No. Angle of attack behaves in some very non-obvious ways-
For example, if you maintain the same attitude, but decrease thrust so that your forward airspeed drops, and you begin descending... your angle of attack increases, despite the aircraft not actually rotating.
Why? When you start descending, the air below now seems to be "coming up at you"- you go from
---> (===
to
7 (===
/
/
if that ASCII art helps at all (equals signs being the wing)
Now consider how roll, yaw, and crosswinds affect this- as the AoA becomes variable across the wing...
For example, if you maintain the same attitude, but decrease thrust so that your forward airspeed drops, and you begin descending... your angle of attack increases, despite the aircraft not actually rotating.
Why? When you start descending, the air below now seems to be "coming up at you"- you go from
to if that ASCII art helps at all (equals signs being the wing)Now consider how roll, yaw, and crosswinds affect this- as the AoA becomes variable across the wing...