• If You Are Having Trouble Logging In with Your Old Username and Password, Please use this Forgot Your Password link to get re-established.
  • Hey! Be sure to login or register!

AOA, Angle of Attack Indicator

jokerswe2008

Registered User
Does anyone have experience with using an AOA-indicator? Do you calibrate them with or without flaps, or does it not matter?
I’m looking at the Garmin AOA.
 
In your other thread you have said that you are new to the airplane and tail wheel operations. I suggest that you get used to learning your airplane's characteristics by looking outside at the wings and beyond the nose rather than looking at an instrument as a crutch. Learn the feel of the plane. Using the airspeed as a sometime reference is all that you really need, usually even that you can learn to get along without. When you get close to the ground, when you will then be operating at minimum speeds is not when you should be looking at instruments. An AOA may be helpful in high performance airplanes and may be fun to have in a Cub, but you don't need one.
 
I have flown "true AOAs" and the Garmin is not a true AOA but a "lift reserve" indicator. As such its accuracy is highly dependent upon flying the airplane correctly during the calibration process which should be in your installation instructions.

That said, the advice above is IMHO very valid. You don't need this unit to know when the wing is starting to reach critical angle of attack. You can actually feel the airflow change if you fly with a door or window as the wing reaches critical angle of attack. In larger aircraft AOA's have a place, in the Cub I find when my shirt sleeve starts billowing forward, you're very close to critical angle. Enjoy your Cub the way it was meant to be enjoyed.
 
I have flown "true AOAs" and the Garmin is not a true AOA but a "lift reserve" indicator. As such its accuracy is highly dependent upon flying the airplane correctly during the calibration process which should be in your installation instructions.

That said, the advice above is IMHO very valid. You don't need this unit to know when the wing is starting to reach critical angle of attack. You can actually feel the airflow change if you fly with a door or window as the wing reaches critical angle of attack. In larger aircraft AOA's have a place, in the Cub I find when my shirt sleeve starts billowing forward, you're very close to critical angle. Enjoy your Cub the way it was meant to be enjoyed.

Aha! I now understand the answer! (I thought it was something about parachuting out of the airplane.. :).
I only got 4,5 hours in a Super Cub, and it is cold here, so the door and windows have been closed!
I look much forward to the plane being ready to fly and the summer coming up!
 
People ask me all the time what speed I land at. I have no idea, I am looking outside. I feel the airplane and know if I need to add power or pitch. Burn lots of avgas and you will become one with your Super Cub.
 
Be the AOA, Luke, and trust your senses in the Cub. She will tell you everything you need to know.
 
As others said, the senses, the different noises realized after more time, will keep you safer than darting looks at AOA. I'm old school and aware of the advantages of VGs but won't have them because their advantage is in places I don't intend to be.
 
old school AOA

e0be569e3dad10fb4dea719a.jpg


895aea068079ae5a45e8c3e0.jpg
 

Attachments

  • 895aea068079ae5a45e8c3e0.jpg
    895aea068079ae5a45e8c3e0.jpg
    85 KB · Views: 198
Back
Top