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Old 10-04-2015, 09:02 PM
  #167  
2StgTurbine
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Originally Posted by cardiomd View Post
Good job with your sycophantic posting! In conjunction with the design engineers, of course, we all agree. AOA probes are and should be in airliners who routinely fly near the edges of the flight envelope. That is not up for debate.
Sorry Doc, but you are off in left field. GA pilots operate much closer to the envelope than any turbine powered passenger plane. Don't worry, no one is going to make you spend money to install an AOA gauge in your 10 year old SR-20. What most professional pilots are saying is that requiring new aircraft to include an AOA gauge (which itself is cheap) would greatly benefit the next generation of pilots.

Although you personally feel you have a grasp on AOA, as someone who has spent plenty of time instructing many pilots, I can tell you there are a lot pilots who do not fully grasp the factors that cause an aircraft to stall. Unfortunately, most GA pilots spend 99% of their time in 1G flight, so that means 99% of the time they associate stalls with a specific airspeed. Sure, they might memorize knowledge test and oral examine test questions that link stalls to AOA, but when it comes actually controlling the aircraft, they associate stalls with airspeed. And although I can show them a stall at a 60* bank in a C-150, the truth is the speed the plane stalls at in a 60* bank is still pretty low. Unfortunately, years later they may find themselves in a jet stalling at high altitude and although they might "know" a plane can stall at any airspeed, years of actual experience and a lack of learning with an AOA gauge will tell them that the chances of them stalling their plane at 180 KIAS is very small and there must be a problem with their altimeter.

Personally, I think every new aircraft should include an AOA gauge and all pilot training should reference AOA teaching. Beside preventing stalls, using an AOA gauge simplifies performance climb, best glide, and landing speeds. An alternative would be to require future pilots to go through an aerobatic course and high altitude upset recovery training. But, I think an AOA gauge would be cheaper.
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