pfactor

We host training sessions throughout the year, but things really pick up in the spring and early summer. The next session coming up is in El Paso Texas from Dec 5-7. Lacee Lamphere is hosting it and can provide more details if you're interested in that one. We'll post details about future upcoming training sessions here and on our website. Phil

Here's a few pictures from our Advanced Formation Clinic last month in Lincoln, California. We had Mooneys, Bonanzas, and an RV flying together. Pilots flew in from Texas, Washington and California. A couple of U-2 pilots from nearby Beale Air Force base joined us too. I'm working on a video from that event too -- stay tuned. Phil

Thanks everyone. Glad you like it. It took a while to go through all the raw video and GPS data and put all that together. I'm also really happy with the results. Phil

Thanks Jolie -- I'm the one who put the video together. I also posted it over on the Mooney Caravan section of this site. Phil "Buzz" Verghese

Please join us next year. 2013 was my first year flying with the Mooney Caravan (but not my first Oshkosh). My wife and I had so much fun with the group, that we came back in 2014. We're both hooked. Flying in together in the big formation is a ton of fun. Even better is camping together and all the activities that we have going on in the evenings. It's a really fantastic group of people. There's a great group of instructors who do the formation training (many are former military pilots). I'd say that the vast majority of Mooney pilots can learn the basic skills in a few hours. There will be formation training clinics across the US (and maybe Canada) between now and Oshkosh 2015. Watch this board or http://www.mooneycaravan.com for announcements. Phil

Here's a video of the Mooney Caravan's arrival at Oshkosh this year. Enjoy! Phil

Thanks for sharing your experience and thoughts Brian. That sounds like a good system. Who made it? Actually the reason I calibrated by AOA in the landing configuration is that I want to use it fly the correct speed on final. I'm really not too worried about the base-to-final stall. I've received and given enough training that I know to go around if things don't look right when turning final. The difference between the AOA indications with flaps up vs flaps down are just 1/2 a donut. In my plane, with the flaps down, I see the full donut when I'm on the correct AOA on final. With the flaps up, I see the bottom half of the donut. It's not too hard to handle. Plus 99% of my landings are with full flaps anyway. Which manufacturer is that? When I talked to Alpha Systems at Oshkosh, they said they've already got the software configured to handle a flap position sensor as an input. They are hoping to have that out soon, and it will be possible add that input to the system I bought at Oshkosh. I'm not sure I'll bother doing that since I'm fine with how it works even without that sensor. Phil

I'd say my plane was right on the speeds I could directly measure as indicated on the Aspen. The only two speeds that I could directly measure are Vs0 and Vs1. The stalls with flaps down and flaps up were right at the book numbers (adjusted for weight). I have no way to measure accuracy at any of the other speeds. If those members are flying the same airspeed regardless of aircraft weight, then they are probably flying too fast on final. If they are doing the math and adjusting their Vref for the actual aircraft weight, then that's fine. They should also do that for other performance-critical speeds like Vx and Vy. I don't want to do the math on every flight, which is why I chose to install an AOA. I read "bulk up the safety margins" as "flying at a faster approach speed than Vref". That's not great. At best it will result in a longer float, but not a huge deal if you have a long runway. At worst, pilots who fly too fast sometimes try to force the nose down if they feel they are running out of runway. No worries. I was put off a bit when I first read your reply, but I'm over it now. Thanks. Phil

The outer scale of my mechanical ASI is in miles per hour. The inner scale (hard to see in the video) is in knots. 107 mph is 92 knots

I got a private message asking how I adjusted the V speeds for weight. I figured I'd share with the group in case others were wondering. For the V speeds that vary by weight (Vs0, Vs1, Vref, Vx, Vy, Vglide, Va) you can correct the speed for your weight with this formula. V' = V * SQRT(actual weight / max gross weight) To give a concrete example from one of the speeds in the video, let's say Vref is 71 (at max gross), my actual weight is 2319 and max gross is 2740. Vref' = 71 * SQRT(2319 / 2740) = 71 * SQRT(.84635) = 71 * .919973 = 65 So for this weight, Vref is 65 knots. But I don't want to do this math for every flight. Instead, I flew the calculated V speeds and noted the AOA indication for each one. For this airplane with this instrument, it works out like this: Vso is the red triangle Vs1 is the red triangle plus red chevron Vx is the red chevron and top-half of the blue donut V ref is the blue donut Vy is the bottom-half of the blue donut plus the yellow chevron Vglide is the yellow chevron I can't really use the AOA indicator to know exactly where Va is. For me, the green bar shows up around 100 knots and Va is generally above that.

Thanks José. Yes, you can configure 4 different audio annunciations. I have mine set up to play through the overhead speaker rather than through the intercom. I had the GoPro wired up to the intercom, so you couldn't hear the AOA beeps in the video but they were there. Here's the 4 options you can set up: 3 beeps the first time the bottom-half of the blue donut shows up. Only happens once. A two-tone warble (more attention getting than the beeps) at the same situation as above. Only happens once. The same as above. Then when the red chevrons are illuminated, a female voice says "Too slow" every 2 seconds. Female voice says "Getting slow" when the bottom-half of the blue donut lights up (happens once). Then the same "Too slow" repeating when the red chevrons come on. I chose the first option (which is the default). My primary purpose of getting the AOA was to help me fly the correct speed on final based on weight. I don't want to have to do math to figure out the correct Vref -- I want a heads-up indication of being on the correct AOA. I've got enough warnings of an impending stall that I don't really need the voice warnings. I like the subtle 3 beeps. I don't want to make passengers feeling uncomfortable hearing "Too slow" as we're just about to touch down. But if I chose that option, I'd let them know to expect it. You don't want to have a high bank angle or low speed on your base to final turn. If you do, then it's time to go around. I limit my pattern turns to about 30 degrees of bank. Some pilots are even more conservative than that. I don't know if I'd say that stalls are more likely on base to final, but I understand what you're getting at. If you overshoot final and try to fix it with an uncoordinated turn, and pick up a high descent rate, then try to fix that by pulling back on the yoke, you're set up for the classic base-to-final stall/spin accident. You won't have time to recover. I would say that one of the most dangerous times to stall is on the base to final turn if you get into the situation I described above. That's why I mounted the AOA above the glare shield. I'm looking at the runway. The AOA indicator is in my peripheral vision. Another aspect of being safe on landing is flying the correct approach speed (or even better, correct AOA). I think many pilots of high performance aircraft are adding a few knots for mom and the kids, and end up coming in way too fast. That's also a contributing factor to landing accidents. Being too fast on final can be just as bad as being too slow. Fred Scott wrote an excellent article on this topic. Please give it a read and see what you think. He's got a bunch of stuff about AOA indicators and extensive documentation on test flights done by very experienced pilots. I'm going to reference one of Fred Scott's pages again. Here he's quoting from Flying Magazine November 1971. "Stall warning devices are …binary or 'On-Off' devices that give the pilot no indication whatever on how close his wing is to stall….one or two degrees [of angle of attack] below stall, a [stall warning device] is still speechless, mute. It is at its most awkward, tongue-tied phase just when the pilot needs it most..."

That's me. Hi John!

I'm a long time lurker, and I didn't even think about the fact that this is my first post. Happy to introduce myself. I'm Phil Verghese, flying N201UT out of RHV in San Jose, CA. I've owned this plane since 1998 and earned my commercial, CFI, and CFII certificates in this baby. I've been flying with the Mooney Caravan formation arrival to Oshkosh that last two years, and I think it's the safest way to get to Oshkosh. I've got a bunch of formation flying videos on my YouTube page. I have zero commercial interests in the AOA equipment or anything else in my panel. Sorry if my post sounded like it could have been commercially motivated. I'm just a very happy customer and think more pilots should be installing AOA systems in their airplanes. Yeah, I'm really pleased with how my panel has turned out. I'm almost done with it My wife is a pilot too, and we decided a few years ago that this is the right plane for us. We're keeping it forever, so we're making the upgrades that make it more safe and enjoyable for us to fly more often. The money we put into this airplane makes no financial sense, but makes us both happy. I agree that touch-and-go landings are more challenging than a full-stop landing. I can see both sides of the discussion on that accident thread where touch-and-goes came up. I do not think they are a good idea for pilots new to the airplane. But I do think that a pilot who maintains a high level of proficiency can do them safely. I routinely practice both full-stop landings, touch-and-go landings and go-arounds. I have over 1700 hours in this particular airplane, and over 2200 total time. Yeah, unfortunately it's hard to get the camera to correctly expose the outside view and the inside view. You have to pick one or the other, so I set the GoPro up to do spot metering and pointed it centered on the instrument panel. That makes the outside view very overexposed. I wanted to show the relationship between airspeed & AOA in this video. If someone knows of a way to get the video to work for both the inside and outside view, please let me know. Phil

I did a bunch of looking at angle of attack systems at Oshkosh this year, and finally decided on the Alpha Systems AOA Eagle display. I just had it installed, and I'm extremely pleased with the results. Having the display up on the glareshield is perfect, and it's mounted to the center bar just below the compass. It's easily in my peripheral vision and can be seen from either pilot seat. Big thanks to Fred Scott for his AOA articles which I found extremely helpful. I calibrated my system in the landing configuration (the manual says to do it clean). Here's what I did. 1) Do a power-off stall in the landing configuration, note the actual stall speed. 2) Multiply that by 1.3, and that's the OAA (optimal alpha angle) 3) Fly that speed to calibrate the blue donut 4) Fly at Va adjusted for weight to calibrate the cruise speed. Here's a video of my installation where I do a short-field take off, power-on stall, accelerated stall, power-off glide, power-off stall and a couple of landings. I calculated the actual speeds for Vs0, Vs1, Vx, Vref, Vy, Vglide and Va based on the actual aircraft weight that day. http://youtu.be/hRmKkxSpu9E Phil