On the LML you asked: What percentage of those 24
planes had AOA indicators, and what is the percentage in the entire fleet,
preferably by model?
Judging from the number of Lancairs at OSH that did not have
AOAs, do you think 10%, if that many of the 24, had AOAs? Your inference
seems to be that if there is not complete data, the argument is useless... but
we all deal capably with generalities every day... I'm just saying that
the 24 fatal stall-spins could have been avoided if the pilots had
an AOA indicator and practiced slow-flight with it, ,, instead of being
'angle-blind'.
I've noted from comments on the LML that one problem here is that
many (not all) Lancair pilots are very wary of stalling their Lancairs.
You commented: While AOA is a useful tool, I am not convinced that having AOA
and using it under normal conditions will immunize you from a spin under
abnormal conditions.
I have to wonder whether you have evaluated them by flying with an
AOA, particularly for an hour or so in slow flight, the usefulness of an
AOA? I've been flying with then since 1964. As to spins, they can
only result from stalls, almost always after the incipient phase -- the first
two turns wherein the plane unstalls itself twice -- and wherein an AOA
indicator can show you exactly at what angle your wing is working
relative to its stall angle, and exactly how much nose-down you need to
unstall it. After the incipient phase, spin recovery itself
depends on the aerodynamic shape of the plane and the mass
distribution.
Your last comment: If an AOA systems fails in a non
conservative way it could induce an accident that would not otherwise have
happened.
If anything critical fails it could induce an accident. To
check your AOA you just nibble at a stall. Takes a few seconds.
Learning to fly is learning
habits and information, the teachers say, 21 times. And we're then
reluctant to go through 'unlearning' that our wings stall at an ANGLE
... perhaps because the FAA still insists we talk about a plane's
'stall speed', even though the wing can be stalled from 1 mph to Va,
maneuvering speed and G.
Flying with an AOA
is FUN! It completely eliminates the stall-worry of situations
like turning final to a short runway in a loaded plane in turbulent weather on
a hot day.
My pitching AOAs is just
trying to spread the joy, and save the lives of some excellent
people.
IMHO the best AOAs are
indicators that readout in degrees, not little lights or noises. With one like
that I have flown for an hour, steep-turning, zooming and so on, just one or
two degrees below the wing's stall angle, and never
stalling.
So I say -- try it,
Bill. You'll like it.
Terrence
L235/320
N211AL
terrence o'neill <troneill@charter.net>
wrote:
Jeff,
Thanks for the Lancair
accident update.
Note
that of these
126 Lancair accidents, 54 included fatalities, and 24 of the accidents
definitely resulted from a stall/spin -- the last pilot-controllable
event before the pilot pulled his wing past its stall AOA and became
a doomed passenger.
Note that a wing of a
trimmed a/c will not stall unless the pilot pulls the stick back too far,
causing his aircraft to pitch up to a stall AOA...
which he unintentionally
does because he cannot SEE the realtive wind and his wing's stall
AOA.
A sad,
unnecessary waste of friends' and families lives, beautiful aircraft,
and years of creative work, all for the lack of an inexpensive AOA indicator
and a little training to develop habitual use of it.
Terrence
O'Neill
L235/320
N211AL
Regards,
Bill Hannahan
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