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Old 20th Jul 2015, 11:21
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9 lives
 
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I've flown AoA indicators in several types, from C-150 to Piper Cheyenne. It was great in the Cheyenne, as that type is less forgiving of seat of the pants flying - just fly numbers. But lighter aircraft may reward the sensitive butt with good feedback. In any case, letting your eyes go back in to the panel at the critical moments of the final approach probably creates a much greater risk than flying the approach a bit off speed.

I know when I'm flying too slowly on short final. Nowhere near the stall, but the sink rate gets silly. Can't see how an AoA indicator will better my Seat of Pants approach.
This can certainly be a serious situation on some types, which are heavy and draggy, with lots of lift. Cessna floatplane amphibians being an example. You can fly a final approach at about the 1.3Vs, and with the AoA indicating okay, but in a condition that only a lot of power at the bottom is going to fix. The errant pilot has let the plane slow too much to enable a flare from a steep approach on the combination of speed and altitude alone.

This can happen with a poorly set up approach to a short landing area over an obstruction. An unaware pilot will cross the obstruction going down, at a suitable airspeed, but with a rate of descent which is much too great to arrest at the bottom with the aircraft's reserve of energy alone. For these approaches, you either retain the required excess energy as speed all the way down final, or carry lots of power down final (which has the dangers associated with an engine failure - assured crash). Several amphibians I fly have a power off stall speed about 55 MPH. For a power off landing, I'll train a glide speed of 80. You can glide at 65, and the aircraft is quite happy, but when you pull to flare, you'll get an instant stall horn, and no arrest of descent rate - crunch! One of these planes has the newest AoA, which I set up as new. In 80 hours of flying it, I have never referred to it, I'm too busy watching where I'm going out the windshield.

For the GA type aircraft, you have to know the plane, hone your seat of the pants and hand&feet skills and fly them that way first. Magenta lines and instrument readings only when the aircraft is already being well flown!
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