Test Pilot

GENERAL

1. What 1904 ground vehicle was the direct result of the Wright Brothers' first flight in 1903?
2. What is an airspeed bomb?
3. From reader Anne Umphrey: When an ATC controller asks, "How do you read?" a pilot might be heard to reply colloquially with "five-by-five" (or "five square"). What do these numbers specifically signify?
4. Why are the enclosures for engines located remotely from a fuselage (as on conventional multiengine airplanes) called nacelles?
5. The title panel of a sectional or other aeronautical chart shows the standard parallels (of latitude) for that chart (a Lambert conformal conic projection). What is the significance of these parallels?
6. A flash ofa lightning lasts for only an instant. Why does thunder, which is the sound made by lightning, usually last so much longer?
7. According to the Aeronautical Information Manual, pilot impairment contributes to many more accidents than do aircraft system failures. It recommends using the acronym "I'm Safe" as a checklist of pilot impairments that could compromise safety. What potential problem does each letter represent?
8. A pilot declaring an emergency might transmit "Mayday." The AIM recommends that a pilot with an urgent condition (less serious than an emergency or distress situation) transmit "Pan-Pan." What is the meaning of the word pan?

MULTIPLE CHOICE

9. Which of the following does not belong?
   1. chandelle
   2. Immelman turn
   3. lazy 8
   4. wingover
10. The total wing area of a multiengine airplane with wing-mounted engines that portion of each wing occupied by the nacelles and __________ that area of the wing projected through the fuselage.
    1. includes, includes
    2. includes, excludes
    3. excludes, excludes
    4. excludes, includes
11. Which of the following does not belong?
    1. accelerated
    2. departure
    3. hammerhead
    4. whip

TRUE OR FALSE

12. Hail is one possible danger associated with flight over a large wildfire.
13. The Lafayette Escadrille was a squadron composed of French fighter pilots who were equipped with American aircraft and served under U.S. command during World War II.

ANSWERS

1. The Macduff Aeropinion, a propeller-driven automobile that generated prodigious clouds of dust and pebbles on the dirt streets, was also dangerous because of its exposed propeller; it went out of production in 1905.
2. An airspeed bomb is a pitot-static source that trails via a long tube below a test aircraft. It is used to determine the accuracy of the installed airspeed indicator.
3. High readability and signal strength. A response of "one by three," for example, signifies "poor readability and moderate signal strength." This aeronautically unofficial phraseology originated during the early years of radio communications.
4. Nacelle is French for "small boat" and refers aeronautically to any separate and streamlined enclosure used to shelter something on an airplane (usually an engine).
5. Distance and bearing measurements on the chart are most accurate near these parallels. Errors increase slightly as distance from these parallels increases. This is because it is impossible to accurately portray a spherical surface — the Earth — on a flat sheet of paper. The smaller the scale, the more significant are such errors.
6. Thunder travels at the speed of sound, which is much slower than the speed of light. The initial sound of thunder is generated by that part of the lighting bolt that is closest to the observer, while the last sound of a thunderclap is made by the most distant part of the lightning bolt. Echoing plays a minor role, depending on the nature of the terrain.
7. Illness, medication, stress, alcohol (and drugs), fatigue, and emotional distress. It is recommended that pilots check themselves for these factors prior to each flight.
8. Pan comes from the French word panne, which means breakdown. Aeronautically, therefore, pan signifies a breakdown in safety.
9. (c) The other maneuvers are used to reverse heading. They also are called reversements (from the French word renversement).
10. (a) With respect to the wing projection through the fuselage, the wing area of a single-engine airplane is determined similarly.
11. (c) The others are types of stalls. The hammerhead turn is occasionally and incorrectly called a hammerhead stall, but the wings do not stall during this aerobatic maneuver (even though the British call it a stall turn).
12. True. Fire-induced atmospheric moisture and convection can produce large thunderstorms (colloquially known as pyrocumulus) above the fire. Unfortunately, they usually drift downwind and do not contribute to extinguishing the fire.
13. True. They fought in North Africa and were named after the squadron of American pilots who were impatient with U.S. neutrality and volunteered to fight for the French prior to America's entry into World War I.