Thread resurrection: is anyone actually using the AOA for short field work (as opposed to speculating as to its usefulness)? I’d like to get a mountain rating this Fall and want to work on greater precision in landing and departure. Doing some other avionics work shortly. Should I add in AOA? If so, which one?
I’m also curious as to whether anyone uses them to optimize cruise AOA.
I know, I know, if you’re any good, you don’t need such gadgets! But I’m a crap pilot & will take all the help I can get!
I have a feeling that this was a big fashion item a few years ago and the interest has more or less died out. Especially when you look into the detail of it and find the issues with ice protection which I wrote about in one of the threads. However there may well be application areas which are not represented much by the contributors here.
I know of a CJ4 jet which has an AOA sensor but it doesn’t seem to add anything to capability because the aircraft is flown “by the numbers” anyway.
WhiskeyPapa wrote:
I know, I know, if you’re any good, you don’t need such gadgets! But I’m a crap pilot & will take all the help I can get!
Then they don’t know that you don’t fly airspeed but what airspeed represents and guess what that is AOA.
Does EASA permit installation of these systems in legacy aircraft? For example, could I put a Bendix King or AlphaSystems AOA indicator in the Rallye without undue cost (in addition to cost of unit, labor and VAT)?
My Garmin AOA was installed under CS-STAN. Love it. Doesn’t do anything in the cruise but great for approach and landing.
@ACRO
I feel I’m too conservative (high speed) on approach especially when light/solo. Never a problem for fields over 600 meters. Having an AOA might give me more confidence crossing obstacles to shorter fields by slowing more. Of course, I could do this by trial and error, take an instructor, etc but I really am time constrained for training and when flying am often on long trips. I suspect there might be even more value climbing out. I find great variance in climb rate depending on temp/density altitude, etc. I can imagine it would be a useful tool in such situations, but maybe it really would be an unnecessary distraction. So I am curious as to the experience of those who installed one.
@WhiskeyPapa, if you fly an MS.893 as your profile says, you already have an AOA indicator – it’s the slats. It’s AOA rather than speed that they respond to.
@ultranomad
Well said & I am curious how far into slats extended range you can go. On my earlier Rallye, I got the slats out early (late on base) & now they come out about round out or flare. That’s because I’m now flying into longer fields with lots of runway to spare.
The slats come out & that’s it? That’s as high as you want or should risk AOA? (In my experience, there is a range of air speeds to be flown even with them out).
I accept the idea that for perfect pilots AOA in a SEP just an unneeded crutch.
I doubt anyone would openly claim to be a perfect pilot 
but what seems to be missing so far in all these threads is a detailed description of how people who have these devices in GA (i.e. not doing aircraft carrier landings) find them useful, compared to flying by the numbers.
It’s a bit like the SV (synthetic vision) discussion. Lots of people say they love it but nobody has described how they use it, alongside flying the published approach plate. You have to be flying one or the other. Or fly one and use the other as “rough guidance”.
I would also like to hear how people trust them in icing conditions which could be anytime in the winter when the surface temp is below 0C. The vast majority of installations are not heated.
WhiskeyPapa wrote:
I accept the idea that for perfect pilots AOA in a SEP just an unneeded crutch.
There is not such a thing.
Only the idea, to have the information if you are near to stall irrelevant of your bank angle for example, is priceless.
Don’t forget that AOA is not the attitude of your aircraft(wing)
It is the relative wind that hit the wing!
