Re: would an AOA indicator be helpful in a glider?

On Jun 5, 3:46 pm, Bob Whelan <rfwhe...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
kirk.st...@xxxxxxxxx wrote:

<Sensible stuff snipped...>
  > What is amusing is that pilots who have never had the opportunity to> fly an AOA-indicator equipped aircraft seem to be reluctant to accept
it's advantages and cling to their old ways, while pilots who have
used AOA gauges love them.

Apologies for not re-titling this thread, but I've gotta second Kirk's
observation, and, generalize it to include (for example) landing flaps
and 'anything else abbie-normal.'

I haven't flown an AOA-equipped glider, but I'd sure like to. Meanwhile
since 1981 I've been flying a genyoowinely abbie-normal sailplane:
American racing glass (Strike 1!); w/o spoilers (Strike 2!!); and a
side-stick (Strike 3!!!) Oh yeah...while I'm at it, it never had a
chance at obtaining an approved (non-experimental) type certificate,
either. (You're not only out...you're outta the GAME!!!!)

Writ smilingly, with a rueful shake of the head, we pilots as a group
tend to be: a) relentlessly conservative/sheeplike in our 'common
wisdoms'; b) vocal in our (often not-factually-supported) opinions; and
c) 'too-often guilty' of passing off the latter as matters of fact.

Regards,
'Asbestos Bob' W.

Every book on airfoils from the venerable Abbot's "Theory of Wing
Sections" to more modern treatises on aerodynamics show graphs of an
airfoils coefficient of lift vs. angle of attack. The other graphs
have the Cl on the X-axis so everything about a wings performance goes
back to angle of attack. You won't see any airfoil section graphs
showing airspeed. Angle of attack is THE key to knowing what a wing
is doing.

Renowned books on flying from "Stick and Rudder" by Wolfgang
Langewiesche to "Fly the Wing" by James Webb hammer home precisely
that point - angle of attack is everything. Airspeed, while useful,
doesn't come close.

The situation where jets which spend 99% of their time flying fast
have found AOA indicators essential and gliders which spend up to half
their time flying near stall don't have them has always puzzled me.

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Flatboarding: the sailing style
    ... A symmetrical wing at zero angle of attack has zero lift. ... it will have no lift - it will be in a zero-G flight path. ...
    (rec.skiing.alpine)
  • Re: Wind on the Wing
    ... > attack is shown. ... > And in fact the heating of air by the underside of the ... > working wing is seen. ... > At some angle of attack a force of drag increases ...
    (sci.physics)
  • Re: McLarens "horns"
    ... incidence of the wing to the aircraft, which is somewhat akin to the hand out ... it demonstrates the stall angle of an airfoil (usually around 16 ... your "angle of attack" theory ...
    (rec.autos.sport.f1)
  • Re: Angle of attack - Relative wind
    ... I suspect you think the angle of attack is zero because ... the bottom of the airfoil is ... Supercritical wing, with almost flat uppersurface. ...
    (rec.aviation.student)
  • Re: Stall alarm or sensor and combat manouvers.
    ... airplane with a second epochal invention, the angle of attack ... sensor and aircraft stabilizer. ... It's a stall warning sensor that effectively actuates what is a stick ...
    (rec.aviation.military)