Test Pilot

GENERAL

1. This year (2002) Moe's Mooney is three times as old as Pete's Piper was when Moe's Mooney received its first annual inspection in 1991. When was Pete's Piper manufactured?
2. From reader Mark Barchenko: Man has spent considerable effort developing wings for flight, but what mammal flies naturally?
3. From reader Charles Baumann: Quonset huts were used as barracks and for other purposes on most World War II military airports and bases. How did these inexpensive, portable structures come to have such an Iroquois-sounding name?
4. From reader Chris Hansen: Where on a Cessna 150 can one find a part made of wood?
5. With respect to the International Phonetic Alphabet, what is unique about the letters "Charlie," "Mike," "Victor," and "X-ray"?
6. What and when was the first rotary-wing aircraft certified?
7. Who was the world's first certificated female pilot?
8. We know it today as the Cessna Citation, but when Cessna first introduced and marketed its popular business jet, it was called a ________.

MULTIPLE CHOICE

9. Which of the following does not belong?
   1. 1 degree Fahrenheit per 1,000 feet
   2. 2 degrees Fahrenheit per 1,000 feet
   3. 3.5 degrees Fahrenheit per 1,000 feet
   4. 5.5 degrees Fahrenheit per 1,000 feet
10. From reader Don Branstrom: Which of the following does not belong?
    1. He was a famed World War I ace.
    2. His closest friend was Charles A. Lindbergh.
    3. Following a B-17 ditching in the Pacific, he was rescued after spending 22 days in a raft.
    4. He headed Eastern Airlines (1938-1963).
    5. He never had a pilot or driver's license.
11. Which of the following pairs does not belong?
    1. Danny Kaye and Ed McMahon
    2. Cecil B. DeMille and Lawrence Olivier
    3. Ray Milland and Kurt Russell
    4. Gene Autry and Mel Tormé
    5. Charles Bronson and Charlton Heston

TRUE OR FALSE

12. With the exception of thunderstorms that can penetrate the tropopause, clouds do not form in the stratosphere (above the troposphere).
13. From reader Dave Shaw: A well-known World War II production fighter aircraft was equipped with two 2-cycle piston engines.
14. When the altimeter setting is less than 29.92 inches of mercury in a given locale, VFR aircraft are not allowed to fly at 17,500 feet in that locale because they would interfere with IFR aircraft flying in Class A airspace at Flight Level 180.

TEST PILOT ANSWERS

1. Because Moe's Mooney had its first annual inspection in 1991, it must have been manufactured in 1990 and, therefore, is currently 12 years old. Pete's Piper must have been four years old (one-third of 12) in 1991 and, therefore, was manufactured in 1987.
2. Bats (which include flying foxes) are not birds or rodents; they are mammals.
3. The engineers who designed the Quonset hut established the first production facility near Quonset, Rhode Island.
4. Blocks of wood are used as insulators under battery-box lids to hold down batteries. The same is true of older Cessna 172s with 12-volt electrical systems, many older Beechcraft Bonanzas, and so forth.
5. These are the only designators common to both the new phonetic alphabet ("Alpha," "Bravo," "Charlie," etc.) and the old ("Able," "Baker," "Charlie," etc.).
6. The Pitcairn PCA-2 "autogiro" (sic) was certified on April 2, 1931, and Amelia Earhart set an altitude record of 18,415 feet in one only six days later.
7. Baroness Raymonde de la Roche was issued a license by the Aero Club of France in 1910. A year later, Harriet Quimby became the first woman to earn a U.S. certificate.
8. Cessna announced its Fanjet 500 bizjet on October 7, 1968, and officially changed the name to Citation on September 5, 1969.
9. (b) The others are (a) the dew-point lapse rate; (c) the standard temperature lapse rate; and (d) the dry-adiabatic lapse rate. Only (b) has no specific meaning in the weather world of lapse rates.
10. (b) All of the other statements are true with respect to the life and times of Edward "Eddie" Rickenbacker.
11. (e) Bronson and Heston were never pilots, but the other eight are or were pilots.
12. False. According to Weatherwise magazine, polar stratospheric clouds form 12 to 18 miles above the Earth (usually in winter and early spring), and rarely seen noctilucent clouds occur 53 miles above the Earth (usually in summer during deep twilight and only at high latitudes).
13. True. The German Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter was powered by a pair of Junkers Jumo-004 jet engines. Each was turned during the start process by its own 2-cycle gasoline engine.
14. False. It's the other way around. FL180 (and possibly adjacent, higher flight levels in Class A airspace) is not usable when the altimeter setting in a given area is substandard so that positively controlled, IFR aircraft are not mixed with unreported VFR traffic at 17,500 feet msl and possibly lower altitudes (depending on how low the altimeter setting is).

Visit the author's Web site ( www.barryschiff.com).