Do it yourself cheap AOA Indicator

[Dave S]

Curious if anyone has tried this AOA kit and had any experience. $60 seems pretty reasonable. Instructions seem to be straightforward. The mounting would need to be different on most Kitfoxes.

http://barkeraircraft.com/AOA_kit.html

Sincerely,

Dave S
KF 7 Trigear
912ULS Warp drive

[airlina]

Hi Dave, I don't have this exact unit , but if you look up google Rite angle AOA you will see the one I have (basic model) . I won the unit years ago in a drawing at Sun n fun years ago , and since I was in the midst of my build, I installed it on my Series 5 . It works fine but there are flaws. Turbulence on final will affect the vane (mounted on my jury strut) and cause erratic outputs to the light bar. And slipping aggressively will give erroneous readings. I use it now and again when conditions are right , but do not rely on it for all flights. 60 bucks for the unit you are looking at is cheap-I think at the time mine was going for 400 bucks. Bruce N199CL

[gregsgt]

I think that looks like a pretty neat setup and the price is right. I just don't know how I would mount the vane. My pitot tube wouldn't hold that.

[GregA]

Even simpler to do it yourself if you have an EFIS. Mine is simply two quarter-inch aluminum tubes held together by some fiberglass that are plumbed into my Dynon D100. Pitot tube should face into the wind directly, AOA tube is below the pitot and cut at about a 45-degree angle (so that if you were climbing at 45 degrees, the opening would be directly into the wind). Exact angle doesn't matter, as you can calibrate it through the Dynon software. Cost was essentially zero as I had scrap pieces of tubing laying around.

Caveat: I don't know if/how this might work with other EFISes but worked perfectly with my D100.

Greg

[gregsgt]

If I had the money for an efis I wouldn't be looking for a cheap AOA.

[Paul Z]

I have an AOA indicator in my Advanced Flight System, I turned it off about a week into owning the plane. However yours might be better than mine, I have got to contend with *****in’ Betty screaming, on every landing and every take off:
Angle, Angle, Push, Push,
Angle, Angle, Push, Push,
Angle, Angle, Push, Push,
Angle, Angle, Push, Push,
Angle, Angle, Push, Push,
Angle, Angle, Push, Push,
Angle, Angle, Push, Push,
Angle, Angle, Push, Push, until I landed.
I never tried setting he correctly. When I replaced my AF3500 with a AF5600 she came alive from the Dead. I had to figure out how to turn her off again.