Test Pilot

GENERAL

1. Many pilots use the terms chop and turbulence interchangeably, but they are not the same. What is the difference?
2. Estimate, within 5,000 feet, the service ceiling of the highest-flying birds.
3. Who was first to perform an outside loop?
4. The warm current in the eastern Pacific that so profoundly affects weather is called El Niño. An anti-El Niño event (or cold current) sometimes occurs there and is called _____.
5. Arrange the major airports at Memphis, Minneapolis, and St. Louis in order of elevation (highest airport first, lowest airport last).
6. What World War II pilot with the now-famous name took off from the aircraft carrier USS Lexington in his Grumman Wildcat and shot down five Japanese bombers in less than five minutes?
7. Name two ways in which an airplane might be descending without its pilot's being aware of it.
8. Because of his nerve, what pilot was inducted as a life member of the Wisconsin Liars' Club?

MULTIPLE CHOICE

9. From reader Ken Johnson: Sensenich Propeller is the only U.S. manufacturer of certified wood propellers. These are made from
   1. birch.
   2. oak.
   3. spruce.
   4. walnut.
10. A pilot performs a wings-level, power-off stall in a typical single, with the gear and flaps retracted. He notes that the indicated stall speed is below normal. One reason for this might be that
    1. the center of gravity is unusually far forward.
    2. the center of gravity is unusually far aft.
    3. one of the two static ports is clogged.
    4. aircraft gross weight is excessive.
11. Which of the following does not belong?
    1. cumulonimbus
    2. altostratus
    3. mammatocumulus
    4. nimbostratus

TRUE OR FALSE

12. A pilot is descending through 1,000 feet agl while executing an instrument approach in dense cloud during the migration season. He should be concerned about the possibility of a bird strike.
13. In-flight motion pictures were first used to entertain airline passengers in 1925.
14. A pilot is making a visual, straight-in approach to a runway with a pronounced upslope. He will tend to overshoot the normal touchdown zone.
15. A tetrahedron is a reliable source of wind direction.

ANSWERS

1. Chop (classified as light or moderate) results in somewhat rapid and rhythmic bumpiness; turbulence results in erratically spaced bumpiness.
2. Whooper swans have been seen at FL290, and the Alpine chough has been observed above Mt. Everest (29,028 feet msl). None were squawking a transponder code.
3. James H. "Jimmy" Doolittle, using a Curtiss fighter in the same month that Lindbergh flew to Paris (May 1927).
4. La Niña (according to the NOAA/Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory).
5. Minneapolis (841 feet msl), St. Louis (605 feet msl), and Memphis (335 feet msl). It's an easy question when considering that the Mississippi River flows downhill from north to south.
6. Lt. Edward "Butch" O'Hare, after whom Chicago's famous airport is named. (The identifier, ORD, stems from the airport's original name, Orchard Field.)
7. When flying into colder air and lowering atmospheric pressure ("Cold and low, look out below").
8. Douglas "Wrong-Way" Corrigan, who took off from New York in his dilapidated Curtiss Robin in 1938, landed in Ireland instead of California, and claimed that his "compass must have been wrong."
9. (a) Sensenich used to make butcher blocks and table tops from the remaining propeller scraps. Hartzell Propeller used walnut and then birch for its wood propellers, which are no longer manufactured.
10. (b) Stall speed reduces as the CG moves aft and increases as the CG moves forward.
11. (c) Each of the others is one of the principal cloud types; mammatocumulus is not.
12. False. According to the Audubon Society, birds are VFR creatures and do not fly in clouds. Like some pilots, however, small birds can get "caught" in IFR conditions and fly into tall buildings.
13. True. Silent, single-reel "shorts" were shown aboard several German airlines.
14. False. He will tend to undershoot. A pronounced downslope most often leads to an overshoot.
15. False. Tetrahedrons often are locked into position to designate landing direction, not wind direction.