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Old 1st Aug 2013, 09:40
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It is indeed a little more complicated than what pilot students are told (even ATPL)...
To make it simple, for a wing the angle of attack at a certain "rib" (aerodynamically, nor structural), so at any section with a rob chord parallel to the longitudinal axis of the aircraft and perpendicular to the wing plane, is defined by the angle between the local arflow projected into the rib plane and the rib chord. Any flow component perpendicular to the "rib" does not influence AOA.
Local airflow is a combination of the forward speed of the aircraft (the free stream component parallel to the longitudinal axis), the vertical speed of the aircraft (in the plane of symetry) and the lateral speed of the aircraft due to dideslip (perpendicular ro the plane of symmetry) and any local speed due the rotation of the aircraft. In a steady turn this means a pitching and a yawing rotation. It is different in any location of the aircraft, resulting in locally different AOA. Different "rib" orientation due to Dihedral/Anhedral will have an influence as well.
To make it more clear, a 90° angled V-Tail on an aircraft in a steady 45° bank turn mens one stabilizer is vertical, one is horizontal. As the Aircraft rotates around an vertical axis perpendicular to the ground in a turn, only the outer stabilizer (the vertical one) is affected by this rotation, the innner stabilizer (the horizontal one) is not affected at all. On the other hand, vertical speed (as indicated on the VS indicator) will only affect the inner (horizontal) stabilizer, while the outer (vertical) one will not be affected.

Its all about trigonometry...
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