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AOA Retrofit tube routing

LettersFromFlyoverCountry

Well Known Member
As my wings were built before the RV-12iS was introduced, I have an AOA retrofit to install.

The instructions aren't great. It looks like a photocopy of photocopies but the narrative for the retrofit regarding the routing of the tube seems problematic to me:

"On retrofit installations secure the PT 1/8 CLR tubing with RTV sealant and tie-wraps in the upper skin J channel from the AOA port rivet to the second rib from the root."

Really? How exactly. You can maybe - maybe reach into the next bay but that's about it. And you're certainly not going to be drilling any holes in the J channel for a place to secure tie wraps and even reaching in there to apply RTV seems a tough chore.

I would be interested in hearing people's experiences on this.
 
If the AOA is optional then I would not bother. I find it to be of minimal value on my 12. It was essential with the high performance wings in the Air Force but here it just doesn't seem to add much to the existing stall warning system.
 
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Wings can stall at any airspeed, but at only one angle of attack.
I suspect that planes that stall and spin in while in the traffic pattern do not
have AOA. I use AOA as an on-speed indicator while on final approach.
A slow AOA beep means that I am on speed. Faster beeps mean that I am
approaching stall speed. I don't have to look at the instruments while on final.
 
On my -6A I retrofitted AOA and routed the tubing via the wiring grommets in the ribs for the wing tip lighting. I don't know if that may be an option with the -12 wing?
 
RV12 AOA

The AOA kit came out just after I had closed up the wings. I zip tied what I could and put a dab of RTV on the end of an old fishing pole to secure rest. If I were building new, I would discard the stall warning assembly. A few landings with AOA and you’ll never put your eyes on the panel over the threshold again; the tone is your friend!
 
On my Advanced Flight EFIS, in-wing ports are no longer supported so when I upgraded I had to abandon them in favor of a pitot-based AoA. I then had to run the tubing for the AoA and did so through the corrugated conduit that had been run in the wing when it was built. There's no stall-warning on my plane, only AoA and I vastly prefer it.

If you have no such conduit and you're going to run the tubing unsecured in a rib-hole, you could use a fiberglass fish-tape. That worked really well for me. If you can't access through an inspection panel, maybe you can remove the wingtip.
 
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