AoA sensor experiment
I had a Giannini Controls Corp, vane type AOA sensor in my hands today and took it for a ride in my car. Wind was still, so no wind correction needed. Movement of the vane was slightly damped, but I noticed the vane come alive at 15 mph on the speedometer.
I also accelerated the unit perpendicular to its axis at around >1 g and did observe the vane moving, but smoothly and without slamming. When turned so its axis is horizontal (normal aircraft mounting position), the vane stayed where it was left and did not fall "down" under gravity.
This vane is typical of those used on Airline aircraft in the 1970's and 1980's (and the A-4 Skyhawk). Physical characteristics of this vane are assumed to be comparable to the A320 AOA vanes.
There appears to be no valid vane function reason for invalidating AOA indications at 60 knots.
The military AOA systems I flew were fully functional on the ground and in the air and at any speed. When we flew a bit of a tail slide maneuver in the A-4, the indications were useful in preventing post stall gyrations.
I avoided tail slides in the F-4 since it had some flat spin modes that were unrecoverable, but at very high AOA, it always told you what you had to do with the controls to recover normal flight, even if you were well below level flight stall speed.
Last edited by Machinbird; 12th Jun 2011 at 04:09.