Test Pilot

GENERAL

1. A pilot is about to embark on a one-way, cross-country flight along a great-circle route. What is the nature of his flight such that he is virtually assured of a net en route tailwind no matter when he departs?
2. From readers Tom Armor and Mike Silverman: Explain why a number of passenger-laden Boeing 747s flew with five engines slung under their wings.
3. From reader Mark Barchenko: What are the most effective devices for combating structural icing on an airplane not equipped for flight into known icing conditions?
4. A pilot in level flight wants to initiate descent along an imaginary 3-degree glidepath. How can he do this without making any calculations?
5. From reader Mark Baird: A pilot maintaining a true airspeed of 100 knots wants to track due north while in a low-altitude jet stream howling from 135 degrees and 141.42 kt. What will be his crab angle and groundspeed?
6. A pilot is flying an airplane equipped with a synchronizing gear. What kind of airplane is he flying?
7. From reader Pete Muntean: When Piper acquired the manufacturing rights to the Aerostar line of aircraft in 1978, it initially called the Aerostar 601P a Piper _______ in keeping with its tradition of naming aircraft after Native Americans.

TRUE OR FALSE

8. It is impossible for a pilot to track east or west when the wind is from the north or south and is equal to the true airspeed of the airplane.
9. In 1928, a year after his flight to Paris, Charles A. Lindbergh sold his airplane, the Spirit of St. Louis, to the Smithsonian Institution.
10. From reader Jeff Pardo: Wilbur Wright was the first pilot to report a bird strike.

MULTIPLE CHOICE

11. From reader Brian Baker: Neither the venerable Douglas DC-3 nor any of its variants were manufactured during World War II in
    1. Britain.
    2. Japan.
    3. the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
    4. the United States.
12. Before his flight to Paris, Charles A. Lindbergh was the chief (airmail) pilot for the Robertson Aircraft Corporation in St. Louis. Robertson was a predecessor of
    1. American Airlines.
    2. Pan American Airlines.
    3. Trans World Airlines.
    4. United Airlines.
13. A pilot flying over the Arctic makes an emergency landing on a flat, featureless ice pack. Instead of remaining with his aircraft, he opts to trek toward where he thinks he will find an Eskimo village. Without an aiming point, he will walk
    1. in a wide clockwise arc.
    2. in a wide counterclock-wise arc.
    3. in a straight line.
    4. Cannot be determined.
14. From reader Tony Bill: The first freefall parachute jump in the United States was made by
    1. a girl from an airship.
    2. a woman from an airplane.
    3. a chimpanzee from a balloon.
    4. a man from a glider.

ANSWERS

1. He is flying a very long-range airplane to a point diametrically opposite his departure point. Given that he is flying halfway around the world, he can set off in any of 360 directions to reach his goal. Many of these routes will result in a net headwind while most others will result in a net tailwind.
2. Boeing built early 747s so that a nonoperating engine could be easily transported by attaching it under a wing between an operating inboard engine and the fuselage.
3. The primary flight controls. The ailerons and rudder are used to turn away from icing conditions, and the elevator is used to climb above or descend below them.
4. All he need do is reduce his pitch attitude (as shown on his attitude indicator) by 3 degrees and reduce power to maintain the same airspeed. It's a neat and easy way to intercept a glidepath during an ILS approach.
5. Remarkably, groundspeed will be unaffected, and the wind-correction angle will be 90 de.grees. Imagine heading due east to go due north.
6. A World War I single-engine fighter with a machine gun mounted ahead of the open cockpit. A synchronizing (or interrupter) gear interrupts gunfire so that bullets firing through the propeller disk cannot strike the propeller.
7. Sequoyah (or Sequoia) was a Cherokee leader. The giant tree and the national park in California were named in his honor.
8. True. You can see why by attempting to plot this problem on a wind-triangle computer.
9. True. He sold it for the princely sum of one dollar.
10. False. Orville Wright reported the strike on September 7, 1908, after a flight near Dayton.
11. (a) Japan had a prewar license to build DC-3s and many of its more than 400 "Tammies" were built during the war. The Soviets built more than 2,000 DC-3s, which were called PS-84s and Li-2s.
12. (a) After his Paris flight, however, Lindbergh became affiliated at different times with Pan American and TWA, each of which was advertised as the Lindbergh Line.
13. (d) The hapless pilot will tend to walk in the direction of his shorter leg, which would be true of almost everyone.
14. (b) Georgia "Tiny" Broadwick (known in barnstorming circles as "The Doll Girl") demonstrated the jump to the U.S. Army Signal Corp in 1914. She made her first static-line jump at the age of 15 in 1908.

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