Originally Posted by
cardiomd
Having a good feel for the plane prevents you from doing all sorts of horrible things and is essential for good VFR flying. In fact I would say that is the one thing that makes you from a standard pilot to a great, safe pilot.
How is AOA better than ASI for routine non-accelerated/non-high G and non high-altitude flight? It's not. Essentially same information.
Everybody wants to have the next whiz-bang stall/spin protection device. In a few years some will say synthetic vision is required to prevent CFIT. I understand and recognize its use but I don't need it now.
Here is a typical stall/spin accident from a few months ago, unfortunately fatal. Look at the attitude, power, airspeed (AOA surrogate) during the entire event.
PLANE CRASH FROM INSIDE COCKPIT
Money retrofitting planes with AOA trinkets would be better spent on instilling better basic airmanship for most GA guys. The two pilots did a lot of obvious things wrong, and having yet another gauge screaming at them would be unlikely to prevent the incident.
I had to watch that video 3 times and I'm still not sure I understand what they were trying to do. Seems the violated a lot of basics after the touch and go.
First not enough rudder when the power was applied, to stay over the runway and climb. Then it seemed like the guy in the right seat (an IP?) took the airplane and rather than climb, he decided to do a very low altitude, low speed, hard left turn.
If they'd had some type of aural warning, either stall or AOA, the guy flying might have eased off the back pressure.
I know I always do, when I hear the stall warning in a hard turn down low!
Airspeed is life.
Altitude is life insurance!
