|
|
John Halle writes:
A bit smug, don't you think?
Sorry, John. I'm poor at tact ... and feel bad about it. I'm kind of 'tact-challenged'.Should not have capitalized the word 'bad'. I was just trying to say what you said much better...
the hypothetical situation you pose in which things are "already BAD", by which I assume you have in mind someone who is, without knowing it, very close to a stall or who has, to his complete surprise, just stalled, there may be some marginal advantage to having an AOA ...
Yes. These are the guys who get killed, John, and are listed in the NTSB reports,. A study of them shows that these 'plumbers' have experience all across the board, including some very high time, very professional pilots.
I did read your comments, like ...
The essential ingredient, both to avoid getting into BAD situations and to get out of whatever BAD situations you find yourself in anyway is good airmanship which, in turn is the result of flying knowledge and experience.
You're right, that's one of the essential ingredients, but this 'attitude and experience' is not the only one preferred for safety. I'm not perefect, and have made mistakes,a nd have watched other very careful, experienced professionals make mistakes. It's a result of our being very complex, vulnerable, caring persons, our judgement gets affected by our families, friends, working associates and even traffic controllers. I had the opportunity to be a passenger in a very, v ery long takeoff run out of SeaTac in a P2V piloted by one of the best pilots I knew, a green-card holder, who for a number of reasons midjudged the effect of a little frost on the wings. Probably an AOA wouldn't have helped that. But my point is that training is sometimes irrelevant; stuff has already happened, and -- Now what? Survive.
in an inadvertent stall/spin, the illusion that advanced gadgetry can make up for poor flying skills (so it's OK to be a plumber as long as you have AOA) the concept is quite simply dangerous.
But obviously I think the opposite is true... to - not - have an AOA is dangerous. An AOA enables an air-blind pilot to see-and-avoid a stall, or, once in it, enables him to see just how little he needs to reduce his wing's AOA to unstall and recover with minimum altitude loss.
The 'gadgetry' isn't an illusion. It won't replace airmanship. It will aid airmanship=. An AOA is not 'advanced', but was used -- a simple string against a scale -- by Orville and Wilbur. / I agree that you're right -- that skills are something to be proud of-- but I also think it's okay to offer someone who is less of an expert a simple device so he can see how to avoid porblem's he's more likely to confront, and if he should make a mistake, be able to easily recover. I'd like everyone to be able to enjoy flight, not just the ones who want to be very, very good, but the ones who just want to enjoy flight, the scenery, the speed and convenience. My experience is that a simple AOA vane greatly reduces anxiety in tense circumstances like landing or taking off hot, high and short... or having to maneuver at low altitude, or when stuff happens. I guess that's where I'm coming from. It's not a replacement for good airmanship or a crutch. It's a tool the Navy was overjoyed to discover and implement, so that twice as many of the men with the golden wings, who were already excellent in airmanship, very highly trained, could survive their carrier deployment, as before AOAs.
Terrence N211AL
--
For archives and unsub http://mail.lancaironline.net/lists/lml/
|
|