Dynon AoA utility?

[Iluke]

For those of you who have a Dynon Skyview HDX, have you found a way to make the angle of attack (AoA) feature useful? I'm thinking of something like the recent video by Paul Dye of KITPLANES showing how to use AoA as a primary reference during approach instead of airspeed.

All mine seems good for is being a sophisticated stall warning horn.

Any experiences to share?

thanks

Ivan

 

[PhatRV]

Mine doesn’t beep until I am over the runway and ready for either wheel landing attitude or about the 3point attitude. I don’t even look at the AOA on my dynon. I only look at the speed to make sure it’s 75kts on base and 70kts on short final.

On touchdown it beeps constantly until I am ready to taxi off the runway

Edit: to clarify, I don't look at the AoA during landing because it's not very convenient and I was only focus on the IAS by habit. If the AoA is directly in the line of sight when I look at the runway then it is more useful. I had looked at the AOA when I was practicing the engine out landings during the low key phase but I saw it didn't change at all when my approach speed was over 70kts.

 

[uk_figs]

For those of you who have a Dynon Skyview HDX, have you found a way to make the angle of attack (AoA) feature useful? I'm thinking of something like the recent video by Paul Dye of KITPLANES showing how to use AoA as a primary reference during approach instead of airspeed.

All mine seems good for is being a sophisticated stall warning horn.

Any experiences to share?

thanks

Ivan

You can adjust the onset point of the tone, and the setting that gradually increases the rate I find useful to let you know you are approaching the high AoA condition like when tightening the turn for a short approach. Not as good as the "on-speed" system discussed at length on the forum but better than a straight stall warning. I rarely look at the chevron display on the EFIS.
Figs

 

[Ironflight]

If your AoA isn’t coming on until you’re in the flare, then it simply needs to be re-calibrated, an easy enough task in the Dynon - just check the manuals, and then as I recall, you have a Wizard in teh software that guides you step by step in the air…easy-peasy. We have the Dynon in our Tundra (along with an Alpha Eagle) and its tones work fine.

I agree that visual indicators of AoA are not very useful in our airplanes - whether on the screen or on the glare shield, that isn;t where you’re looking in teh pattern. The tone is the real AoA cue in modern systems, and Dynon’s works just fine. As I said - if it doesn’t come on until you are over the runway and getting ready to flare, it is not calibrated right - or you’re flying final too fast! You can go up and play with it at altitude to figure out which is the case.

We are finding that many, many pilots are habitually flying approaches too fast BTW…and a properly calibrated AoA can really help with that!

Paul

 

[airguy]

The tone in the headset is all I use, and it's wonderful. When down close to the ground and doing turns looking at stuff, if you get a little sluggish while eyeballs-out the little beep beep in your headset tells you to shove in a little throttle and ease up on the turn without having to go eyeballs-in.

On landing, I don't even look at the airspeed or anything else on the panel once I'm down below about 4 feet above the ground. My home runway is only about 30' wide and it's very useful to just focus on the centerline for crosswinds, let the speed bleed off at about 6" altitude and listen to the tone. Works great. I couldn't even tell you what speed I normally touchdown at anymore, it's been so long since I looked at the airspeed during a landing - but it's about 2 knots above stall, I can tell you that.

 

[PhatRV]

This is how my Dynon AoA behaves after I calibrated it. It doesn't beep until the plane is almost at touch down. It's more like the analog stall vane where the buzzer sounds when you are at the flare

 

[Ironflight]

This is how my Dynon AoA behaves after I calibrated it. It doesn't beep until the plane is almost at touch down. It's more like the analog stall vane where the buzzer sounds when you are at the flare

I tried to zoom in on your EFIS in the image - looks like approach speed is OK….but yes, your range from the onset of AoA tones to stall is very narrow - I’d try a re-calibration. I don’t have any Dynon reference material at hand, so can’t remember the exact procedure, but I think you can control the onset point to be at or slightly above your Vref - then you should have a slow tone for approach. You’re right thatwith the current Calibration, it’s not as useful.

Hey - its an excuse to go fly and experiment!

 

[PhatRV]

I tried to zoom in on your EFIS in the image - looks like approach speed is OK….but yes, your range from the onset of AoA tones to stall is very narrow - I’d try a re-calibration. I don’t have any Dynon reference material at hand, so can’t remember the exact procedure, but I think you can control the onset point to be at or slightly above your Vref - then you should have a slow tone for approach. You’re right thatwith the current Calibration, it’s not as useful.

Hey - its an excuse to go fly and experiment!

This isn’t my airplane but I found it from YouTube that shows the similar AOA behavior that I see in mine. I found some additional calibration adjustments in the menu so I will try to experiment with them this weekend. Thanks

 

[ve0kog]

with the full flaps my AOA wakes up at about 52-53 kts which is 10 kts above Vso of my RV9A. I cross the threshold at 60kts and never hear the AOA until in the flare. Curious if 60kts is too fast and i should slow to hear some AOA chirping on short final instead of just during the flare.

It would be nice if Dynon could add some sort of on-speed tone that sounds distinct from the stall warning to aid flying the approach at the proper speed until runway is made.

 

[Pilot135pd]

with the full flaps my AOA wakes up at about 52-53 kts which is 10 kts above Vso of my RV9A. I cross the threshold at 60kts and never hear the AOA until in the flare. Curious if 60kts is too fast and i should slow to hear some AOA chirping on short final instead of just during the flare.

It would be nice if Dynon could add some sort of on-speed tone that sounds distinct from the stall warning to aid flying the approach at the proper speed until runway is made.

I think you're floating down the runway a lot more than you need to, due to excessive speed on final approach. I saw it a lot during my transition training into my RV8. I was screaming on approach and my landing ate up the einter 2500' runway. Once I got used to my plane I would approach about 20kts slower than what I had been taught and was stopped before the 1000' marker.