Test Pilot

GENERAL

1. When scud running, what factor or illusion encourages a pilot to continue flying straight ahead instead of turning around (everything else being equal)?
2. From reader Tom Travis: The DRUNK Intersection is near the home of what famous politician?
3. From reader John Schmidt: Some ships are powered by Pratt & Whitney turbine engines. How have P&W J-59 aviation engines been used in rail service?
4. Who was the first American woman to solo an airplane?
5. What are the three predominant surface winds on Earth?
6. From reader Robert Johnson: In terms of area (acres or square miles), what is the world's largest airport?
7. What is bird-dogging?
8. From reader Daniel Brown: What was the last piston-powered fighter to enter service in the United States Air Force?

MULTIPLE CHOICE

9. From reader Jerry Blalock: The airport elevation shown on instrument approach charts is almost always the
   1. highest point on any runway.
   2. highest point on the longest runway.
   3. highest point on the primary instrument runway.
   4. the elevation of the airport reference point.
10. From reader Jeff Pardo: The first product advertised by skywriting appears to have been
    1. Baby Ruth candy bars.
    2. a newspaper, The Daily Mail.
    3. Cuban cigars.
    4. American cigarettes.
11. From reader Rick Ray: Which of the following World War II bombers was armed with the most guns?
    1. B-17 Flying Fortress
    2. B-24 Liberator
    3. B-25 Mitchell
    4. B-29 Superfortress

TRUE OR FALSE

12. The first production Beech Model 35 Bonanzas had fabric-covered control surfaces.
13. If you were skiing in an avalanche-prone area, you would be safer on the leeward side of the mountain than on the windward side.
14. From reader Richard Wilsher: The U.S. Navy established an aerobatic display team before the U.S. Air Force did.

TEST PILOT ANSWERS

1. A pilot glancing rearward sees ground objects disappearing behind the veil of restricted visibility through which he had been flying. This leads him to believe that conditions behind are worsening. He also believes that conditions ahead are improving because forward motion causes progressively more of the terrain ahead to come into view.
2. U.S. Senator Edward M. "Ted" Kennedy, according to sources at the FAA. DRUNK is 22 nm from the Boston Vortac on the 154-degree radial. (Who says the FAA doesn't have a sense of humor?)
3. Jet engines have been installed on flatbed railcars ahead of the locomotive. They were mounted backward with the exhaust blasting forward and downward thus both melting snow and blowing it off the tracks.
4. Blanche Scott flew a Curtiss pusher at Hammondsport, New York, on September 2, 1910, and ultimately became an exhibition "stunt" pilot. She was nicknamed "Tomboy of the Air."
5. The polar easterlies (high latitudes), the prevailing westerlies (mid-latitudes), and the low-latitude easterlies (trade winds).
6. The King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, has an area of 81 square miles. The second largest is Denver International (53 square miles). London Heathrow Airport takes up only 4.7 square miles.
7. Pointing an airplane directly at a destination (visually or when using an automatic direction finder) and accepting a longer curved route instead of crabbing to compensate for a crosswind and flying a straight line.
8. The F-82 Twin Mustang's first operational assignment was to the 27th Fighter Wing at Kearney Air Force Base, Nebraska, in 1948. It was the last fighter with conventional landing gear.
9. (a) The high point usually is at one end of a runway but occasionally is somewhere between the ends of a runway.
10. (b) A British, war-surplus S.E.5a fighter was flown by Cyril Turner over England in May 1922. The first non-commercial skywriting was done over Seattle by Milton Bryant on July 19, 1913.
11. (c) B-25Js with the solid nose had 18 50-calibre guns, eight in the nose, four under the cockpit, two in the upper turret, two in the waist, and a pair in the tail, more than any other bomber.
12. True. The first 40 Bonanzas had fabric ailerons and flaps.
13. False. According to Weatherwise, snow accumulates more rapidly on lee slopes and is where most avalanche-related accidents occur. Windward slopes typically receive less snow.
14. True. The Blue Angels were formed in 1946 and the Thunderbirds in 1953.