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Old 27th Mar 2009, 19:09
  #940 (permalink)  
chuks
 
Join Date: Apr 2003
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Alpha is forbidden information!

The FAA will not approve the direct display of AoA (Angle of Attack, also referred to as Alpha or designated so with the Greek letter "alpha").

You may see a little AoA indicator on an FAA-certified aircraft but it will omöbe captioned "Fast" or "Slow" and/or colour-coded Green or Red when Fast/Green means lesser Alpha values and Slow/Red means higher Alpha values.

I asked an FSI instructor why this was so, when we were flying a Citation with a little display stuck up there atop the glareshield, close to your eye-line when you were looking out at the runway on approach (which is why it was placed there, I assume).

He told me that the FAA just do not want civvy pilots having that information, even though Navy pilots use it all the time. Someone else here may well have more knowledge of this, when I stand to be corrected but that is what I was told.
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