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Sunday 8th November 2009
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Brainteasers Interactive Quiz #65:
A Touch of Class Airspace Review

Your flying is truly a class act, so you should have no trouble dissecting and labeling the various classes of airspace. What can get sticky are all the nit-picking regulations that apply inside this alphabet jungle. Note: When international differences apply, the answers in this test presume the flight is within U.S. airspace.

INSTRUCTIONS: Answer the questions as best you can, then click on the "Score my quiz answers" button to see your score and read the explanations. If you don't like your score the first time around, you can change some of your answers and resubmit. To get the most out of this quiz, we suggest you keep trying until you get a perfect score.

NOTE: When more than one answer is true, only the most complete correct answer will be scored as correct.

1. Approaching the Kansas City, Mo., Class B airspace VFR, you call Kansas City approach requesting to pass through from north to south at 7500 feet. The controller answers: "Twin Cessna Three Four Six One Zulu, roger, Kansas City altimeter two niner niner two." Can you enter the Bravo airspace?
a. Yes, you have two-way communication.
b. Yes, provided you don't change altitude.
c. No, not until you receive a transponder code.
d. No, you must be cleared into or through the airspace.
2. You're on the ground at Fargo, N.D., and are cleared IFR to the Kansas City International Airport, which is inside Class B airspace. Will you get a separate clearance to enter Bravo airspace from Kansas City approach later?
a. No, the initial IFR clearance ("Cleared to ...") clears you all the way.
b. No, Fargo controllers will teletype a message to Kansas City Approach requesting the Bravo airspace clearance and Fargo will later add, "Cleared into the Bravo airspace," after you're airborne.
c. Yes. FAR 91.205 says that you must be told, "Cleared into the Bravo airspace." This applies to VFR or IFR.
d. Yes, Fargo controllers have no authority to clear you.
3. You're VFR approaching the Lincoln, Neb., Class C airspace, which tops at 5200 feet MSL. The ATIS weather is clear with 20 miles visibility. You're at 4500 feet MSL and call Lincoln approach to request clearance through. The controller answers: "Viking Six Two Seven One November, Lincoln approach, roger." Should you circumnavigate the Charlie airspace?
a. Yes. This controller is too busy to issue you a clearance.
b. Yes. You can't enter until receiving a radar squawk.
c. No. It's Lincoln, Neb.; they barely have indoor plumbing and certainly won't have radar.
d. No. You have two-way communication.
4. You've been radar identified by Lincoln approach, but 10 minutes later when you're smack in the middle of Lincoln's Class C airspace, the controller says, "Attention all aircraft, the radar is out of service." Without radar, the Class C airspace reverts to Class D and you may change frequencies.
a. True
b. False
5. You're IFR westbound at 16,000 feet MSL talking to Center. Ahead you see the clouds tops sloping upward, and you suspect that they're full of ice, so you request a climb to 18,000 feet to stay clear. The controller says, "Unable, climb and maintain flight level two zero zero (FL200)." Passing 17,990 feet you clear the cloud tops and don't want higher, so you request VFR-on-Top at 18,500 feet. The controller says, "Approved as requested," and is subsequently fired. Why?
a. VFR-on-Top is not allowed in Class A airspace.
b. VFR-on-Top is allowed in Class A airspace only if the controller says, "Maintain VFR-on-Top at Flight Level one eight thousand five hundred."
c. It's wrong altitude for direction of flight.
d. Ice can't form above 15,000 feet MSL.
e. You must be at least 2000 feet above the clouds for VFR-on-Top
6. Approaching the Kearney, Neb., Airport while IFR, you are cleared for the GPS Runway 36 approach. There is no control tower and the airport is surrounded by Class E airspace that goes to the surface, extending in approximately a five-mile radius. The reported weather (ASOS) is 500-foot overcast, visibility 7 miles. As you break out of the clouds, you call CTAF and hear a Cessna report left downwind. Is the Cessna legally there?
a. Yes, Center could have cleared it in Special VFR
b. Yes, provided it is on an IFR clearance and the pilot told Center that he had you in sight and would maintain visual separation.
c. No. Class E surface airspace is one-in-one-out IFR or SVFR
d. No. Only IFR traffic is allowed inside Class E surface airspace when the ceiling is below 1000 feet.
7. You're approaching the pattern at Dogpatch, Ark., Airport which is in Class G airspace to 700 feet AGL. It's 10 minutes before sunset and you estimate the ceiling to be around 700 feet AGL. Visibility looks like 2 miles. No one is on the unicom. You're at 600 feet AGL and see a Cherokee pop out of the clouds and enter the downwind ahead of you. Later you confront the pilot for cutting you off and she says, "I was IFR and cleared for the GPS approach." Who's legal?
a. Not the Cherokee. IFR approaches aren't published to airports in Class G airspace
b. Both of you. IFR and VFR can share Class G
c. Only you. The Cherokee pilot can shoot the approach but must cancel IFR prior to entering the uncontrolled Class G airspace.
d. The IFR Cherokee only. IFR has priority.
8. Walking out to your airplane at an airport inside Class D airspace you notice the airport's rotating beacon atop the control tower illuminated and turning, even though it is daytime. What does this rotating omen mean?
a. The field is IFR.
b. Some dufus left the beacon on.
c. You can't depart VFR.
9. Class D airports have control towers, but those towers won't have radar.
a. True
b. False
10. Where can you find Class F airspace?
a. Above 17,999 feet MSL.
b. Above 17,999 feet AGL.
c. Below Class B.
d. Not in the U.S.