Test Pilot

GENERAL

1. What does a popular dog's name have to do with aviation weather?
2. Why are there no three-letter airport identifiers in the United States beginning with the letter Q?
3. Why do airline pilots using weather radar typically get a better "picture" of thunderstorm activity than do pilots flying smaller aircraft equipped with radar?
4. From reader Steve Mason: What was the Piper PA-48 Enforcer?
5. What are two reasons for returning to Both when using a rotary ignition switch (or pausing with both magnetos set to On when using toggle switches) after checking one mag and before checking the other during a preflight ignition check?
6. During stabilized cruise flight, the pilot of an airplane with a six-cylinder engine looks at his six-probe exhaust-gas and cylinder-head temperature gauges. He observes that the EGTs for all cylinders have increased and the CHTs have decreased. What is the most likely cause?
7. Why are stalls performed in biplanes typically gentler than those performed in monoplanes?
8. What made the B-49 bomber uniquely different from all other bombers?

MIX 'N MATCH

9. Match the following airline pioneers with their respective airlines.

   Howard Hughes Harding Lawrence William Patterson Eddie Rickenbacker Robert Six C.R. Smith Juan Trippe

   American Airlines Braniff International Airways Continental Airlines Eastern Airlines Pan American Airways Trans World Airlines United Airlines

MULTIPLE CHOICE

10. From reader Paul Raveling: The first piloted, rocket-powered airplane flew in
    1. 1928.
    2. 1933.
    3. 1938.
    4. 1943.
11. From reader Richard G. Somers: Pilots used to occasionally see a Weather Bureau employee step out of his office and sling a device resembling a child's toy around and over his head. This device was used to
    1. scare away birds from exterior weather sensors.
    2. measure air density.
    3. gather wind data.
    4. determine relative humidity.

TRUE OR FALSE

12. Lightning strikes the Earth approximately 100 times per second or almost 9 million times per day.
13. From reader Bill Cox: The world's first production business jet was the Lockheed 1329 Jetstar. (A Jetstar was used as Pussy Galore's airplane in the James Bond movie Goldfinger.)
14. Objects seen through a curved, rain-covered windshield appear higher and closer than they actually are. In other words, a pilot on a landing approach thinks he is lower than he really is.

ANSWERS

1. The Fog Investigation Dispersal Operation (FIDO) was a British system installed at several U.S. coastal airports during the late 1940s and early 1950s. Fuel burners along the runway were lit to disperse advection fog, but the concept was costly and only marginally effective.
2. So that airport identifiers would not be confused with international radio signals (Q codes). For example, QNH means altitude above sea level, QNE means pressure altitude, and QFE means height above the airport.
3. Airliners can accommodate larger radar antennas. Those on small airplanes are like patio lights while those on airliners are like spot- lights focusing greater power with which to better "see" their "targets" at increased range.
4. It was a turboprop-powered airplane based on and looking like a North American P-51 Mustang. It first flew in 1979, had a maximum speed of 350 knots, and was evaluated but not ordered by the U.S. Air Force.
5. One reason is to allow the engine to stabilize at normal rpm so that each magneto is tested from a common starting point (rpm). Also, operating the engine on Both burns off oil and fuel that might have accumulated on the previously inoperative spark plugs.
6. A magneto has failed. The pilot should enrich the mixture to restore normal EGTs and land as soon as practical. The magnetos can be checked but only at a low power setting to prevent engine damage.
7. The upper wing usually has a larger angle of incidence so that it always has a larger angle of attack. When the upper wing stalls, therefore, the lower wing has a smaller angle of attack and is "still flying." The difference in angles of incidence on a biplane is called decalage.
8. The Northrup B-49 was a flying wing. It was powered by eight 3,750-pound-thrust Allison engines and had a top speed of 510 mph.
9. a. (6); b. (2); c. (7); d. (4); e. (3); f. (1); and g. (5).
10. (a) The German Lippisch Ente was a glider equipped with two black-powder rockets. Fritz Stamer flew the aircraft using one of the rockets on June 11, 1928. The airplane caught fire when both rockets were used during the second flight.
11. (d) The sling psychrometer consists of two thermometers mounted together with a handle attached to a chain. One thermometer is ordinary; the other's bulb is covered with a wet cloth wick. While being whirled, water evaporates from the wick and cools the wet-bulb thermometer. The difference between the two temperatures determines relative humidity.
12. True. Lightning produces much more energy than all of the electrical generators in the United States. If only it could be captured and put to use.
13. False. The world's first was the Morane-Saulnier MS.760 Paris Jet, a four-place, twin-engine French business jet that first flew in 1954. More than 150 had been built when production ended in 1964. (Galore's airplane, however, was a Jetstar.)
14. False. Rain can create the illusion that objects appear lower and farther away than they really are; a pilot thinks that he is higher than he really is.

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