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Comment by ultrarunner | Hacker News Reader

Soapbox next to your soapbox: GA planes are old specifically because of the FAA and their overly restrictive regulations. The cost involved to create an AoA sensor & readout is minimal and at least one company has done it with an IMU only. The cost to certify, sell, and install an AoA sensor (in terms of both money and time waiting to get on the schedule of an FAA-blessed installer) is more than most people find it to be worth. Food for thought: this also applies to shoulder harnesses in many cases.

Aviation could be cheaper, safer, and better in general if the FAA was not stuck in the 60s.

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AoA indicators are able to be installed in certified aircraft as minor modifications, per the FAA policy from 2014.

There are FAA regulations that are overly conservative IMO, but I think the FAA has a sensible stance on AoA indicators.

CS-SC251c in the EU.

I don't think that's completely true. There is a combination of market size and regulatory burden; not a lot of people are buying GA aircraft (compared to say, the number of people buying iPhones), so there isn't an enormous financial incentive to get people out of their C172 or Bonanza.

I also think that these old airplanes are really ships of theseus. Maybe there are some original stickers and seats, but that's about it. Safety and avionics upgrades on these old airframes are definitely in the financial reach of many readers of this forum, and I'm sure many people are flying "old" airplanes that have AoA sensors and IFR-certified glass panels and backups. Day to day they probably feel a lot like airline pilots.

> many people are flying "old" airplanes that have AoA sensors and IFR-certified glass panels and backups

Yes and no. They're out there, but they aren't as common as you'd think or hope. AoA in particular is rare. There's an awful lot of planes that are still running GNS430 or GNS530s (probably more than any other single setup), and more than a few with the original nav/comm equipment like the KX170B. A real glass panel (something like the G1000 or G3X) is really rare in an old plane. Maybe 5-10%?

The FAA is stuck in the 60's because there is a massive industry supporting the ancient technologies in general aviation.

Modern stuff, like you point out, is far more reliable, cheaper, lower power consumption, and more functional. That better reliability means less need for aircraft mechanics and avionics shops.

Nobody would want their discreet component transponder overhauled if it could be replaced with a cheaper unit that uses modern wizardry like logic chips or even (gasp) a microcontroller.

Ditto for leaded fuel air cooled piston engines with manual mixture controls that require teardowns all the time. That bullshit is only still around because Continental and Lycoming want it to.

Yeah and because of that we're also still exposed to lead fumes and pollution :(

It's really time for GA to get into this century.

This type of protectionism is exactly what I was referring to above. It's the single most frustrating aspect of aviation.

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