Just because this is something I'm familiar with I thought I'd add some input to John's description of his friends homemade AoA's.
The use of a low speed ASI in the cockpit as a gauge is a good one. Another option that could be used is a mini magnahelic gauge. These gauges are very common in industry and are used for heating and ventilating pressure readouts, induced air pressure measurement, etc. The gauges come in a variety of 'high-low' capacitys and ranges. Go to your yellow pages and look under 'Industrial Supply' or 'Heating and Ventilating Design'. If the firms you call don't sell them directly, they can tell you who does. I would also like to say that of all the different homemade AoA's that I've looked at and designed myself, I like this one the best, especially for it's 'tuning' capability. Thanks for posting John. Hope this is of help to someone. Peter Johnson KR-2Sexy with a Corvair Kenora, Ontario Canada mailto:[email protected] ----- Original Message ----- From: "Martindale Family" <[email protected]> To: "KRnet" <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, March 09, 2004 2:09 PM Subject: Re: KR>Angle of attack indicator > Folks > > A friend of mine designed his own AoA indicator. Simply a 1/2" tube, sealed > at the end with row of small holes drilled into it. The tube is mounted out > of the fuselage wall on the extended chord line 8"or so ahead of the leading > edge root and is parallel to it. He has the holes pointed down at right > angles to the chord so that at zero AoA there is minimal pressure in the > tube. As the wing/fuselage is rotated to provide an AoA so too does the > tube, the holes present to the air flow and the pressure increases. A > reading is obtained on some sort of sensitive pressure gauge (maybe just a > low speed ASI) that has it's face recalibrated in arbitary units (he just > uses numbers 1 to 5 and has the dial named " partner's pressure level"). > The tube can be rotated to provide calibration (or desired absolute needle > movement) and the readings noted as he approaches the stall. He flies this > gauge on approach, more so than the ASI. > > John
