Folks,
Although it is neither an AOA system or a stall warner, my SmartASS unit
(www.smartavionics.com) will help the pilot to maintain a safe margin of speed
above the stall on approach. I sincerely believe that if such a system had been
in use, it may well have been sufficient to prevent some of the stall/spin on
approach accidents that have occurred.
With a SmartASS working in "speed director mode", on approach, a calm (female)
voice talks to you about your speed. If the speed is about right, she
occasionally,
says "speed good". If the speed is wrong, she says "slow" (or "fast"), if
the speed is very wrong, she says "very slow", (or "very fast"). The voice is
normally not very intrusive. If the speed is insanely slow/fast you get a loud
DING as well. The unit is G sensitive so it factors the vertical acceleration
into the speed calculation so if you are pulling G, it reports slowness even
if the actual airspeed is correct.
When you start using the speed director it seems quite fussy, always telling you
to slow down or speed up. But once you have flown a few approaches with it and
smoothed out your flying it becomes completely normal to have this little voice
in the background making comments and because you are used to listening and
reacting to what she tells you (makes a change, eh?), you follow the suggestions
and so the approach speed is maintained close to the chosen value with very
little effort on the part of the pilot.
The point I am making is that once you are used to using it, taking in and
reacting
to the information presented by the SmartASS becomes so easy it's almost
subliminal. From a flight safety point of view, I believe that is good because
it frees up some valuable pilot mental effort and allows the pilot to
concentrate
more on lookout/spatial awareness.
A stall warning system is better than nothing because you may hear it and react,
but then again, (when the pressure is on) you may not.
I have not used an AOA system but I would expect with a good HUD they would be
OK when the pilot is looking straight ahead. The audio option could be useful
as long as the brain hasn't switched off due to overload.
Mark
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