Test Pilot

GENERAL

1. From reader Bill Rimer: With respect to a complex piston-powered airplane, what two systems would most likely fail before the engine would fail when losing engine oil pressure?
2. From reader Daniel A. Brown: Every U.S. state has a state animal, a state bird, and so forth. One state has a state aircraft. What is that state, and what is its aircraft?
3. What was Ocean Station November?
4. The first man-made object to orbit Earth was called ______; the first animal in space was a ______; the first man in space was ______; the first man-made object on the moon was ______; and the first woman in space was ______.
5. From reader Mark Barchenko: Speaking of aerobatics and unrelated to baseball, what is a bunt, often called an English bunt?
6. Eleven-time British aerobatic champion Neil Williams once demonstrated such an incredible feat of quick thinking and airmanship that it has become the stuff of which legends are made. What did he do?
7. After World War II, Crayola developed one of its crayons to have the same color as which airplane?
8. General of the Air Force is the highest rank that one can achieve in the U.S. Air Force. Who was the only man to have achieved such a rank?

TRUE OR FALSE

9. From reader Jeff Pardo: The pilot of a typical light airplane in cruise flight at 45 degrees north latitude at sea level on March 21 can fly toward the sun immediately after it has set and experience a sunrise in the west.
10. September 11, 2001, was the first time that an airplane flew into a skyscraper in New York City.
11. The first airplane to land at the South Pole was a Douglas DC-3.

MULTIPLE CHOICE

12. A pilot is flying along the coast of the state with the longest coastline. He is flying in
    1. Alaska.
    2. California.
    3. Florida.
    4. Hawaii.
13. From reader Richard G. Somers: The first fully automatic landing of an airplane took place on August 23,
    1. 1929.
    2. 1937.
    3. 1945.
    4. 1953.
14. Arrange the following twin-engine aircraft in order of the model year in which they were introduced. If unable to, name the first and last two aircraft to be introduced.
    1. Aero Commander
    2. Beechcraft Baron
    3. Beechcraft Travel Air
    4. Cessna 310
    5. Learjet 23
    6. Piper Aztec
    7. Piper Twin Comanche

ANSWERS

1. The propeller governor would lose its ability to maintain a constant propeller speed (rpm), and the turbocharger would fail if it has an automatic wastegate that is controlled by engine oil pressure working against a spring.
2. Connecticut's state aircraft is the Vought F4U Corsair. According to state Sen. Gayle Slossberg, "It was the only major World War II aircraft built entirely in one state, a joint effort of United Aircraft, Pratt & Whitney, Hamilton Standard, and Vought-Sikorsky."
3. It was a U.S. Coast Guard ship stationed midway between California and Hawaii to provide emergency, communication, and navigation (via an NDB) services to pilots flying that route (before the advent of loran and GPS). Similar vessels, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, and Juliett, were strategically positioned in the North Atlantic.
4. Sputnik I; a stray dog from the streets of Moscow named Laika (aboard Sputnik II); Yuri Gagarin in Vostok 1; Luna 2; Valentina Tereshkova in Vostok 6. During that era, the U.S.S.R. had a commanding lead in the "space race."
5. Entered from approximately straight-and-level flight, the pilot pushes the nose down until completing half of an outside loop. (The airplane is inverted at the bottom of the maneuver and heading in the opposite direction.)
6. While practicing aerobatics in 1970 without a parachute in his Zlin Akrobat, Williams heard a loud snap and felt a severe jolt. The left wing began to fold upward. He quickly rolled inverted to negatively load the wing and keep it in place. He then made an inverted approach to land and rolled upright just before landing. The wing collapsed as Williams touched down.
7. The "Cub Yellow" crayon was the same color used by Piper Aircraft to paint its J-3 Cubs.
8. Henry H. "Hap" Arnold became General of the Air Force in 1949. He was taught to fly by the Wright brothers, was one of America's first military pilots, and became a protégé of Gen. William "Billy" Mitchell.
9. True. If the pilot is heading toward where the sun set, pulls back aggressively on the control wheel, and applies maximum power, he can temporarily observe a sunrise as long as the initial rate of climb is at least 1,000 fpm.
10. False. On July 28, 1945, a North American B-25 Mitchell bomber crashed into the north side of the seventy-ninth floor of the Empire State Building while flying in dense fog.
11. True. A ski-equipped Douglas R4D Skytrain (the Navy version of the DC-3) landed at the bottom of the world on October 31, 1956.
12. (a) Alaska has a 6,640-statute mile coastline, more than the East and West coasts of the Lower 48 combined. If Alaska's islands are included, the coastline increases fivefold.
13. (b) A Fokker C-14B piloted by Capt. George Holloman (after whom Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico is named) took off from Wright Field and returned for landing without pilot assistance. The landing system used a matrix of five ground-based radio beacons.
14. (a) 1952; (d) 1955; (c) 1958; (f) 1960; (b) 1961; (g) 1963; (e) 1965.

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