Originally Posted by
Lonewolf_50
2. If AoA vane/probe ices up, is there a warning associated with that which crops up on ECAM? .....
If AoA is suffering from ice degradation, is that of any use in discussing this mishap? It appears that the AoA probe kept feeding FDR data all the way down. Is there any reason not to assume the AoA data reliable?
It would seem the AoA sensor on the A330 is the classic "vane" (not a "probe"), so icing would at the most cause some "asymmetry" (not fully calibrated value), and with both AoA sensors affected, probably not even enough to get a "vane disagree" (i.e. a comparator trip).
Please, let's not confuse AF447 with Perpignan, where it seems, during washing on the ground, water got into the AoA
sensor part, which then froze at altitude, stopping the vane from rotating freely.
Is there any reason not to assume the AoA data reliable?
Depends on what you call "reliable". The "AoA data" finally are nothing more than the angle of the vane with respect to the fuselage.
They can be corrected for AoA + IAS + Mach, etc. only within the flight envelope explored during test flights....
I would suggest the "AoA data on the FDR" are likely to be good enough to be accepted as a first ballpark figure, until we get the full records.