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Brainteasers
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February 25, 2004

Brainteasers
Interactive Quiz #78:
Equipment Check

Your accountant figured out how to deduct your flying lessons from your federal return. So, you buy a Cessna 172, and want to get in at least one flight before the IRS audits your dream. First, however, you need to see if the airplane will pass an FAA audit.

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. The answers are assumed to apply within the United States unless otherwise noted.

1. The FAA seems to think that even VFR airplanes need instruments. For a VFR, daytime flight in uncontrolled airspace, below 10,000 feet MSL, a Cessna 172 must have (among other things):
a. Airspeed indicator, altimeter, magnetic direction indicator (compass), tachometer, and vertical velocity indicator (VVI)
b. Airspeed indicator, altimeter, magnetic direction indicator (compass), tachometer, and vertical speed indicator (VSI)
c. Airspeed indicator, altimeter, magnetic direction indicator (compass), tachometer, and oil-pressure gauge
d. Airspeed indicator, altimeter, magnetic direction indicator (compass), tachometer, oil-pressure gauge, and transponder.
2. Your accountant moves to a small Caribbean island beyond IRS reach but within range of your Cessna 172. To visit your funds you'll need to fly beyond gliding distance from shore. Inside U.S. airspace, the FARs require you to have "... approved flotation gear readily available to each occupant and at least one pyrotechnic signaling device ..."
a. Only if you carry passengers.
b. Only if you carry passengers for hire.
c. For any flight.
d. Only for night operations with passengers for hire.
3. Tax worries keep you awake at night, so you decide to go flying. What lights must your small, single-engine, piston airplane have for Part 91 (non-subpart F), not-for-hire, nighttime, VFR flights? In other words, what does the basic Cherokee, Aeronca, or Cessna 172 need for lights?
a. Position lights (red, green, white), rotating beacon or strobe (approved anti-collision light), landing light, and flashlight.
b. Position lights (red, green, white) and rotating beacon or strobe (approved anti-collision light).
c. Position lights (red, green, white), rotating beacon or strobe (approved anti-collision light), and landing light or taxi light.
d. Position lights (red, green, white), rotating beacon or strobe (approved anti-collision light), landing light, and taxi light.
4. Your accountant finds a sweet tax shelter inside a lead mine in Colorado, so you upgrade to a Turbo Cessna 182RG (high performance, retractable gear, constant-speed prop, non-pressurized) and depart to inspect your investment. You're on an IFR clearance in Visual Meteorological Conditions (VMC). Towering cumulus clouds (TCUs) loom ahead. Convinced that a turbo-charger solves all problems, you decide to climb above the clouds. As hypoxia sets in and lightning pierces the night sky, you try to recall the FAR requirements for supplemental oxygen. FAR 91.211 says (in part) that the minimum flight crew must be provided with and use supplemental oxygen for that part of the flight at those altitudes that is of more than 30 minutes duration, at cabin pressure altitudes above _____ feet (MSL) up to and including _____ feet (MSL).
a. 12,500 feet, 14,000 feet
b. 12,000 feet, 14,500 feet
c. 10,500 feet, 14,000 feet
d. 10,000 feet, 14,500 feet.
5. With a supplemental-oxygen nasal cannula stuck up your nostrils, you level off in smooth air at 16,000 feet (we'll call MSL equal to cabin pressure here). The accountant, passed out and turning blue in the back seat, is not part of the "minimum flight crew," so is not required to use supplemental oxygen.
a. True
b. False
6. With fresh oxygen flowing to your PIC brain, you notice that your number two VOR receiver is flagged -- it's not working. Being a longtime Microsoft Windows user, you instinctively turn the VOR off and then back on to fix it. Oddly, the old Narco VOR receiver doesn't respond -- it's dead. You're on an IFR clearance and FAR 91.187 requires that you report certain malfunctions to ATC as soon as practical. Your other VOR (which has a glideslope) works fine, and your portable GPS -- with moving map display and IFR intersections in the current database -- is also working. Are you required to report this VOR outage to ATC?
a. Yes, but only if it affects your ability to navigate.
b. No. Your GPS can be substituted for the second VOR, but not for the primary VOR. An ADF can also be used, instead.
c. Yes. Any navigational, approach, or communication equipment malfunction must be reported.
d. No. If you're in radar contact, ATC has no use for this information.
7. Which of the following equipment items are not required for Part 91.205(d), basic IFR, small-airplane operations inside controlled airspace?
a. Two-way radio communications system and navigational equipment appropriate to the ground facilities to be used.
b. Slip-skid indicator.
c. Sensitive altimeter adjustable for barometric pressure.
d. A clock displaying hours, minutes, and seconds with a sweep-second pointer or digital presentation.
e. Autopilot
8. Flight levels generally begin at 18,000 feet (FL180). At what altitude (over the U.S.) is DME required when using VOR navigation?
a. FL230
b. FL240
c. FL250
d. FL180
9. In order to operate IFR in controlled airspace, your airplane's static system must have been tested, inspected, and found to comply with FAR 91.411 within the preceding ___ months.
a. 12 months
b. 18 months
c. 24 months
d. 36 months
10. Forget supplemental oxygen, flotation devices, or even the avionics -- the most important item on a U.S.-registered civil aircraft is the proper paperwork (or at least it seems that way at times). FAR 91.203 requires that both the airworthiness certificate and the registration be onboard and displayed at the cabin or cockpit entrance so that they are legible to passengers or crew.
a. True.
b. False.