Stall warning vane

[BravoGolf]

I searched the site but did not find any threads on the topic. Has anyone installed a stall warning vane in the leading edge?

[PaulSA]

Wouldn't be hard to do. Small piece of aluminium attached to a micro switch wired to a buzzer. Just have to calibrate it. However (and not having flown yet), I understand that the BH series has adequate natural stall warning and benign stall characteristics. Also, if you fit an EFIS you can get a proper AoA indicator.

[robcaldwell]

I have the Dynon AoA built in my Pitot tube. Will need to calibrate when flying.

[BravoGolf]

You can do the calibration single pilot but it really needs two pilots or an autopilot. I did not get mine dialed in until I had another pilot fly while I concentrated on checking parameters and pressing the right buttons.

[svyolo]

I think even a couple of the mini-EFIS's can have AOA, including "synthetic" AOA. Aural warning.

[zkelley2]

The synthetic AoA is worthless in my experience.

[BravoGolf]

I have Advanced Flight / Dynon in my RV-7 with AOA. I thought about going down that road again, but I decided to build a light day/night VFR aircraft. Not that there is anything wrong with equipping a BH with Dynon or whatever, but it is easy to continue to add on with Dynon (or whichever company.) My RV has a lot to Dynon technology installed that I don't really use. For example I last used the autopilot flying to Oshkosh last year, didn't use it on the way back and the Flight Director has been on maybe once.

Anyway, I have looked at a few stall vanes (none of them are cheap.) I am thinking of talking to Bob about placement and calibration. Vans sells one for $112.00 which is the least expensive I found so far. Or I could fabricate one. I was hoping someone had been down this road before and could show me their work.

[Battson]

Yes the Dynon suite does have a lot of fancy bells and whistles, many of them unnecessary. That said....

The Dynon AOA is perhaps the best investment in your safety and survival which you could make, on the whole aircraft. When installed correctly with the audible warning tone through the radio, they are superior to a stall warning vane in every respect and should prevent the stall-spin fatality scenario in all cases. Perhaps obviously, I have one installed. It also makes the plane child's-play to fly well, even at the edge of the envelope.

Then again, if the AOA isn't for you, a stall warning vane is better than nothing and would be worth having.

[Ed.Meyer]

I agree. The Dynon AOA is far better than the vane type stall warning...

[rodsmith]

There are several stand alone AOA indicators available that don't require connection to an EFIS. Some of them would require installing components before the wings are closed.

[JimParker256]

My RANS S-6ES Coyote II with VGs on the wing has a stall speed well down into the mid-twenties. At that point, the good old "steam gauge" airspeed indicator is indicating somewhere between zero and twenty mph (bouncing slowly), so it's basically useless.

I have ordered a Radiant Technology (Belite) AoA sensor and display kit to address this. This AoA system uses a "flying vane" with a Hall-effect magnetic sensor embedded to determine the angle of the vane. This flying vane sensor similar to what the airlines use (though probably 0.001% the cost), and seems to be very accurate and highly responsive. Here's a link: https://radiantinstruments.com/radia...play-system-1/

I'm planning to mount the display on top of the glareshield, aligned with one of the V-braces so that I'm not really losing any visibility forward, because the V-tube already disrupts it there. The display is fairly small (only 2 1/4"), but the LEDs are pretty bright (but dimmable with the supplied dimmer pot). I'll give a PIREP when it's installed and flying.

[BravoGolf]

If you have time could you post a few pictures. Their website doesn’t give you a detailed view

[Bcone1381]

I'd like to see Belite offer an AOA that provided an aural indication (like a sensitive VSI that gliders use).  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nea3-XIyeU

[JimParker256]

Svyolo, the "Radiant" vane is as close to zero-friction as I can imagine, so it should be plenty sensitive. And I believe you are correct that the EFIS-type ASI systems often (usually?) read more accurately at the lower end (software compensates when the pressure differentials are very small).

BravoGolf, once I receive it, I'll post some pictures. Did you watch their video? They used to have a better video, but when the factory burned to the ground and they had to start all over, they remove the AoA from their catalog for a while, and apparently didn't have the old videos any more.

BCone1381, I'm pretty sure the vane outputs a 0-5 volt signal, like 99% of their other products. I would imagine someone suitably skilled and motivated could "split" that output and drive a tone generator of some kind. Personally, I don't like the noise-making stall indicators, because you basically have to learn to ignore them when practicing stalls, and most other low-speed maneuvers. Again, my personal experience is that I find myself "conditioned" to hearing the noise, so I don't react when it happens...

My old Commander 114 (calibrated per the maintenance manual) would start "sounding off" about 5 knots above the "clean" stall speed. Which unfortunately was also about 5 knots below the final approach speed. So if you flew "by the book" the stall horn was squawking for about the last 10-15 seconds of every flight. I found it incredibly annoying, until I learned to ignore it. Passengers (especially my "nervous passenger" wife) would become visibly keyed up by that noise, even though I explained that it would come on just before landing...

Neither the Citabria I used to own, nor the RANS Coyote II I currently own have any "external" stall indicators. Both give you plenty of feedback through the controls to let you know you're "getting mushy." The AoA will help mostly on gusty days or when trying to really fine-tune STOL-type landings. (Plus, it will be another fun toy!)