Interactive Quiz #75:
Aerodrome Operations

You can successfully fly hundreds of miles across burning sands, frozen tamarack, and deadly L.A. freeways, but all that Zen-like aero-bliss can turn to grief if you don't understand the operating rules in the airport environment. Have fun navigating the following scenarios.

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.

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1. The unthinkable happens at the beginning of a VFR trip: You're at the end of the runway and several larger aircraft taxi past with the flight crewmembers alternately pointing at you and at their headsets. You think it's some QB secret signal and point at your headset in turn. Completing your run-up, you notice how quiet the tower/ground frequency is. Your radios are dead, and you want to taxi back to the FBO in order to stop payment on the check you just gave the avionics shop for installing your new panel. The control tower flashes you a series of colored light-gun signals. Decode the following lights: Solid red, followed by flashing white, and then flashing green.
a. Stop, Cleared to taxi, Exercise extreme caution.
b. Stop, Return to starting point, Cleared for taxi.
c. Stop, Look, Listen.
d. Stop, Taxi clear of the runway, cleared for taxi.

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2. You're alone on a taxiway with only a sleepy tower controller watching. You see a sign (see below). A yellow T on a black background means:
a. Terminal building dead ahead.
b. Taxiway Tango coming up.
c. You're on taxiway Tango.
d. The taxiway you're on makes a T-intersection ahead.

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3. Prior to calling ground control for your taxi clearance to runway 17 you listen to the ATIS, which reports:

"Ceiling 700 (feet) overcast, visibility 2 miles. ILS approaches are in use to runway 17."

Ground control tells you to taxi to runway 17. As you approach the runway you see a sign (see below). Ground tells you to hold there because:

a. It marks the ILS critical area and all vehicles must remain clear at all times.
b. It marks the ILS critical area and all vehicles must remain clear when the ILS is in use in any weather and an IFR arrival aircraft is inside the outer marker (OM).
c. It marks the ILS critical area and all vehicles must remain clear when weather is below 1000-foot ceiling or 3-miles visibility and an arrival aircraft is inside the OM.
d. It marks the ILS critical area and all vehicles must remain clear when weather is less than 800-foot ceiling or visibility is less than 2 miles and an arrival aircraft is inside the OM.

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4. Imagine that it's night time, and you're a little unsure of your destination. You know where you want to land, but the sea of suburban lights, rock concert laser shows, and nearby prison searchlights makes the airport difficult to spot. You see three repeating flashes: white, white, green. What do those beacon signals mean?
a. Civilian land airport.
b. Military land airport.
c. Heliport.
d. Water airport.
e. Klingon docking station.

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5. You land at an airport inside Class D airspace. The tower controller (known in-house as "local control") tells you to "Turn right at the first intersection." No sweat, you think while standing on the brakes and burning up $50 in brake pads. You turn off the runway and see the lines depicted below with the dashed lines facing you. You should:
a. Hold short of the lines and contact ground control.
b. Get your aircraft's nose across the lines, stop, and contact ground control.
c. Get your entire aircraft across the lines and contact ground control.
d. Get your entire aircraft across the lines and await further instructions from the tower.

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6. Approach control vectors your Cessna 172 (four-seat, fixed-gear, non-pressurized, small airplane) to follow a Boeing 767 with many more seats but far less legroom. The Boeing, at takeoff, can weigh 408,000 pounds, roughly the same as Rhode Island in the off-season. You report sighting the 767, and approach control tells you to "Follow the 767 Heavy to runway 12, caution wake turbulence, contact tower." Once you agree to the sequence and clearance, ATC is off the hook for wake turbulence separation. You should plan your flight path to be:
a. Downwind and below the 767's path.
b. Above the 767's path and touch down before where it touches.
c. Below the 767's path and touch down before where it touches.
d. Above the 767's path and touch down after where it touches.

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7. All aircraft produce a wake of some sort from (among other things) vortices that are a byproduct of lift. Generally, the bigger the aircraft, the more powerful the wake turbulence. What aircraft configuration produces the most wake turbulence?
a. Heavy, fast, and clean (in cruise configuration).
b. Heavy, slow, and dirty (in landing configuration with gear down and full flaps).
c. Heavy, slow, and clean (in landing or takeoff configuration but with gear and flaps up).
d. Heavy. Weight is the sole determining factor.

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8. At the FBO, you've just paid your ramp handling fee, landing fee, parking fee, security fee, and fee-surcharge fee, and are awaiting the taxi that will charge $75 to take you across the freeway to the Motel 6. While burning your tongue on a complimentary cup of instant coffee, you notice a large, twin-engine airplane preparing for taxi. Several ramp personnel surround the aircraft, and the ramp signalman gestures as shown in the official FAA illustration below. What does that signal mean?
a. Taxi either left or right of signaler.
b. Pull chocks.
c. Start both engines.
d. Kill both engines.
e. We know you have more money -- empty your pockets.

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9. Tower and ground controllers refer to airport real estate as "movement" and "non-movement" areas. Define these terms.
a. Movement areas are runways and taxiways; non-movement areas are everything else.
b. Movement areas are runways; non-movement areas are taxiways.
c. Movement areas are ramps (what non-flyers call the "tarmac") and taxiways; non-movement areas are everything else.
d. Movement areas are active runways; non-movement areas are taxiways and closed or inactive runways.

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10. You're operating under Part 91, not for hire, but you are carrying passengers while on an IFR flight plan 90 minutes after official sunset. The weather is reported at your destination to be 1000 feet broken and 3 miles visibility. You're inside Class C airspace, clear of clouds, on final, and cleared to land. Suddenly, the runway lights go out. You can still see the runway in your landing light beam and by the momentary glow of a full moon peeking through the clouds. Regardless, the tower controller must send you around because the runway has no lights.
a. True.
b. False.

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