Panel upgrade: angle of attack experience?

[PeytonM]

One consideration for my panel upgrade is adding AoA. I have one on my AspenProMax, but unfortunately that device is not compatible with the A/P that I’ve selected. Furthermore, I found the AoA on that screen outside of my scan during final phases of landing not as helpful, but maybe that’s just me.  I’m looking for input from pilots who have added AoA, which one and how useful they have found it. I’m biased towards a glare shield mount because that’s where your eyes are during final phases of landing. Thanks in advance. Peyton 

[donkaye, MCFI]

I have the Alpha Systems Eagle with HUD on my glare shield, and use it on every landing.  Calibrated properly, it caused me to reduce my approach speed by nearly 5 knots.

[Jerry 5TJ]

I elected to go with the glare shield mounted "Eagle" display. 

 

[aviatoreb]

On glare shield AOA is definitely the way to go for many reasons - eyes down the runway and not in the cockpit looking at a AOA or a ASI.  One does not need the HUD display to get an excellent on glare shield AOA.  Here is my device that is just a light bar, but down at the end of the glare shield and serves entirely the same utility as the hud display.  But you see it lies flat so no hud needed.

[Ragsf15e]

7 hours ago, aviatoreb said:

On glare shield AOA is definitely the way to go for many reasons - eyes down the runway and not in the cockpit looking at a AOA or a ASI.  One does not need the HUD display to get an excellent on glare shield AOA.  Here is my device that is just a light bar, but down at the end of the glare shield and serves entirely the same utility as the hud display.  But you see it lies flat so no hud needed.

Which one do you have?  Looks good!

[bmcconnaha]

nice thing about the aspen is its calibrated with and without flaps... i think its the best solution to not have to add any other hardware.  we have a g3x going in my plane now, but it requires another pitot tube.  

[exM20K]

12 hours ago, donkaye said:

 Calibrated properly, it caused me to reduce my approach speed by nearly 5 knots.

Hi, Don.

Curious - what are the before/after numbers in terms of 1.? Vso?  I find something around 1.25 works very well to shorten landings.

-dan

[donkaye, MCFI]

13 minutes ago, exM20K said:

Hi, Don.

Curious - what are the before/after numbers in terms of 1.? Vso?  I find something around 1.25 works very well to shorten landings.

-dan

I calibrated the donut at 1.3Vso.  No quick mental calculations are necessary for weight dependent final approach speed. At gross weight the donut appears at about 71 knots.

[Oscar Avalle]

This is how I have mine installed. I am just having difficulties calibrating it.


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[Ragsf15e]

2 hours ago, Oscar Avalle said:

This is how I have mine installed. I am just having difficulties calibrating it.


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Nice panel!

What the heck is this?!

[Oscar Avalle]

20 hours ago, Ragsf15e said:

Nice panel!

What the heck is this?!

his 

Long story... He belonged to my son Fausto. He flew with me once with his "friend". Once we landed he told me that his friend would always fly with me to keep me company... so here I am...

[Ragsf15e]

37 minutes ago, Oscar Avalle said:

Long story... He belonged to my son Fausto. He flew with me once with his "friend". Once we landed he told me that his friend would always fly with me to keep me company... so here I am...

That’s awesome!  I’d have him right there too!

[kpaul]

I have the CYA-100 installed.  The display was mounted into the edge of the glare shield.  It is very easy to keep in your scan. In the below picture you can see the red light illuminated. 

[PeytonM]

Would you do it all over again? Would the GFC500 keep you out of a stall/spin scenario, base to final turn?

[jamesm]

I too have the the CYA-100 AOA installed in a '67C. I have very limited room so other AOA's weren't really an option for me. since there isn't space on the so called dashboard above the instrument panel.

I installed the CYA-100  indicator between the  Mechanical/pneumatic  Airspeed Indicator  and the G5. honestly I over look it in my scan(room for improvement on my part). On My base to final  turn my left eye verifying that I am at 80 mph on the Mechanical/pneumatic Airspeed Indicator.  The rest of my scan  is verifying sink rate is reasonable and my pitch is where it should be. After many practice landings with a little  bit muscle memory stored up and having a good sight picture my landings consistent (most days)  and have become quite adequate.

I don't even notice the GFC-500 ESP presence since I am not typically over banking the airplane in this phase of flight.  

The GFC-500 ESP is similar to the Brittian wing lever PC (Positive Control) system in that the system is always on (unless it is re-configured it). of course  the common complaint (by non Mooney pilots) of Mooney's  ailerons are too heavy . Which after flying with the PC  on a few times  I didn't even noticed until I remove the PC system after the Turn Coordinator finally died. Boy did  I really miss the wing lever.

Personally, I think there is possibility to stall spin the plane in base to final turn even with GFC-500's ESP engaged. you should get  a "STALL" "STALL" aural  warning and the  "STALL"  display annunciation on the G5 though it may not be enough. if a person were to panic in such way to over ride the autopilot ESP function.   if you are in the panic mode it's has been my experience that people tend to freeze  and may not be fast enough to recognize the stall spin in the base to final turn scenario. It is my understanding that the stall spin happens so quick that you are probably not going have time to recover.   To my  way of thinking it more of situation awareness tool like ADS-B is where  we still have to be on the look out for other traffic.

I like Paul Bertorelli's explanation.

for what it is worth this is just my opinion.

James '67C

 

[Jerry 5TJ]

On 11/6/2021 at 7:45 PM, Oscar Avalle said:

This is how I have mine installed. I am just having difficulties calibrating it.

I had a fair amount of trouble with calibration of the system.  Ultimately it took 5 test flights. 
Alpha Systems was very supportive. They lent me a test set to confirm all the wiring and pneumatic connections were good. That helped greatly as I then knew that getting the vane angle set was the remaining issue.  
Once the proper vane angle is found the calibration took us (definitely take a second pilot along!) perhaps 30 minutes.  
I chose to have the system use 4 configurations:

  Flaps up, gear up

  Flaps up, gear down

  Half flaps, gear down

  Full flaps, gear down

That means eight configuration entries (plus 4 more for the optional Vs x 1.1 settings) for calibration.   

[carusoam]

Inviting @201er to the conversation… (positive AOAi discussion…)

Question for @Jerry 5TJ… when using your Alpha AOA system… does it know the current configuration?

How do you know you are reading the correct indication for the current configuration?

My fear… a small amount of stress, I may make a mistake reading the flaps up/down triangles of the other dual configuration systems…

Best regards,

-a-

[Jerry 5TJ]

7 hours ago, carusoam said:

Inviting @201er to the conversation… (positive AOAi discussion…)

Question for @Jerry 5TJ… when using your Alpha AOA system… does it know the current configuration?

We installed the system using the Aloha Systems interface module to take inputs on gear and flap positions.  So, yes, the AoA computer knows which of the four configurations to use in calculating the display  

The pilot sees a display of AoA appropriate for the current configuration.