Test Pilot

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GENERAL

1. From reader Dexter Senft: A VFR pilot approaching an airport is beneath a flat, level overcast while observing cloud-clearance requirements, and there are no clouds at or below his altitude. As he descends to enter the traffic pattern, however, he violates cloud-clearance requirements. How is this possible?
2. From reader Gery Moret: "I recently purchased a Cessna 335, and very few pilots know what it is. Do you?"
3. Vintage airplanes typically did not have tailwheels or brakes, but they did have nonsteerable tail skids. How is it possible to make taxiing turns in such aircraft?
4. Why does a floatplane landing on water frequently stress the airframe more than when the same airplane is equipped with wheels and landing on concrete?
5. What does a G meter indicate during steady knife-edge flight while the aircraft is maintaining a constant heading?
6. The pilot of an aircraft with a radial engine is turning the propeller by hand and discovers a hydraulic lock caused by oil that has drained into the bottom cylinder(s). Because starting the engine at such a time can cause structural damage to the engine, what should he do to relieve the lock?
7. Why do competition sailplane pilots often carry water ballast?
8. The pilot of an aircraft with a nine-cylinder radial engine (not geared) is turning the propeller by hand. How many degrees does the propeller rotate between each compression stroke?

MULTIPLE CHOICE

9. The following well-known aviation movies were released over a period of 47 years. This "fastest-finger question" asks you to list them in the order in which they were released (earliest first).
   1. The High and the Mighty
   2. Memphis Belle
   3. Midway
   4. The Spirit of St. Louis
   5. Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo
   6. Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines
   7. Tora! Tora! Tora!
   8. Twelve O'Clock High
10. The Wright Flyer had only one instrument. It was:
    1. an airspeed indicator.
    2. an angle-of-attack indicator.
    3. a tachometer.
    4. a groundspeed indicator.
11. More people are killed in the United States by ____________ than any other natural phenomenon.
    1. extreme temperatures
    2. floods
    3. lightning strikes
    4. tornadoes

TRUE OR FALSE

12. A plugged or clogged fuel-injector nozzle causes the fuel-flow gauge to indicate an abnormally high fuel flow.
13. On average, lightning strikes the Earth approximately 100 times every second of every day.
14. A particular engine produces the same horsepower at 2,575 rpm and 21 inches of manifold pressure that it does at 1,875 rpm and 25.2 inches. The fuel consumption at each of these power settings is the same.

ANSWERS

1. The pilot begins descending from the floor of Class B airspace where he has been 100 feet beneath the overcast. This is legal because he is required only to remain clear of clouds in Class B airspace. He descends into the top of underlying Class D airspace, where he suddenly is required to be 500 feet beneath that same overcast.
2. The Cessna 335 is the nonpressurized version of the Cessna 340. Only 65 of them were manufactured (1980).
3. The pilot pushes the stick fully forward, applies full rudder in the direction of desired turn, and adds a blast of power. The nose-down elevator reduces weight on the tail skid and allows prop wash across the rudder to yaw the airplane.
4. Unlike landplanes, seaplanes are not equipped with shock absorbers (such as oleo struts). Landing shocks are transmitted directly to the airframe.
5. A conventional G meter measures acceleration along the vertical axis. During knife-edge flight on a constant heading, the meter would indicate zero Gs.
6. The pilot must eliminate the hydraulic lock before starting by removing a spark plug from (each of) the bottom cylinder(s) and allowing the pooled oil to drain into a can or other type of collector.
7. The speed for best glide increases as aircraft weight increases (in airplanes and sailplanes). Adding ballast results in an increase in forward (glide) speed without sacrificing glide performance (glide ratio).
8. Each cylinder of a reciprocating, four-cycle engine goes through a complete cycle (four strokes) every two revolutions of the crankshaft. A nine-cylinder engine, therefore, produces nine compression strokes every 720 degrees, or one compression stroke every 80 degrees of propeller rotation.
9. (e) 1944, (h) 1949, (a) 1954, (d) 1957, (f) 1965, (g) 1970, (c) 1976, and (b) 1990.
10. (b) The Wrights installed a piece of string that blew in the relative wind to serve as their angle-of-attack indicator.
11. (c) Lightning kills an average of 400 people and injures an additional 1,000 each year.
12. True and false. It is true in the case of a pressure-type instrument transducer, and it is the opposite — a lower-than-normal fuel-flow indication — in the case of a newer-style, turbine (paddlewheel) transducer. A pilot should know the type of fuel-flow sensor used in his aircraft.
13. True. This rate is based on a calculation involving an estimate by the World Meteorological Organization that there are 1,800 thunderstorms in progress at any given moment.
14. False. As an example, these handbook-approved, 65-percent power settings are for a 235-horsepower Lycoming O-540-B engine. Fuel consumption is 1.7 gph less at the lower rpm because a reduction in rpm reduces internal engine friction. Charles A. Lindbergh taught this fuel-saving technique during World War II to help pilots extend the range of their Lockheed P-38 Lightnings.