Test Pilot

General

1. Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin were first to walk on the moon. Altogether, how many men have walked on the moon, and who were the third and fourth astronauts to do so?
2. From reader Patty Schmidt: Ballistic Recovery Systems (BRS) manufactures whole-aircraft parachute systems for Cirrus and other aircraft. What aircraft was used for the first demonstration of such a parachute and when did this occur?
3. From reader Dean Anderson: How can water droplets in the atmosphere remain liquid at subfreezing temperatures (supercooled water droplets)?
4. From reader Tom Travis: On May 7, 1964, a passenger aboard Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA) Flight 773 entered the cockpit and shot both pilots and then himself. All aboard the Fairchild F-27A perished, marking the first instance in the United States of this kind of suicide/mass murder. This heinous act orphaned the captain’s three children, one of whom became a famous pilot whose name is ______________.
5. From reader John Tiller: What is wrong with the following METAR?
   KLAX 091955Z 27015G25KT 5SM SCT050 FEW080 15/10 A2997
6. The tires of some turbofan-powered airplanes have chines. What are these and what purpose do they serve?
7. What is the greatest speed ever achieved by a man-made object?
8. From reader George Shanks: Who was apparently the only pilot to intentionally solo a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress?

Multiple Choice

9. From reader Arnold Cohen: Prior to World War II, the David Clark Company, well-known manufacturer of headsets and pressure suits, was known primarily as a manufacturer of
   a. AM radio receivers.
   b. belts and garters.
   c. men’s and women’s underwear.
   d. diving equipment.
10. During the 15-year period between 1990 and 2004, the FAA and the Department of Agriculture reported a total of more than _______ bird strikes at U.S. airports.
    a. 11,000
    b. 26,000
    c. 41,000
    d. 56,000
11. From reader Richard Wilsher: The FAA’s criteria for a third class medical certificate are intended to result in less than a _______ likelihood of pilot incapacitation during flight.
    a. 0.25 percent
    b. 0.50 percent
    c. 0.75 percent
    d. 1.0 percent

True or False

12. From reader John Schmidt: Famed barnstormer, racing pilot, and flight-school owner, Roscoe Turner, often carried aloft his traveling companion and pet lion, Gilmore, who usually wore a parachute.
13. The Boeing JB-17G Flying Fortress was a single-engine, propeller-driven version of the famed bomber.
14. From reader Steve Holmes: When filing flight plans, pilots should include cadavers when indicating the number of persons on board the aircraft (or mention them in the Remarks section).

Test Pilot Answers

1. Only 12 men (all Americans) have walked on the moon. The third and fourth were Pete Conrad and Alan Bean (Apollo 12). The other eight were Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell, David Scott and Jim Irwin, John Young and Charles Duke, and Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmidt.
2. In 1929 near Santa Ana, California, Roscoe Turner pulled the ripcord of a whole-aircraft parachute stowed in the upper wing of a Thunderbird W-14 biplane. The touchdown smashed the landing gear and broke the propeller, but Turner was not injured.
3. Without a seed crystal or nucleus (such as dust or another impurity), water can remain in liquid form as supercooled water (as often occurs in clouds) to as low as minus-40 degrees Fahrenheit. These droplets can rapidly turn to ice when they collide with an aircraft.
4. Julie Clark is a retired Northwest Airlines captain whose entertaining and patriotic aerobatic routines are seen at numerous airshows every year.
5. FEW clouds are never reported above a layer of SCT clouds. Each higher layer must be at least as obscuring as the previous layer. The layers reported in the question would be reported simply as: SCT050.
6. Chines are circumferential deflectors or protrusions that are molded into the outboard sides of nosewheel tires to deflect water sideways and reduce water ingestion by the engines.
7. The Helios deep-space probes launched in the mid-1970s achieved speeds as great as 157,000 mph (43.6 miles/second).
8. Paul Mantz, the famed Hollywood “stunt” pilot, made a belly landing in a B-17 for the Oscar-nominated 1949 film, Twelve O’Clock High, and did not want to risk others who volunteered to crew that flight. That film clip has been reused in numerous other motion pictures.
9. (c) During the war, David Clark became personally involved in the development of G-suits for pilots, and this military association eventually led to the company’s current line of aerospace products. Clark no longer makes underwear.
10. (d) The FAA estimates that the actual number might be as high as 280,000 because up to 80 percent of bird strikes are not reported.
11. (d) The stricter criteria for first and second class certificates further reduce the likelihood of incapacitation.
12. True. Turner stopped taking Gilmore aloft when he grew to more than 150 pounds. The parachute was in deference to the Humane Society.
13. True. The B-17 was stripped of its four piston engines and powered by a 6,000-horsepower Pratt & Whitney XT34 Turbo-Wasp (turboprop) engine on its nose. The Armistice and the dawn of the jet age ended the project.
14. True. In case of an accident, this allows rescue personnel to know how many live people need to be found.

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