Skip writes:

<<This Naval aviator totally disagrees with your assessment of the worth of AOA.  In addition to carrier approaches, I used it when dogfighting when I needed to extract optimum lift from the wing (like in rolling scissors, for example), and for idle cruise descents to save fuel around the boat during blue water ops (that means no divert field for non-Navy guys).  In my ES, it gives me an aural warning when I'm approacking a stall which is a GOOD thing to know.  If I ever lose my engine, I can also use it to establish an optimum glide for any given weight.>>

OK, I buy AOA to determine optimum lift and I can see it in a rolling scissors (where you were probably not right at the edge of stall) but I bet you didn't look at it mutch when you were going for max turn in close or in a straight scissors with the target hidden under your nose.  Since we don't do ACM (do we?) in Lancairs, the need to determine optimum lift is probably limited to the example you cite and I agree that AOA would be something I would kick myself for not having if I was engine out and needed max glide (a condition that should be avoided wherever possible by prudent flight planning, with or without AOA.)  What I don't buy is that it should be used as the primary way to determine if you are about to stall.  Another response to my post says that experimentals give little stall warning.  That perception results from the standard civilian training that stall warning consists of buffet.  But long before you get to buffet, there are all kinds of other warnings (at least at anything under 2g.)  The stick gets mushy, control in all three axes takes a lot more input and response slows down and becomes less predictable.  Even at high g, there are a number of warning signs before the airplane turns into a manhole cover and, as you know, at high g, you can instantaneously solve the problem by easing off on the g.  Each airplane is different but I never flew one that didn't have the signs.  I am all for AOAs UNLESS they are relied on as a substitute for knowing how your airplane behaves within 5 kts. of a stall in various configurations, which I think is an essential element of training.