Test Pilot

MULTIPLE CHOICE

1. From reader Bruce McGregor: Arrange the following behemoths in order of their wingspans, longest first and shortest last.
   1. Antonov An-225
   2. Airbus A380
   3. Boeing B-52H
   4. Boeing 747-400
   5. Hughes H-4 Hercules
2. An air traffic controller vectoring a propeller-driven airplane that is below 10,000 feet and within 20 miles of its destination airport may not ask the pilot to adjust indicated airspeed below
   1. 110 knots.
   2. 130 knots.
   3. 150 knots.
   4. 170 knots.
3. Wind direction is reported in magnetic directions when provided by which of the following sources? (One or more are correct.)
   1. ATIS reports
   2. Aviation routine weather reports (METARs)
   3. Tower controllers
   4. Pilot reports (pireps)
   5. Winds-aloft forecasts

GENERAL

4. A pilot is in stabilized cruise flight during conditions that are perfectly conducive to the formation of carburetor ice, so he applies carburetor heat and leaves it on for an extended period. What else should he do?
5. A pilot is in stabilized cruise flight in a typical single-engine airplane equipped with a multiprobe exhaust gas temperature (EGT) gauge and a multiprobe cylinder head temperature (CHT) gauge when he notices a decrease in both temperatures of one cylinder. What is the most likely causes?
6. From reader Lauren McCollum: Who were the WASPs, and what did the four letters in WASP represent?
7. From reader Mark Barchenko: What are or were trolley dollies?
8. The names of many aircraft manufacturers contain the last names of their founders such as Boeing, Cessna, Piper, and so forth. Name at least one well-known U.S. airplane manufacturer that contains or contained both the first and last names of its founder.
9. From reader George Shanks: Why does the Army and the Air Force refer to pilots as pilots while the Navy calls them aviators?
10. Airline flights from the Pacific Coast of the United States to Europe via great-circle routes are called polar flights even though they rarely fly near the North Pole. What was the first airline to fly such a polar route and what type of aircraft was used?
11. Where was the world's first airport?

TRUE OR FALSE

12. For instrument-rated pilots: A truly proficient pilot can follow the glideslope to touchdown.
13. From reader Timothy Flannery: A helicopter has never touched down at the summit of Mount Everest (elevation 29,029 feet).
14. A downdraft cannot push an airplane into the ground because the downdraft eventually spreads horizontally as it gets close to the ground, and this allows a pilot to escape the downdraft and avoid ground contact.

ANSWERS

1. (e) Hughes H-4 (320 feet, longer than a football field); (a) Antonov An-225 (290 feet); (b) Airbus A380 (262 feet); (d) Boeing 747-400 (211 feet); and (c) Boeing B-52H (185 feet).
2. (c) The minimum speed that a controller can request of a turbojet pilot under the same circumstances is 170 knots.
3. (a), (c), and (d) are magnetic winds; wind directions provided by (b) and (e) are reported with respect to true north.
4. He should lean the fuel-air mixture because using carburetor heat enriches the mixture.
5. The intake valve for that cylinder is not opening fully (probably because of a faulty valve lifter), or a scored cylinder or broken ring might have reduced compression in that cylinder.
6. Headed by Jacqueline Cochran, the Women Airforce Service Pilots were female pilots who ferried fighters and bombers to Europe and elsewhere, towed gunnery targets, and were instrument instructors during World War II.
7. Trolley dollies (slang) used to describe flight attendants when they first began pushing food-and-drink carts along the aisles of airliners.
8. Chance (nee Chauncey) Milton Vought founded the Chance Vought Corporation, which developed the Chance Vought F4U Corsair of World War II fame. There have been other such manufacturers.
9. In the Navy, a pilot historically has been someone who steers the ship (as in harbor pilot). The Navy originally referred to airplane pilots as aviators to differentiate between the two.
10. In Viking tradition, Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) inaugurated two flights on November 15, 1954, (Los Angeles to Copenhagen and Copenhagen to Los Angeles) using a pair of Douglas DC-6Bs.
11. During April and May 1904, the Wright brothers erected a launch rail and built a hangar for a new airplane, Flyer II, on Huffman Prairie, a 100-acre farm near Dayton that is now called Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
12. False. A UHF glideslope levels off at approximately 25 feet above the ground (abeam the transmitter site) and then begins to climb after the site is passed. Autoland systems use the radio altimeter to flare and land.
13. True. The high-altitude landing record for a helicopter is held by an Aerospatiale Cheetah built under license to Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. It landed on a Nepalese peak at 25,150 feet on November 2, 2004.
14. False. The airplane's momentum (inertia) can carry it into the ground. Consider a high-speed automobile. The relative wind is horizontally analogous to a downdraft. Do large bugs follow the deflected airstream around the windshield, or do they go "splat"?

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