Scott,
Excellent post. Just a few months ago I experienced a 30 kt wind shear at 600 AGl going into John Wayne in Santa Ana, CA. Due to the turbulence and “on shore” wind I was quite fast on final and obviously didn’t stall however the three passengers were quite shaken. In this situation, I’m not aware of any instrumentation available to GA aircraft that would have helped. John Wayne ATIS was shortly thereafter modified to warn pilots of the wind shear near the end of the runway.
Craig Berland
It doesn't always take the pilot to pull the wing beyond the critical AOA - The air is not always smooth as in a stable fluid body - turbulence, wind shear, slow flight over different heat radiating bodies in the summer (green fields vs black dirt), crosswinds that tumble over trees on a strip carved out of the woods or over nearby hangars, etc. The margin above the stall AOA may disappear in a slow highly banked turn or even on a straight in if the air is not compliant regardless of the trim.
I have been impressed with our 200-300 series reflexed laminar flow wing - have you noticed a slow down (loss of laminar flow) in turbulence? Is that just drag or is lift also affected? Does the critical AOA change if the laminar flow is disturbed? Is this more important when the wing is already at a high AOA when slow and is no longer in reflex (flaps partially deployed)? Note that if the speed changes, the trim is no longer correct.
I believe that the 300 series Lancairs are unstable at low speed high AOA because the margin may be too narrow. It may not be the pilot unintentionally pulling past the critical AOA, but an abrupt change in the airflow that causes the angle to be exceeded. Even though the AOA was calibrated in clean air, the calculated margin speed above stall by formula (1.15 x stall) may not be enough for these high performance wings.