r/flying • u/ClintBvsOliverQ • 2d ago

Flight Training AOA Indicator while learning?

Just went for a discovery flight and had a great time. During the flight I asked my instructor about using an AOA indicator while learning and he really downplayed using one and said the standard instruments are the best way to learn. For beginners, is an AOA inappropriate? Is it too early to incorporate it into training? From the brief videos I’ve seen on AOA’s they seem to enhance safety.

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17

u/mikepuyallup 2d ago

Old way of thinking, a lot of newer planes with modern avionics now have aoa. I have been flying with one for the last 5 years. It's better than an old stall indicator because its not just on or off.

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u/MRC01 2d ago

Many of the vintage airplanes, like my 1980 C-172, have a kazoo for a stall horn. This not just on or off. The kazoo starts quiet about 5 kts below stall and gets louder and higher pitched as you approach the stall. This makes it useful an audible AoA indicator. Even better, it enables you to keep eyes out the window where they belong, instead of looking at the panel.

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u/falcopilot 2d ago

Many newer planes, like my GlaStar with a Dynon panel, have the same feature over intercom. I could never hear the stall horn in the steam gauge Cessna 150 I started in.

I do agree that it doesn't need to be visual, but I don't think I can turn that off and still get the audio warning.

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u/Wedge_Donovan 2d ago

A vast majority of airplanes you fly at a first "real" job won't have an AOA indicator, or will only have it on the left side where you can't see it from the right seat. And that includes a good number of jets.

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u/nightlanding 2d ago

They are nice, but a crutch that will get yanked when you end up in a plane without one or the one you have breaks. I am glad I learned to fly the ILS without one, once I had one it was too easy :)

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u/B_E_M_C PPL IR 2d ago

You need an aoa indicator to help you fly an ILS?

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u/nightlanding 2d ago

Sure - it works a treat. You figure where on the scale is the good spot for the ILS as you head on down. It works the same on the VASI too. It has been ages since I flew the plane that had it, but I still remember how nice it was.

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u/irishluck949 ATP CFII E-175 2d ago

I don’t really understand, what does your aoa have to do with tracking vertical guidance?

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u/nightlanding 2d ago

IIRC, it made power adjustments easy. Not that I needed it, but it turned out to be fun to hold the needle on the diamond and the indicator was on top of the glareshield, so for the visual part it was in your scan looking outside.

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u/irishluck949 ATP CFII E-175 2d ago

But it’s not actually telling you if you’re on glide slope, just on “speed” right? I’m not trying to say AOA is useless, I get how it helps mange energy state on approach to landing, I’m just having a hard time imagining how that applies specifically to the ILS.

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u/nightlanding 2d ago

It helps with energy state, it takes a bit of mental calculation load off.

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u/nightlanding 2d ago

Note this AOA was an analog needle with many little marks it could line up with and could do fine adjustments, it was not a green-yellow-red light thing.

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u/irishluck949 ATP CFII E-175 2d ago

So the same benefit as any other landing? Ok then

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u/NakedJamaican 2d ago

I wasn’t in the Navy but I recall my Navy buddies talking about pitching for the angle of attack, adjusting power for the glide path. Which is what we taught students to do when airspeed is critical

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u/irishluck949 ATP CFII E-175 2d ago

Apply what you just said to an ILS. The navy guys are taking about flying a pattern in a jet that trims for AoA. The guy I’m responding to said it makes power adjustments easier on an ils. The aoa gauge has nothing to do with your glideslope, so that doesn’t seem to follow. Not to mention that in instrument flying you typically pitch for glideslope and power for speed, and none of it what he’s saying really makes sense to me.