Test Pilot

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GENERAL

1. Why was the Ercoupe not more logically called the Aircoupe?
2. Why is it that the cabin door on the vast majority of single-engine airplanes that have only one cabin door is located on the right when it makes more sense for that door to be on the left (next to the pilot)?
3. What were America's first certified two-engine, three-engine, and four-engine airliners?
4. Many engine charts show that the best power of a reciprocating engine is obtained with a slightly rich mixture (an air-to-fuel ratio, by weight, of approximately 12.5-to-1). What is meant by the term best power?
5. What famous person made history in 1930 by becoming the first woman in the United States to obtain a glider pilot license?
6. For purposes of forecasting, weather conditions are divided into four classifications: VFR, MVFR, IFR, and LIFR. LIFR conditions are said to exist when the ceiling is below _____ feet agl and/or the visibility is less than _____ sm.
7. An English bunt can cause a pilot to revisit his lunch. What is an English bunt?
8. What was the only Allied jet fighter to see combat during World War II? Also, what was America's first jet fighter? These aircraft might or might not be the same.

MULTIPLE CHOICE

9. During a 60-degree banked turn, the load factor is _____ and the stall speed is _____ greater than during a 1-G, wings-level stall.
   1. 1.41 Gs, 41 percent
   2. 1.41 Gs, 100 percent
   3. 2 Gs, 41 percent
   4. 2 Gs, 100 percent
10. The pitch and roll limits of the typical attitude indicator are _____ degrees of pitch and _____ degrees of roll.
    1. 60, 100
    2. 60, 135
    3. 90, 100
    4. 90, 135
11. Which three of the following do not belong?
    1. FA
    2. FD
    3. FS
    4. FT
    5. SA
    6. TA
    7. UA
    8. WA
    9. WD
    10. WS

TRUE OR FALSE

12. From reader Joe Godfrey: A typical general aviation airplane could glide from immediately above the highest point in the 48 contiguous states to the lowest point (assuming that there was no intervening high terrain).
13. A displaced threshold is that portion of a runway that may not be used when landing but may be used for takeoff.
14. The original purpose of safety belts in airplanes was to prevent pilots from falling or being thrown out of their aircraft.

TEST PILOT ANSWERS

1. The Ercoupe was manufactured by Erco, the Engineering and Research Corporation.
2. It apparently has to do with cockpit visibility. The doorposts and adjacent vertical window frames are typically wider than just the window frames and cause more of an obstruction to visibility, which is why they are placed farther from the pilot (on the right side of the cabin). A rare exception is the Cessna P210, which has a single door on the left.
3. They were the Sikorsky S-38A Amphibion (1928), the Fokker F.10 Tri-Motor (1928), and the Fokker F.32 (1929), respectively.
4. An engine develops best power when it produces the greatest amount of power that can be obtained at a given power setting. Air racers take note: Varying mixture varies power output for a given power setting.
5. Anne Morrow Lindbergh. The wife of Charles A. Lindbergh was an accomplished pilot in her own right.
6. 500 feet, 1 sm. LIFR and MVFR stand for low IFR and marginal VFR, respectively.
7. It is sort of an inverted Immelmann turn. It is performed by applying full nose-down elevator while in slow flight (or a climb) until completing half of an outside loop and then making a half-roll to return to level flight.
8. The British Gloster Meteor accomplished its first victory on August 4, 1944, when it downed a German V-1 buzz bomb. America's first jet fighter was the Bell P-59A Airacomet, which made its maiden flight on October 1, 1942.
9. (c) Stall speed increases in proportion to the square root of the load factor (e.g., stall speed doubles during a 4-G turn).
10. (a) Pilots can expect gyros to spill or tumble when these limits are exceeded. Some electric gyros have 360 degrees of rotational freedom about both axes.
11. (c), (f), and (i). An FA is an area forecast, FD is a winds aloft forecast, FT is a terminal forecast (TAF), SA is a surface weather observation (METAR), UA is a pilot report, WA is an airmet, and WS is a sigmet. FS, TA, and WD have no meaning.
12. False. A sailplane with at least a 31:1 glide ratio, however, could glide from atop Mount Whitney, California (14,494 feet msl), to Badwater (minus 282 feet msl) in Death Valley, California, a distance of 74 nm (intervening high terrain notwithstanding). Lightplanes typically have glide ratios of only 8:1 to 10:1.
13. False. A displaced threshold may not be used for landing when at the beginning of a runway but may be used during the landing roll when at the far or rollout end of a runway. It may be used for takeoff when at either end of a runway.
14. True. Safety belts became universally adopted in 1913 following an accident on June 20, 1913, in which naval aviator W.D. Billingsley was thrown out of a Wright hydroplane (seaplane) at an altitude of 1,600 feet agl.