Alpha
Some years ago now, I was asked to fly a hot little homebuilt monoplane WWII replica taildragger. The only other UK example had been extensively campaigned by Rod Dean, head of CAA GA dept in those days.
I rang him and explained that the purpose of the call was to glean sufficient data from him to preclude me featuring prominently in the next edition of GASIL!
He was v enthusiastic and gave me a thorough briefing, at the end he asked if I had any questions.
"Only one, Sir, you haven't mentioned approach speeds - what speed do you approach at and what speed do you come over the fence at?"
"Ah, nine alpha dear boy! Same as the Jag"
"Very well, except all I have is an ASI calibrated in mph and I never flew the Jaguar!"
"In that case 90mph should give you about 9A!"
Well 90mph worked well on 6,000' of tarmac but by the time I had to take it somewhere softer and far shorter, it was 1.1Vs which must have had me nearer 13Alpha.
However, I think that discussions about flying Alpha should not detract from the main topic of this thread as I have NEVER been in a light aircraft with an AoA indicator and would worry how accurately calibrated post-production mods are.
Stik