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Old 18th August 2011 | 01:43
  #103 (permalink)  
USMCProbe
 
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 324
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From: china
All of the AOA information to avoid this crash are present in every modern Airbus aircraft, as standard equipment. In addition to the stall warning and the VLS/Alpha Prot, Alpha max scale on the left side of the PFD, there is an even better, direct measure of AOA, even though it does not come from the AOA installed on the aircraft (3 on the 320 series).

The problem is, no one is trained to use it.

What is AOA? It is the angular difference between the relative wind and the longitudinal axis of the aircraft (chord of the wing, more specifically). In lay-mans terms (I am one), it is the difference between where the airplane is pointed, and where it is going, about the lateral axis.

Call up the "bird". With the wings level, the AOA is the vertical distance from the pitch bars (where the aircraft is pointed), and the "bird" (where the aircraft is actually going). Non-wings level, you visually drop a perpendicular from the plane of the pitch bars to the bird. That distance, measured on the PFD, is your AOA, and would have prevented this crash.

I know some engineer (I am one also) will say that this AOA measurement is not "perfect", but neither is an AOA gauge. Not even close. Just as IVSI is more useful than a pure VSI, this IRU based measurement is actually more user friendly to the pilot, more reliable, and "cleaner". And it is EXACTLY where the pilot is staring to control the aircraft, there is no other "scan" to learn.

On a 320 series, cruise is usually 2-3 degrees up, green dot, S, and F speed are 7-8, Stall warning (in alternate law in the sim) comes on at 10-12 degrees with the stall happening a bit above that. In level flight this is the "pitch attitude". In non-level flight, this is the perpendicular distance from the pitch bars to the bird. Icing doesn't affect the IRU's and there are 3 of them on the 320.

We were just not trained to use this.
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