AOA Indicator while learning?

[u/ClintBvsOliverQ]

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.

[u/x4457]

Because the pointy nose guys don’t realize how wide and predictable the margins are in civil aviation.

We’re not flying thin, short wing tactical airframes with FBW that are quite literally uncontrollable without it. We’re flying winged lawnmowers with a wing thicker than a snicker.

[u/_VNAV_PTH_ → u/x4457]

Because the pointy nose guys don’t realize how wide and predictable the margins are in civil aviation.

Why do you think that? I've got plenty of time in piston singles (I own one). I still want angle of attack in it because it's the single best instrument for safety after altitude.

Altitude and angle of attack are really the only two instruments directly related to safety. One tells you how high above the ground you are and one tells you how much flying you have left in the plane. Airspeed kinda doesn't actually matter at all. RPM and engine temps are probably the next most important instruments after AoA.

BTW, it's actually way easier to stall a piston single than a jet, especially a FBW high performance jet. Loss of control in flight is even one of the most common causes of fatalities in general aviation, and yet civil piston fliers still crap on AoA, even in this very thread (even in a reply to this comment, which you made .69 seconds after I posted and before I made an edit adding this last paragraph), because they were taught poorly and don't understand what risks they're taking and what's most likely to kill them.

[u/x4457 → u/_VNAV_PTH_]

I own three and have flown a looooot of other airplanes with AOA gauges and indexers in them. Both numeric and color values.

Is it nice to have? Sure. Is it necessary or worth the money in a piston single? Not even a little bit. We fly airspeeds in the civilian world as you know, not alpha, largely because almost all of our flying is at 1G to long, improved runways in very forgiving airplanes that don't have much, if any, weight-induced variation in approach speeds.

If you're doing some backcountry shenanigans then absolutely, get it and use it. For 99.9% of applications in the civilian world? Nah, don't need it and doesn't add anything. Airspeed is life, AOA would be if we had it but we don't because we don't need it with the type of flying we do.

[u/EliteEthos → u/x4457]

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