Test Pilot

GENERAL

1. The primary purpose of feathering a propeller is to reduce drag and improve engine-out performance. What are two other important reasons for feathering?
2. John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown were first to fly nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean (Newfoundland to Ireland, June 14 to 15, 1919). Three weeks later, another aircraft repeated the feat and also became the first to make a round trip across the Atlantic (nonstop each way). What was the aircraft, and who was the pilot?
3. During World War II, military pilots developed a colorful "slanguage." Define the meanings of the following slang expressions:
   1. blanket drill
   2. Chinese landing
   3. flying the iron beam
   4. French landing
   5. geese
   6. laying eggs
   7. pulpit
   8. roll up your flaps
   9. rug dance
   10. shot down in flames
   11. sugar report
4. A pilot enters a loop. After completing slightly more than one-fourth of the maneuver, the airplane is in a near-vertical, slightly inverted climb. At this point, the pilot rapidly applies full forward pressure to the control stick while simultaneously applying maximum and opposite aileron and rudder. The resultant aerobatic maneuver is called a ________________.
5. British pilots refer to high- and low-rpm propeller settings as ___________ and __________ pitch, respectively.
6. What is the origin of the word aviation?
7. A cliché states that a good landing is one from which a pilot can walk away. What is the definition of a great landing?
8. Many aircraft, including early model Beech Bonanzas, were equipped with wobble pumps. What is a wobble pump?

MULTIPLE CHOICE

9. "Women pilots were derisively called petticoat pilots and sweethearts of the air, which is why I received little recognition for winning the first Women's Air Derby [the 'Powder Puff Derby'] in 1929. But male pilots did notice when I won the prestigious Bendix Air Race in 1936 against an otherwise all-male field. My name is _____________."
   1. Jacqueline Cochran
   2. Amelia Earhart
   3. Harriet Quimby
   4. Louise Thaden
10. The FAA requires that VASI equipment be capable of generating visual glideslopes as shallow as 1 degree and as steep as
    1. 6 degrees.
    2. 9 degrees.
    3. 12 degrees.
    4. 15 degrees.
11. A pilot is navigating toward a vortac 30 miles away using VOR navigation and notices that the course-deviation indicator (CDI) is fluctuating by as much as 6 degrees. The Off flag is hidden from view. He should
    1. change engine rpm.
    2. recycle the selected vortac frequency.
    3. reduce airspeed.
    4. report the phenomenon to ATC or a nearby flight service station.

TRUE OR FALSE

12. All snowflakes are six-sided or have six points, and no two snowflakes are alike.
13. A true course corrected for magnetic variation always results in a magnetic course.
14. During World War II, some of Germany's jet fighters were equipped with guided missiles.

ANSWERS

1. Feathering prevents further internal engine damage that might be caused by a windmilling propeller. It also prevents engine-driven fuel, oil, and hydraulic pumps from pumping fluids that could cause or sustain an engine fire.
2. Maj. G.H. Scott and a crew of 30 made the round-robin flight in a 650-foot-long British R.34 dirigible. The westbound leg from Scotland to Mineola, Long Island, took 108 hours, and the return flight to Norfolk, England, took 75 hours.
3. 1. sleeping
   2. landing with "one wing low"
   3. navigating by following a railroad track
   4. keeping the tail high for as long as possible during the landing roll after a wheel landing in a taildragger
   5. an enemy bomber formation
   6. dropping bombs
   7. cockpit
   8. relax, and stop talking
   9. standing nervously in the commander's office while being chastised
   10. jilted by a girlfriend
   11. a letter to or from a girlfriend
4. The lomcovàk is a bewildering, seemingly out-of-control maneuver that was developed by the Czechoslovakian and ex-world aerobatic champion Ladislav Bezak. The airplane flies backwards and sideways, tumbles in somersault fashion, and rotates about all three axes with no apparent forward airspeed.
5. Fine (low pitch, high rpm) and coarse (high pitch, low rpm).
6. Aviation is a French word derived from the Latin avis, which means bird.
7. A great landing is one after which the airplane is reusable.
8. A wobble pump is a fuel or hydraulic pump that is manually operated with a handle (like an old-fashioned water pump). If the engine-driven fuel pump of a 1947 Beech Bonanza were to fail, for example, the pilot could hand-pump fuel to the engine until making a safe landing.
9. (d) Louise Thaden. Quimby was the first woman pilot licensed in the United States and the first woman to fly across the English Channel (1912). Cochran won the Bendix Race in 1938, headed the U.S. Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) during World War II, and was the first woman to fly faster than Mach 1.0 (1953).
10. (c) At a groundspeed of 80 knots, a 12-degree descent profile would require a sink rate of 1,723 feet per minute (as compared to 425 fpm for a 3-degree glideslope).
11. (a) Certain propeller (or helicopter rotor) speeds (rpm settings) can cause CDI fluctuations. According to the Aeronautical Information Manual, slight rpm changes will normally smooth out these fluctuations and should be attempted before reporting unsatisfactory operation.
12. False. There also are needle- or spike-shaped snowflakes; all the rest are six-sided. Although hypothesized, it has not been proven that no two snowflakes are identical in size and shape. Snowflake design is determined primarily by the temperature and altitude at which it is formed.
13. True. Deduct an extra point from your score if you anticipated a trick question.
14. True. After being fired, the missile pulled out and unwound a lengthy wire from a drum within the aircraft. As the wire played out, the pilot could electronically and visually guide the missile to its target.