LIFT
MANAGEMENT, LLC
brings you not only an inexpensive,
intuitive, indirect angle of attack indicator,
but a LIFT MANAGEMENT TOOL
designed to readjust your "seat of the pants"
to the airplane you're flying
TODAY, not the one you trained in or just sold.
FLYING BY THE SEAT OF YOUR PANTS
Basic flight training instills a comprehensive sense of what "just
feels right" when we fly. That training calibrates our "seat of
the pants" to the aircraft we're training in based on that aircraft's
performance specifications resulting in a sense of what is
uncomfortable approaching a stall, doing steep turns, and approaching
to land. Especially with spin training now a thing of the past,
we're calibrated rather conservatively as evidenced by watching pilots
land far faster than necessary and using up a lot of runway, brakes,
and rental tach time while they're at it.
The LIFT MONITOR system,
in addition to serving as an indirect angle of attack
instrument, is specifically designed to help pilots "recalibrate" their
seat of the pants so as to gain maximum safe performance from the
aircraft they're flying today. Transitioning to a new aircraft,
which pilots do several times over their careers, requires significant
"resets" to their seat of the pants if they are to fly safely and get
the most out of their aircraft.
Unlike
digital angle of attack instruments which have only coarse
increments of indication, the LIFT
MONITOR analog indicator depicts subtle changes in the amount of
lift available to the pilot, and particularly trends which are hard to
discern waiting for the next light or bar to illuminate in a digital
display and sometimes wondering if the light above or below will light
up next. Famed aviation writer Barry Schiff discusses the
relative merits of analog versus digital indications in critical flight
instrumentation here.
Furthermore, the LIFT MONITOR
probe is mounted on the surface of the wing to allow convenient sensor
angle adjustment from a conservative safety margin to progressively
more aggressive settings as the pilot's technique evolves to take full
advantage of the performance capabilities his or her particular
aircraft.
The probe comes preassembled to its mount and is pre-set at the
recommended starting angle. Once a probe mounting location is
determined and two vinyl air hoses are routed from the instrument panel
to that location, probe installation can be achieved in a matter of
minutes.
The probe angle is adjusted as a result of test flights to indicate on
the gauge a margin of remaining lift at critical angles of attack which
is comfortable for the pilot. As the pilot gains familiarity with
the aircraft's handling, the probe can be readjusted to a lower, but
still safe and predictable margin so as to realize even greater
aircraft performance in high angle of attack situations.