"bildan" wrote in message
...


The interest for me is a sailplane installation where AOA is a
performance issue in addition to a safety issue.

My glider can be flown at 1000 pounds up to 1433 pounds gross weight
and spends a lot of time in 2G turns thermalling. The AOA for minimum
sink is always the same but the airspeed at which that happens changes
a lot. The same thing with best L/D.

A very 'slippery' glider takes a while for the airspeed to settle down
after a pitch change. Flying to an exact AOA would be easier than
chasing airspeed.

An AOA indicator that shows minimum sink and maximum L/D as well as
stall would be quite useful.

----begin new post--------OE got confused again-----------

Presuming that a moving/rotating vane system would work for you, you might
consider an all mechanical system.

One possibility might involve canibalizing an old VW fuel guage assembly for
some of the parts--the 1965, and possibly the 1964, VW "Beetles" had a
mechanical fuel guage activated through a push/pull cable that was similar
to the throttles on lawnmowers and the hand brakes on bicycles.

Actually, with a little thought and considering that the vane could be
located on the side(s) of the forward cockpit area, it should be possible to
devise a system that would be lighter, simpler, and also having less
friction. You could even make the indicating needle move vertically--which
would seem to me to be more intuitive.

By the way, a pair of "pitch strings" mounted on the lower portion of the
canopy sides would possibly work as well and would be a trivial
installation; but I suspect that they could be difficult and distracting to
read unless they happened to fit well with your use of peripheral vision.
That issue greatly exceeds my "human factors" knowledge.

Peter

PS: I was an electronic technician, and occasionally design technician, for
many years and I am confident that I could devise an electronic "lift
reserve" or similar indicator with two or three angles marked for reference;
but I strongly suspect that a simple mechanical system would be simpler and
equally functional on a glider--where there should be no ice and no tractor
propeller.