PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Can the FPV be used to determine AOA
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Old 15th Aug 2014, 23:19
  #18 (permalink)  
Chris Scott
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Blighty (Nth. Downs)
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The difference between Pitch and FPA certainly gives a rough guide to AoA, particularly changes of AoA. As has been said by others, it should be correct in still air, but becomes increasingly inaccurate as the headwind or tailwind component increases. That's because FPA is in relation to the earth, not the airmass. (So vertical movement of the airmass, particularly a microburst, will also cause inaccuracy.)

The wind-component problem is perhaps best illustrated by considering the extreme case where headwind equals TAS, in which case any rate of climb or descent would produce (unreadable) FPAs of +90 and -90 respectively.
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