LRI Angle of Attack Installation

[jiott]

KFfan, I have the Dynon AOA indicator in my plane and have found it to be a very desirable, advantageous addition. Being a relatively new pilot (400 hrs) I find it very useful in short landings where you are pushing the limits on slow approach speeds. In using it I have found two things:

1- Down near the ground where you really need it, I don't have time to look inside the cockpit at a colored indicator.

2- My Dynon AOA has a variable tone that starts a slow beep in my ears at about 5 mph above stall. The beeps get progressively faster until it becomes a solid tone at impending stall. I just listen to the beeps and never take my eyes off the outside; I could care less about the indicator in the panel. The ones that just start saying "angle, angle, push" are no better than an old fashioned stall horn in my opinion. If you are buying a ready made AOA kit I would highly recommend one with a progressive tone, since not all of them have this feature.

Just my 2 cents on the subject.

[cgruby]

Jim, My observation on your method of relying on stall speed as opposed to AOA is, IMHO, upside down. You can always trust AOA to always adjust for density altitude and weight, whereas indicated airspeed will not. I would suggest you remount your LRI indicator in a location where it's in your peripheral vision during landing and cross check between it and airspeed.

We've all used airspeed for years to safely land our planes, but utilizing AOA is head and shoulders over simply airspeed.

Cheers,

[jiott]

You completely misunderstood my post. The beeps I am talking about have nothing to do with stall SPEED (even though that is what I said in a few places), they tell me how close I am to critical AOA. It is a true AOA (LRI) system with progressive beeps. I do not need to refer to the colored LRI indicator.

[cgruby]

Hey, I gottcha and apologize if I came across as being instructional. Now if I could instrument mine where it would give a tone readout when approaching critical AOA.

[jiott]

Hey no problem Chuck. I guess I am just plugging the Dynon system because its working out really well for me. I do admire you guys that can build an AOA system from scratch.

[cgruby]

This is a continuation of my efforts to fabricate an AOA indicator. The unit is in and calibrated, and just like one person commented, I find I don't have time to watch the gauge and look outside preparing for landing. Other than that it works fine. In fact the other day taking off heavy and having a really hard time getting the critter to climb, IAS was about 40 when I referenced the LRI indicator for best AOA and climbed out without issue.

[HighWing]

Chuck,
Years ago with my first IV I purchased a LRI from a guy online. It consisted of a probe and a differential pressure gauge. I thought a lot then about it's visibility during full attention during the approach and made a reflective glass patterned after the heads up displays on military aircraft. I was going to mount it on the glare shield where I would be looking during final. Unfortunately everything is still in the drawer. I hope to finish the project some day and have to thank you for bringing up the topic and providing the pointy stick I so often need to get moving on something.

[cgruby]

Well you're welcome, pointy stick and all ........