I agree entirely. In fact I teach my primary students how to approach
and land with all instruments covered, including airspeed and
altimeter. If you know the pitch + power combination for every flight
configuration, you don't need much else. However, the pitch+power
combination depends on aircraft weight and load factor. If you use
AOA+power, it would be independent of weight and load factor. This is
why some people prefer AOA. My point was that rarely do we have large
variations in load factor or weight to make this a highly useful
instrument. I would be interested to know if there are any studies that
show than an AOA makes that much difference in stall-spin accidents. In
my observation flying with many pilots, new and old, by the time
someone gets into a dangerously slow airspeed and a screwed up
approach, they are rarely able to pay attention to the flight
instruments or even hear the stall horn. What saves them is their basic
airmanship to recognize the unusual attitude and recover it to a
familiar pitch + power configuration. I doubt that yet another
instrument on the panel is going to be of much help to those who get
that far into the danger zone.
--- Carl Pattinson <carl@flyers.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:
> <carl@flyers.freeserve.co.uk>
>
> I would suggest that the ASI should only be part of the equation. You
> need
> to know the correct attitude (with reference to the horizon) that
> gives a
> safe approach speed. If you fly with reference to the ASI alone you
> end up
> chasing the airspeed and worse still have your eyeball inside the
> cockpit
> instead of keeping an eye on the attitude and where you are heading.
>
> On my first ever solo (in a glider) the ASI failed completely and I
> had to
> fly the circuit and land without any speed reference whatsoever.
> Fortunately
> I was taught to fly by attitude and coped with what would have
> otherwise
> been a nasty situation.
>
> If your airspeed indicator were to fail would you know what attitude
> to fly
> to land safely. If you dont recognise what attitude gives a safe
> flying
> speed (flaps up and flaps down) would you be able to cope with such
> an
> emergency.
>
>
Andrew Sarangan
http://www.sarangan.org
|