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AOA - is it worth it

Yes

I only have 200 hrs pic, 100 in my 9. I have the dynon with the aoa.
I have found several times where I was heading into an unfamiliar strip, grass, etc and I used it as much or more than airspeed. It is amazingly accurate and I have tested it dozens and dozens of time after calibration. I would say learning about it and calibrating it actually taught me a fair bit that is great knowledge to have.

Excellent added safety tool to have with you.
 
Without a doubt . . . Go for it

I have AFS AOA installed and displayed on my EFIS. I use it all of the time.
 
It's not hard to install during the original build. I would imagine somewhat harder once the AC is completed, due to the additional wiring and tubing. Should be standard on all modern aircraft.

Bevan
 
I love my

ASF AOA PRO in my 7A. As I transition from downwind to base to final, my attention transitions from airspeed to AOA indicator so that on final, my attention is on AOA almost entirely. Our aircraft have very benign stall characteristics, however the have little pre-stall warning (compared to the Mooneys I flew previously).

My advice is..: don't leave home without it!...:D
 
AofA Sport

Well a contrary view.......... sort of....

We have an A of A sport. For the first 10 hours of flying I never bothered calibrating it, just left the circuit breaker pulled. After calibrating it, it worked OK for a few months, then started giving error messages, so the circuit breaker got pulled again. Its been like that since.

What I find with the 9 is that to get into a stall you have to have the nose incredibly high!! Ok...... different perspective in a turn, but have never got near the stall as there are too many visual clues.

Having said that, there is almost no buffet before the stall, sink but not really any buffet.... a slight wobble then she goes. But, again recovery is almost instant. So, its a good idea to have some type of warner.

The woman telling you what you already know through the headset can be distracting too, and you tend to look at the display which takes your attention from outside where you should be looking.

So, where does this take me.......... well I promise to re-calibrate it this weekend, but unless I was going glass panel which included one, I would save some money and fit a standard vane type stall warner. If money is no issue and you like lights and ladies chirping in your ear then get one.

Perhaps I should add this seems to be the view of our group as when something goes wrong they normally ask me to fix it yesterday, but none have bothered with the A of A

As you guys say my two pence worth.
 
I recommend it

I love the visual reference of AOA's but not the aural warning. They make a lot of sense to me and I believe all planes should have one. I use the AOA in the other planes I fly. I have a stall vane as well and like the low volume beeping of the stall horn rather than the voice stating, "angle, angle, push". It has taken me awhile to calibrate mine. Mine would flash 888 across the bottom while I was in the middle of calibrating it. I would have to land again and start over. I checked all my lines and everything looked normal. It finally gave in and worked the entire time while calibrating. Once I got through the process it has worked great. I am glad i have it but it was the hardest thing to set up in my cockpit. I should state, part of the reason it took me so long to calibrate it was having to land and start over in calm wind. I would go to the hangar and say to myself, "next time I'll get it right". I should have been more persistent and kept flying while the process was fresh in my mind. I had my CB pulled for a long time too.
 
Another slightly different view.

If you go into short strips only on occasion, it is a really good thing.

If, like me, over 1/2 of your landings are on short strips, it's handy but not necessary.

Since I was already used to my short strip, I didn't see any improvement after adding the AOA.
 
The answer to the question "is it worth it" depends on what "it" is. I have a Dynon D100, so the only additional cost for the AOA was in buying their pitot (vs buying a cheaper one). Made it an easy choice.

-Rob
 
The answer to the question "is it worth it" depends on what "it" is. I have a Dynon D100, so the only additional cost for the AOA was in buying their pitot (vs buying a cheaper one). Made it an easy choice.

-Rob

How about if "it" is the inadvertant stall/spin and being DEAD.
 
How about if "it" is the inadvertant stall/spin and being DEAD.

I still have a hard time believing that AOA will likely prevent accidental stall/spin accidents. If folks are distracted enough to miss the cues that the ASI, bank angle, stick pressure, airframe buffet, wind noise, etc. are making, how do we arrive at the idea that AOA will be the one thing they will finally take note of? Yes, it's one more tool that could help, and I have NO problem with that. I just disagree a bit about how strongly some feel that it's that likely to be the thing that breaks the accident chain. To see the AOA, don't you have to deliberately look at it? Aural indication can be ignored if the pilot's brain is so distracted/locked up as to be about to stall/spin without realizing it. So I assume we are relying on the aural indication? If you deliberately look at the AOA indicator (before you stall, anyway), doesn't that mean that you have some concern with, and are actually thinking about what your AOA might be? Seems that part would be the missing link in the chain of most accidents, and if present, would likely cause the pilot to adjust his AOA with or without the actual visual AOA indicator.
 
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I totally agree with Luddite. I never notice the AOA displayed on the EFIS when landing. It would be hard for me to take my eyes off the runway and centerline.

Ironically, between AOA and the stall warning horn, the stall warning buzzer stands out 100x more than anything else. Maybe it's the binary nature of the buzzer, whereas the AOA's more analog function doesnt quite impart the same level of alertness to me as a simple old piezo buzzer. ;)

Jae
 
AOA is a must in my opinion, but that's because my flight training included AOA fundamentals and their application.

If you're not willing to get the training and practice necessary to correctly use an AOA instrument, then it's probably going to be a waist. In the end, AOA is just another tool that affords the pilot an alternate means of safety throughout the flight envelope.

I'm grateful to have AOA in my aircraft - I've done two emergency landings in the last month that required me to conduct AOA style approaches. I will have AOA in my RV!
 
I should first post a disclaimer. I am a former Marine/Navy pilot so trained with AOA from diapers. The aircraft I purchased has AOA. It is the advanced flight systems AOA. I like having a independent system and the color display in the upper left corner of the panel makes it easy to scan. The nice thing about this system is I don't need a back up airspeed as it can fill that roll and I still have it in the event of a D10A total or screen failure.
As others have mentioned AOA is only as good as how you train with it. If you force yourself to scan AOA it will soon become second nature. The female voice alert with the pro system I find gives a hard to ignore warning. Test have shown that pilots respond to a female voice more then any other warning. The major warnings in a F18 are all a female voice. The biggest side benefit of AOA for me is a built in reminder of the weight I am at on approach. Many pilots have a built in target airspeed that they don't adjust as they should for weight. AOA will give you a quick reminder when you do your first cross check slowing to approach speed.

George
 
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AOA Pro-Con

As you can tell, this is a great loaded question!! Those who trained since diapers with AOA are pretty passionate about it. I flew for 35 yrs before even seeing an AOA. So for me, I learned to fly and feel what my plane was telling me. I really think that has been lost in training over the past 20 yrs. Even Barry Schief (sp) has acknowledge that.

I've been flying with the AFS and GRT AOA for the past 20 mo in my -9A. My observation is there is no doubt that a measured AOA (AFS system) is superior in accuracy and repeatability to an otherwised computer derived AHRS AOA.

I use it for general reference in the pattern, but when I'm a 1/4 mile from the end of the runway, my eyes and fingers are flying by nose attitude to the ground and stick forces, period. I've often wondered about mounting the AOA light tree on the glare shield so it could be seen as a reflection on windscreen, like a poor mans Heads Up display. That kind of display would be really helpful!!

I think it's helpful if you're mess'n around in slow flight, but honestly, even with power off, the nose has to be obviously too high to get into a stall, so you'd really have to be asleep at the stick to miss that.

I think where it would be really helpful, is under poor visibility conditions where you have poor visual clues (night, IMC, etc). Otherwise, under normal VFR flying situations, I still fly by the seat of my pants... not by the AOA.

Your milage may very.......
 
We fly AOA only in the Viper. We have an airspeed chart for backup. Hard to take your eyes off the runway? You cross check your airspeed, right? It's nothing to add AOA into your x-check. It really does help when adjusting approach speeds for weight.

Brad
 
... Otherwise, under normal VFR flying situations, I still fly by the seat of my pants... not by the AOA.

Your milage may very.......

One time I tried climbing on the downwind side of a ridge on a windy day using "seat of the pants" for pitch attitude reference. My 1-bit digital AOA system (stall warning horn) reminded me that might not be the best approach in those circumstances...
 
Carrier

Flying the F-14 to the ship the scan on final was MEATBALL, LINEUP, AOA

MEATBALL = Glide path
LINEUP = Landing Zone center line
AOA = Important as it effects HOOK to deck distance.

No airspeed in there. I also practiced once turning off the AOA an not looking at the airspeed (at the airfield not the ship) A good LSO can talk you down and correct your AOA by looking at your airplane. No kidding!

Cheers
 
I flew F4s in the RAF and AoA was king. It's the only thing that REALLY tells you what the wing is doing. Been flying big commercial for the last 20+ years and they have all had AoA sensors. The info is used by various systems but, strangely, the raw value is not displayed to the pilot. That has always struck me as an omission and might have helped the Air France A330 crew to realise they were stalled (Mind you, if 16 deg nose up, 100kts and 10k per minute down doesn't give you a clue.........:confused:)

Anyway, it's going in my -10, together with the standard stall warning.
 
On my 8A I have the AOA pro. I like the voice alert to warn when I am near stall, but never use the visual indicator. On my RV-10 I have the stall warning buzzer and that works just as well for me. On final my eyes are out the window, and the quick scan of airspeed is easier to see than the aoa indicator partially due to its low position on my panel. So if you have the option carefully consider its location on the panel.

Some sort of stall warning system is a must for me, but in my case the less expensive stall warning horn works just as well. I'm also dreading the day when my AOA breaks and needs to be fixed.

Aaron
 
AOA

All my 50 years of flying have been in GA aircraft and trying to stay well within the envelope. 125 hrs of flying my RV-6 with the AOA I just look outside and I hear the stall warning voice. Of course I don't look at anything else on the panel either. Could be using a simpler device. Maybe someday I'll learn how to use it.

Ken
 
All, great discussion. I've never flown with AOA before, so your insights are very much appreciated. I installed the AFS AOA last night. Pretty straight forward. Hope to be flying this thing in June!
 
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