ANGLE OF ATTACK

I copy an important r.a.s. (hopefully the author won't mind me spreading his message).
I also have to refer to the blogg kept by Tim McAllister for the NZ GP - it is really good
http://timmcallister.blogspot.com/

Bill Daniels had the following to say
"The threads on this subject [angle of attack] has uncovered something that gives me chills.
Internationaly, gliding has an abominable safety record. Many fatal accidents have as their root cause, failure by the pilot to maintain flying speed or, stated more directly, control his angle of attack. Clearly, based on these r.a.s threads on the subject, some do not understand AOA in some fundamental way and that's chilling.
Controlling airspeed is simply not good enough - it's too abstract, too easy to triviallize, too easy to misunderstand the significance of it.
Safety committees and organizations need to take this to hart. Here is a root cause of our most dangerous accidents. The awareness of and understanding of AOA has somehow slipped through the cracks. Slay this dragon, and our accident numbers will look far better.
If the concept and practice of controlling angle of attack is not absolutely ingrained in a pilot, the probability of an accident is non-trivial - in fact, sooner or later, it's a near certainty. Awareness of AOA should never be far from a pilots consiousness.
Controlling angle of attack is so fundamental to being a pilot that it's staggering to think that it's possible to become one without it being hammered into them until it's as instinctive as walking. Flying an aircraft without this level of understanding is like being the captain of a ship without understanding what makes it float.
As pilots, we do not fly the cockpit, the fuselage or the empenage - we fly the wing. The wing is really the only thing that does fly, the rest is just baggage.
Read Jim Webb's truly excellent book "Fly the wing". http://www.amazon.com/Fly-Wing-James-Webb/dp/0813805414
Or equally good, Wolfgang Langewiesche's "Stick and Rudder". You can read it free on line at Google Books.
Read these books - please! There is simply no subject in aviation that is more fundamental or important to your survival.
Bill Daniels"

EY