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I agree that if an engine quits, either a recip or turbine, you need to be
all over both the AOA AND airspeed to get the craft safely (hopefully) to
the ground, and survive. A guy needs to resist his normal tendencies of
"level flight" since he is now without power and is flying a glider, that
doesn't "glide" like a glider. So the first thing he should do is push the
nose down (against his instincts) to maintain airspeed -- which is hugely
counterintuitive to those of us with powered flight time versus glider time.
But that is what you have to do if you lose power. You can either approach
the ground under control and with speed, or without speed and out of
control. No argument there.
If engines didn't quit, you wouldn't have to worry about "technique" (the
academic argument of maintaining proper airspeed versus proper AOA) in an
emergency power off descent.
So my question is, why do so many engines quit?
John Hafen
IVP 413AJ 75%
-----Original Message-----
From: Lancair Mailing List [mailto:lml@lancaironline.net] On Behalf Of Skip
Slater
Sent: Thursday, August 02, 2007 7:38 PM
To: lml@lancaironline.net
Subject: [LML] Re: What causes stall/spin
John,
I'd take issue with your statement that AOA indicators are good only if
landing on a carrier. If that were the case, I don't think it would be
displayed in the PFD and HUD of the 737's I fly at American.
Granted, most of the time AOA is not something you even look at. Most of
us use airspeed, not AOA as our target when landing. When it becomes an
invaluable tool is in the case of a stall, encounter with wake turbulence in
the pattern or particularly in the case of an engine failure when it can
show you when your wing is producing the most lift and particularly if
you're defeating yourself by trying to extract more lift than your wing can
provide.
You're correct that many pilots react to a dropping nose in a stall by
pulling back on the elevator. The AOA will tell you aurally and show you on
the indicator when you're pulling too much. Heed it's guidance and you
stand a far greater chance of recovering rather than making things worst.
If you're facing a forced landing, AOA will indicate optimum L/D for any
weight, which gives you the best glide performance.
I flew AOA in the Navy and I used it for much more than just carrier
landings. At American, we practice windshear, microburst and unusual
attitude recoveries in the simulator using AOA as our primary guidance for
pitch inputs. I'm glad I have it in my ES and advocate it's use in any
experimental.
Skip Slater
N540ES
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