Test Pilot

1. The FAA has been phasing out many or most of its 967 VOR stations but will maintain about _____ stations as a backup nav system for IFR aircraft in the event of a widespread GPS outage.A. 200B. 300C. 400D. 500
2. “Balls to the wall” means to exert maximum effort. How did this expression originate?
3. From reader Rick Ray: True or false? A small number of aircraft have flown under the Eiffel Tower, including a Beech Bonanza and a North American P–51 Mustang in pursuit of a Messerschmitt Me–109. None, however, have flown through the much narrower opening of the Arc de Triomphe.
4. A pilot is about to embark on a high-altitude flight and plans to use a portable oxygen system with a steel tank. To be legal, the tank must have been pressure-tested within the previous
   A. three years.
   B. five years.
   C. eight years.
   D. 10 years.
5. From reader Paul Reinman: Prototype aircraft are often flown with what test pilots refer to as a YAPS probe. What is that?
6. True or false? Blimp manufacturer Goodyear Tire and Rubber also produced inflatable airplanes.
7. From reader Rick Cohen: What famous celebrity flew as John Glenn’s wingman during the Korean War?
8. Name the three astronauts who were aboard Apollo 11, the first mission to place man on the moon.

Test Pilot Answers

1. The correct answer is D. These 500 stations will be known as the minimum operational network (MON) and provide approaches to 30 major airports (the Core 30).
2. The knobs atop the engine-control levers of several older, multiengine airplanes (such as the Douglas DC–3) consisted of a cluster of small, marked balls that were pushed fully forward (to the firewall) to produce maximum power. This is like the automobile-related expression, “pedal to the metal.”
3. False. Although a tight fit, French Warrant Officer Charles Godefroy flew his Nieuport 27 biplane through the 47.6-foot span in 1919.
4. The correct answer is B. Some aluminum and composite cylinders, however, may need to be tested every three years (according to regulations of the U.S. Department of Transportation). Oxygen bottles are stamped with the date of the last test. Similar tests are required of installed systems.
5. More formally known as an air-data boom, a YAPS probe (or head) typically measures yaw (sideslip angle), angle of attack, pitot pressure, and static pressure during flight testing.
6. True. During the late 1950s Goodyear manufactured several one- and two-place Inflatoplanes. They had inflatable fuselages, wings, and tail surfaces. Unfortunately, the project didn’t float.
7. Boston Red Sox slugger Ted Williams had been called up from the reserves in the middle of his baseball career in 1952 to fly Grumman F9F Panthers. (Williams retired from baseball with a career batting average of .344. and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown in 1966, the first year he was eligible)
8. Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, and Michael Collins.