Frequently Asked Questions

The next time you are getting on an airliner, look in the general area below the Captain’s and First Officer’s windows, about in the middle of the fuselage. Notice a vane? I had a vane in my nearly 19 years flying for a major airline, and in business jets several years before that. All of our systems use the same type of vane and it also allows you to wax your aircraft without disabling your Angle of Attack by clogging your pressure port!

The following results were determined by a professional engineer relating to the drag analysis of our RiteAngle AOA system installed on a Glasair or Lancair Legacy retractable gear aircraft.  The more “drag” the aircraft has the less impact the AOA vane and vane mount would have.

Calculated Basic Total Flat Plate Area, based on available data:
Glasair                                      Equivalent to 1.65 Square Feet
Lancair Legacy                        Equivalent to 1.85 Square Feet
EM Aviation RiteAngle Vane & mount     Equivalent to 0.0124 Square Feet
12” vane mount used for calculations, actual vane length 13% wing chord @ vane location.

This is equal to 420 # total of drag for Lancair, slightly less for Glasair, both very close at 300 Mph.

The calculated drag of the RiteAngle AOA Vane & Mount for these aircraft would slow the aircraft down the following amount.
At 300 MPH    RiteAngle would slow you down 1.0 MPH or less
At 200 MPH    RiteAngle would slow you down 0.5 MPH or less
At 100 MPH    RiteAngle would slow you down 0.25 MPH or less

Mr. Bob Smith, the engineer that did these calculations is a retired aerodynamicist whose career employed at Douglas Aircraft spans the prop, rocket x-planes to the jet age.  He operated the wind tunnels while in college, working directly for Mr. Ed Heinemann, known as “Combat Aircraft Designer” and was involved in most Douglas carrier based aircraft, during his career at Douglas Aircraft. Other projects were the Douglas Skystreak (D-558-1) & Skyrocket (D-558-II the first aircraft to fly Mach 2) research planes.

After retirement approximately 30 years ago he continues to be involved in drag analysis. This includes many of the modifications made to Dreadnought, the Reno race winner several years ago. He did the fuel flow analysis for a successful single engine non stop flight from Australia to the US and many other projects to numerous to mention.  One of  his  latter involvements was the drag reduction of an Indy racecar for one of the Indy racecar teams.

Sadly, Mr. “Bob” Smith, a close friend since ‘73 passed away a few years ago, All who knew him lost a great  friend.

The display is currently available with two mounting options a 2 ¼” standard aircraft round “in panel mount” or the “on top of panel” mount for the Integrity, the 2 ¼” round display will be an optional cost for the Elite+ system.

No, however the system must get information from the flap position sensor to correct for the flap position.  As long as you have a way of determining flap position visually to set up system it is automatic.  The INTEGRITY is prohibited from getting information from any system (except electrical power) previously installed in part 23 or earlier certified aircraft per the Memo approving this system.  However the homebuilt Elite+ system can get this info from an electronic flap position indicator if one is installed. Parts required are included in kit.

The calibration has been made much easier with less problems due to the “human interface”.  The  LED that is flashing is the one being set.  This is for either the AOA or Flap display. Should you change the aerodynamics of the wing, or modify the flaps, just plug in the set-box and re-calibrate.  The same system basic set-box works for all of the current production RiteAngle AOA systems.

The RiteAngle™ systems are completely separate from the pitot static system. If a break in the pitot or static system line occurs, it will not affect our system, nor will a failure in the RiteAngle™ affect the pitot/static.