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Old August 6th 09, 08:53 PM posted to rec.aviation.military,rec.aviation.military.naval
Ken S. Tucker
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Posts: 442
Default Angle of Attack Indicators

Hi JR.

On Aug 5, 3:28 am, "JRWeiss" wrote:
Ken S. Tucker wrote:
Referring to sims, I found the AoA indicator of scientific
interest to measure airfoil performance, but in shooting landings
I relied on the IAS (knots/hr) and vertical airspeed
indicator(feet/minute), those together give a rough idea of angle
of descent, and one then gets a feeling of AoA from pitch.


Yes, you can get a "feel" of AOA from all that, but not enough to
fly AOA with the accuracy required in modern carrier operations. A
half degree of pitch or a decel/accel trend that you don't see in
time could be the difference between a safe landing and a bolter or
worse.
What might be considered is an instrument that can provide all
that info in nice clear form on single gauge at a glance, let's
design it.
Can't do it; there are too many different types of measurements to
be made and displayed. While a velocity vector pointer on a HUD
may give a good portion of it, speed is missing...

. . .
On an actual display, suppose we display the IAS as a vector,
with lengths that are colored green, yellow, red, with red-yellow
demarking a near stall, as well as the Pitch vector, then at the
origin of those displayed vectors, you can print out AoA to .1 degree
accuracy, sufficient for most pilots.


While you may have a single display here, you actually have 3 different
"gauges": Speed vector, pitch vector, and AOA readout.

In my experience, some guys like dials (like clock hands) others
like digital, that was a hassle when Volt-Ohm meters went digital,
lots of arguments. Personally I like both. The meter provides a
sense of rate of change, but the digital provides precison at a
glance, so I think the 'AoA' indicator ought to be designed to
reflect those concerns and conditions.


Modern HUDs (Head-Up Displays) have many readouts on a single display
already. As you note, there are many individual preferences, so there
is no single "standard" HUD display. You may have some interesting
ideas for the display of the information, but the concept is hardly new.


Right! Even a nerd like me could customize your instrumentation
display to exactly what you want and where you want it. Every
pilot could have his own ROM, or punch code. Of course the standard
stuff would remain fixed, so the ROM is for accessories such as AoA
and how it's displayed, IOW's you should get what you want and how
you want it.

One question, would you want a g-force indicator?


In a fighter, yes. In a 747, probably not; it would be superfluous.


As a pilot I've banked to 60 degs for 2g's, but in sim's I've pushed
it to
the black-out limits. I put the g-indicator on the HUD because I think
it
gives a good feed back for energy bleeding and physiology.
If I may ask how many g's have you pulled doing say a 180 turn as in
going East then to West?
Ken