On Tuesday, June 11, 2013 1:22:59 PM UTC-6, Michael Huber wrote:

"Trust me"

I don't.

"it still works"

Only in the loosest possible definition of "works".

The wing's downwash is affected in a big way by a lot of things unrelated to AOA. To get free of the wings near-field effects an AOA probe needs to be several wing chords ahead of the LE which is why you see air-data nose booms on test aircraft. Find me an example of an aircraft with the AOA probe aft of the wing.

Nose cone sensors would be too close to the wing as well but the location has proven adequate in a large number of aircraft. Come to think of it, I saw a photo of Mark Mocho's Pegasus with the TE probe on the nose which makes a lot of sense aerodynamically - if a line boy doesn't trip over it.