The web is a big place with lots of chatter, but every now and then a gem illuminates! Read this, from BeechTalk in July 2014 by Casey Bates. He flies an Army King Air 300 now, and reports:
"I have flown a good bit, in everything from Blimps to Helicopters to High Performance single engine jets, and have landed every category/class I'm rated in ... on a carrier, off airports and on airports.
"When I started flying fixed wing, I went the normal civilian student route. Cessna 150/152 at the local flight school, part 91. Soloed in 12ish hours, took my Private Pilot checkride at 40.3 hours.
"I learned the standard student things about Angle of Attack (AoA), stalls, and how stall speed is affected by Gross Weight, Angle of Bank, etc. The biggest thing that was driven home in my private was that you will always stall at the same IAS for a given condition (of GW & AOB). I knew aerodynamically what was happening in a stall (I was a 4th year engineering student at the time) but my brain locked on to speeds and rules of thumb for getting the stall speed, and making sure I stayed well above the stall speed.
"That's all pretty easy in C-152s and PA-28s flying off 3500+ foot strips at sea level.
"Then, I went to Navy flight school two years after that. We had AoA in the T-34 Mentor, but going from a 100 hp Cessna 150 to a 425HP (actually 550) T-34 complete with turbine engine, I kind of had my hands full. I basically did the same thing I did flying Cessnas: keep the approach speed where you have sufficient stall margin, fly a consistent pattern and life is good. Other than using the AoA for stall warning, and one or two flights in which we flew "AoA approaches" (but still landed "normal" at the end), I didn't use the AoA display.
"I did not have a single carrier-experienced instructor teaching me during Primary when I was flying T-34s. They were mostly helicopter guys, and for many of them, the T-34 was the ONLY fixed wing aircraft they had ever flown in their lives. We also had a few P-3 Orion pilots, and the random E-6 pilot.
"I went to helicopters initially, and I won't bore this BeechTalk crowd with my helo flying that has not a whole heck of a lot to do with AoA or Beechcraft.
"After four years of flying SH-60Bs off of Cruisers and Destroyers, I ended up getting a transition to E-2C Hawkeye (a large twin turboprop that is carrier-based). As part of that training, I flew the T-34 again, the T-44...which is a King Air 90...and the T-45, which is a carrier-capable version of the BAE Hawk light attack/trainer jet.
"This time, flying the T-34, I flew with a C-2 and an F/A-18 pilot. They used AoA. They taught me how to use it to sanity-check the Airspeed gauge...
"Finally I got to NAS Kingsville, TX. AoA was life. Every landing. Many tactical and BI maneuvers. Max range and max endurance had their own AoA targets. All of a sudden, all of the L/D charts in Aerodynamics classes more or less came alive and started making intuitive sense. I could look at the AoA and fly approaches and be far more stable. Set the AoA for the desired speed. Hold that, adjust power to control glideslope.
"Have to wrap up an approach turn because you turned at too shallow of an AOB?... you know what you have for lift reserve. No guesswork. You know if you can increase your AOB, or if you need to go around immediately.
"Precision landings become a piece of cake. Want to land on that crack in the runway? Hold the AoA, adjust power, and fly to it.
"Suppose you have a Pitot-Static failure? Not really an issue. (200 kts feels like 300 kts, which will remove gear doors on some jets, so dropping gear by feel, is not encouraged).
"I had AoA instrumentation available to me for years, but ignored it for other than its function as a stall warning (26 units = rudder shakers in the T-34C). Once I learned how to use it, initially as a sanity check for the Airspeed indicator, and later as the primary reference, it's become something I don't want to fly without."
I responded to him:" Casey, you are not alone. You can meet a lot of your friends here. Your testimony is elegant and coherent. As one who believes in using AoA—as you do, I greatly appreciate your clear explanation. Most civilian pilots never get to the second part of your training. But most of us can easily take advantage of a simple AoA display to keep our wings loaded properly as needed."
Brian Harrelsen flies an FAA Flight Check King Air 300. He's also a former Naval Aviator, and he adds:
"Casey - I'm not sure if your experience was the same, but I also had those same helo/P-3 guys teaching the "precision landings" in the PA phase of primary and they did NOT teach the proper use of the AoA in the landing pattern as was evident once we arrived at Kingsville and stated learning AoA landings in the T-2C/TA-4J or now T-45s. My previous civilian background education and use of AoA was much the same as yours prior to Intermediate/Advanced levels of naval aviation training. I know where you are coming from!
"As for the colors...like many things aviation, you are going to like and fall back on what you learned on. Many of us naval aviators learned the NAVAL AVIATION way right out of the batting cage and it in INCREDIBLY DRILLED into our brains and we will probably always have a hard time fully relating to anything else, but if you learn on another system then I'm sure your brain will attune to whichever display you chose and you will still get the benefits of AoA control."
EDITOR's Note: Colors? Once learned, we cannot easily change? Most folks believe this and I did too...but when I actually experienced the color switch...it mattered not a whit. I was very surprised. You might be interested in the Qualitative Conclusions in our Flight Test Report. Here are my houghts on how to use an AoA in normal flight...and a variation when using a simple AoA for long range cruise
and then ... along comes the FAA again. Bless them! They are again encouraging the installation of simple AoA sensors and displays in certificated light aircraft. This is EXACTLY what the FAA was hoping for in 1964 when Jim Osborn was studying for his CFI oral.
June 2015--in the , the FAA is making a big push to get AoA indicators installed in General Aviation aircraft.
Recently-published magazine articles, 2011 through 2014
Click here to begin a review of "Thoughts from those who know" |
