers on my inspection plate in the RV-4, but I pulled the pitot heat unit out to have sufficient space and re-purposed the wiring going to the cockpit so now my Dynon probe is unheated; which is fine for flight test work. It's not too difficult to run an additional 1/4" flexible tube to the cockpit, which would allow you to use one of our computers in lieu of the Dynon progressive stall warning tone. If you're handy with a soldering iron, the Gen 2 has a lot more capability than Gen 1; but the Gen 1 will give good baseline AOA performance in the RV-3/4/6/7/or -8.

My 2 cents would be to install the heated pitot and control box were it makes most sense to you and run wires/tubing to the cockpit and hook up the basic Dynon AOA system in accordance with the Dynon installation manual. After that, you can add a Gen 2 (or Gen 1 box) with minimal fuss.

Since there is an IMU (inertial measurement unit) in Gen 2, it's nice if its roughly on the longitudinal axis of the airplane. This isn't required for AOA, but future capability we are adding to the system.

Happy to help, feel free to email or PM any time.

Cheers,

Vac

I replied to your email but now that I?ve read your post here I?m convinced talking is better than writing because I?m either missing something here or I?m not communicating what I want correctly.

[Vac]

Carlos,

I sent an email--hopefully I got it right this time! If not, feel free to call.

Cheers,

Vac

[Pilot135pd]

Still missing my point

No worries I?ll go back to the website and start my research over again to see if I can figure it out. Thanks.