I have been following the subject correspondence and must say I
think the proponents of the Europa Stall Warner have a point. However, their
sole interest appears to be finding out when they are going to stall - and
nothing else. That is of course important and stall strips will give them
that.
However when you turn to the AoA system, you encounter much more.
Having experienced an AoA approach to a carrier, I can say that there is no
comparison. Yes, it gives you your approach to a stall [and much more timely
and accurate warning than a stall warner does]. It also tells you when to
accept an ideal soar figure for loss of engine, when to revert to and use a
long-range attitude, how to loop with the same AoA around the circle - and
what effect ground effect has on stall speed. AND all these automatically
adjust for change in weight or CG - no charts needed.
The argument about diverting attention during landing loses value
when the warning is visual and in the vision of the lander, i.e: on the
coaming where the landing strip is seen. Since a change of colour is all it
provides, little or no conscious diversion should occur. Of course the ideal
warning should be in a HUD, but that's a touch effete in a Europa.
Naturally, a needle down on the instrument panel is useless for the stall
problem.
Just my $0.02.
Ferg
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