Almost every pilot (in the U.S., at least) has learned to fly by reference to the airspeed indicator instead of learning to fly angle of attack, mostly because the training fleet for the past 100 years hasn’t had reliable, accurate, and calibrated AoA indication systems. But if you have an EFIS in your homebuilt, it probably has AoA capability, so why not learn to fly it? Wolfgang Langewiesche wrote in “Stick and Rudder” (way back in 1944) that angle of attack is the primary way too fly any aircraft—and it works well to keep you safe and fly more efficiently. You can get a chance to hear more about AoA flying at a forum hosted by the members of the AoA Safety Subcommittee on Tuesday at 1:00 PM in Forum Stage 5 – but more importantly, you can actually fly with a modern AoA system in the Redbird Simulators in the EAA Pilot Proficiency Center any time during the week!
We tired out the new sim modules on Sunday, and showed the instructor corps how best to introduce the simple concept of flying to an AoA indicator, and they are excited to pass on the lesson of just how simple and easy it is to fly – stop in and gives it a try!
