Wow. I've been away for a day and didn't realise what a hot potato this is! I'm gobsmacked that people find it so controversial.
My reasons for buying and, hopefully, fitting an AoA indicator are very simple and two-fold:
1. The airspeed gives only a crude guide as to proximity to the stall, depending on all kinds of factors such as weight and g. The angle of attack in a given wing configuration at which the aircraft stalls is, however, constant. Airspeed indicators are not particularly accurate, especially at low speeds and the Super Cub excels at flying at low speed. What one wants to know at low speed is precisely how close one is to the stalling angle of attack, not the airspeed, which is frankly irrelevant and represents only a very crude proxy for this, as I said. I therefore think that, especially in the Super Cub it will be a highly useful supplementary instrument.
Interestingly, the US Navy flies carrier approaches pretty much entirely by reference to angle of attack. At low speeds and high angles of attack it makes no sense to fly by reference to airspeed if you can actually measure angle of attack directly. They at least understand this.
It is also interesting that the Super Cub, arguably one of the safest low speed aircraft that exists, also has the highest stall-spin fatality rate by far in US NTSB statistics. This shows that if you push any aircraft to its limits it will bite and actually the pre-stall buffet in my machine is pretty minimal. Although the stall itself is 'benign', you get very little warning and certainly NONE from the ASI which is firmly pegged to the bottom of the clock for ages before the stall. In my book, therefore, anything which gives you more direct AoA information has to be beneficial.
2. Quite apart from its utility in everyday operations, I am looking forward to using and calibrating it as a way of better getting to know my aircraft and its limitations and qualities. Of course, experienced pilots with thousands of hours in Super Cubs have no need of an AoA indicator because they can feel the AoA in their bones, at least up to a point. What I hope is that I will be able to advance more quickly in my feel for the aircraft through the information which an AoA indicator will give me in all phases of flight.
The preference for use of airspeed instead of angle of attack measurement in low speed flying is utterly irrational and a result of ingrained prejudice. To show just how irrational it is, the Tiger Moth used to have such a 'weather vane' AoA indicator which was calibrated not in degrees, but in mph. Ridciulous, but a sign of the irrational dependency we have on mph, knots or whatever.
On a separate note, I am interested that the link I put to the AoA indicator website was edited out. It provides a lot of useful info and pictures of the device. I have no interest in promoting it and in fact the man who sells it does not make it easy to send them abroad. He won't do so and I had to get him to send it to a friend of mine in the US who sent him back a US cheque. My friend then sent it on to me. Hardly a highly commercial enterprise. I understand you don't want blatant, excessive plugs, but are the urls of all commercial operations taboo? Seems slight overkill.
I sit back and await responses with interest!
QDM