Preflight Brief: Angle of Attack Awareness

Welcome to the Safety Section of the Flying Clubs Newsletter, Club Connector!            

Every month we provide resources for flying club safety officers to keep their clubs informed and safe. You can find this month’s safety article and the full archive, here: https://youcanfly.aopa.org/flying-clubs/flying-club-newsletter/safety             

So, let’s get on with this month’s safety topic!             

Background:       

A pilot’s understanding of angle of attack (AOA) is one of the most essential defenses against loss of control accidents. While many pilots instinctively associate stalls with low airspeed, the true cause is always exceeding the wing’s critical angle of attack—a value that remains constant across airspeeds, weights, attitudes, and configurations. Data from the NTSB and FAA Safety Team show that more than 5% of GA accidents over a recent 10-year period involved AOA as a causal factor, and nearly half of those were fatal. Because stall-related accidents often occur during takeoff, landing, maneuvers, or uncoordinated flight, understanding how load factor, configuration, and coordination affect AOA is essential. As missions, conditions, and aircraft performance vary throughout the year, revisiting AOA fundamentals—and learning how to visualize and manage AOA in real time—is one of the simplest and most effective ways to reduce the risk of loss of control.

Learning points:        

 Angle of Attack Fundamentals

• A stall occurs when the wing exceeds its critical angle of attack—not when it reaches a particular airspeed.

• The critical AOA is constant for a given airfoil and configuration, regardless of whether the airplane is flying at 60 knots or 200 knots.

• Airspeed is only an indirect measure of proximity to stall, because it varies with aircraft weight, load factor, and configuration.

• AOA is defined by the angle between the chord line and the relative wind, and pilots must learn to visualize this relationship in all phases of flight.

Flight Phases and AOA

• Low AOA is typical in cruise, where airflow remains smooth, the wing is stable, and control response is strong.

• High AOA occurs during approach and departure, when airspeed is lower, and control responsiveness decreases—yet the aircraft is still fully controllable.

• At the critical AOA, airflow separates from the wing, lift collapses, and a stall occurs; recovery requires reducing AOA, not simply adding power.

Load Factor and Maneuvering

• Stall speed increases with load factor, meaning steep turns dramatically reduce the margin between maneuvering AOA and critical AOA.

• A steep turn at maneuvering speed can demand significantly more AOA, leaving as little as 2° of margin before a stall.

Coordination, Slips, and Skids

• Slips are generally safer than skids, because the upper wing stalls first, causing the aircraft to roll toward wings-level.

• Skids are highly dangerous, especially close to the ground, because the lower wing stalls first, forcing an aggressive roll toward the bank and often leading to spins.

• The classic “base-to-final overshoot” combined with rudder overuse is one of the most common precursors to fatal skidding stall-spin accidents.

• If overshooting final with a tailwind, the correct action is an immediate go-around, not forcing the airplane through the turn.

Flaps and Configuration

• Extending flaps changes the wing’s effective chord line and increases AOA, often causing an initial pitch-up if not countered with control input.

• Each flap setting effectively creates a “new wing,” including a new critical AOA, underscoring why configuration management is central to safe AOA control.

Using Angle of Attack Indicators

• AOA indicators provide pilots with real time stall margin awareness and are highly recommended by the GAJSC to reduce stall/spin accidents.

• Training is essential to get full value from an AOA indicator, including seeing how it behaves in slow flight, takeoff, landing, and recovery maneuvers.

• AOA systems have limitations—such as calibration accuracy, probe icing, and wing contamination—so pilots must know the manufacturer’s details and constraints.

Other Safety Resources:             

Here is a reminder of just some of the safety resources available to all pilots:             

FAASTeam:             

faasafety.gov             

The FAASTeam website is the portal to a vast array of courses, videos, links, and much more.  Remember that WINGS not only encompasses knowledge activities but also flight activities.  Use the search options to narrow down to say, flight activities for a basic phase of WINGS, and you’ll be able to find a syllabus and often a worksheet for various flight activities.  Use WINGS to keep you proficient and think of the flight activities as a progressive flight review—earnt over 12-months, rather than at the end of 24-months.             

Wait…you don’t do WINGS?             

That’s a big shame—you are missing out on a free pilot proficiency program that will help you enjoy your flying even more, allow you to earn a flight review every 12 months just by flying, and may provide insurance discounts.             

The FAASTeam WINGS pilot proficiency program is the best way for general aviation pilots to ensure they are competent, confident, and safe in their flight operations.   Oh, and being perpetually proficient will save you money in the long run.               

If you are interested in using the FAASTeam WINGS program for your personal flying or with your flying club, create an account on the FAASTeam website, http://www.faasafety.gov, and explore the collection of courses and flight activities.  Also, feel free to contact me (Jason Levine, WINGS Representative), and I’d be pleased to walk you through the program.  More on “WINGS for Clubs” can be found here in Flying Clubs Radio Episode 8 and the May 2020 Question of the Month.               

Other FAA Resources:             

Don’t forget to regularly revisit these FAA safety gems, as new material is frequently added:             

Pilot Minute             

57 Seconds to Safer Flying             

FAA Safety Briefing Magazine             

From the Flight Deck                

AOPA Air Safety Institute:             

https://www.aopa.org/training-and-safety/air-safety-institute             

AOPA’s Air Safety Institute (ASI), which by the way is funded by the AOPA Foundation just like the Flying Clubs Initiative, is packed with exceptional content, including exceptional videos, podcasts, accident analysis, online courses, recorded webinars and more.  Completing ASI activities may also earn WINGS credits.  Of particular interest to flying club safety officers is the updated Safety to Go section.  There, you can download a selection of topics, each coming with PowerPoint slides and speaker’s notes!