In 2015, a public-private partnership involving the FAA, pilot and industry organizations, plus airframe and powerplant manufacturers, and known as the General Aviation Joint Steering Committee (GAJSC), used accident data to identify in-flight loss of control as the leading cause of fatal general aviation accidents. A GAJSC working group determined we could substantially reduce the number of fatal accidents by equipping more light airplanes with angle of attack (AoA) indicators. Industry made this the number one target for improving general aviation safety and the FAA developed new certification policies allowing non-required safety enhancing equipment (NORSEE) were adopted that allowed installing safety improvement items such as AoA indicators with little more paperwork than a mechanic’s signature.
The new AoA indicators would not replace an existing certified stall warning system but would augment it instead. How is that supposed to enhance GA safety? Remember that the wing stalls at only one angle of attack but can stall at any airspeed. In fact, the typical stall warning system in small airplanes uses an angle of attack sensor as the primary data source, but it’s just off or on. Instead, an AoA indicator is more analog in nature, and provides valuable information in high-lift situations well before a stall warning system would activate. Put another way, the AoA indicator works throughout the range of pitch attitudes where a stall warning system only activates at the high extreme.
