December 30, 2004

Interactive Quiz #89:
A Little Off The Airway

A pilot's brain can atrophy in the direct-anywhere GPS world, so let's wander about the airways reviving your knowledge of IFR and VFR symbols, contractions, and other needling minutiae -- including how much your VOR needle can move.

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.

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1. You're headed to a basketball game at your alma mater, Cal Polymer State University in Paso Robles, Calif., with your former roommate, who, having majored in computer sciences, made a fortune in something high-tech while you, a liberal arts major, became a flight instructor and ... well, now catch free rides wherever possible. You're IFR using the NACO low altitude en route chart shown below. Time to impress your friend by explaining what the X and R flags mean over SARDO intersection southwest of the Priest VOR (ROM):
a. X-Radial or 227-degree radial no longer in use for navigation.
b. It's an FDC NOTAM, meaning: Cancel (X) 5500-foot crossing restriction (R) on V248.
c. X indicates a 5500-foot crossing restriction (X) northbound on V248 and Minimum Reception Altitude (R) of 5500 feet.
d. X means begin climb at SARDO for the 5500-foot MEA when northbound on V248, and R means Minimum Reception Altitude.

	Click graphic for larger version.

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2. Using the same chart above, look northeast of the Priest VOR (ROM) at the jagged blue-edged box that looks vaguely like a Lithuanian postage stamp with OAKLAND printed in the middle. What does this box indicate?
a. A remoted flight service communications site for Oakland AFSS. When calling, transmit on 128.7 and receive over the Priest VOR (ROM).
b. A remoted ATC communications site for Oakland ARTCC (Air Route Traffic Control Center) with VHF and UHF frequencies.
c. A remoted ATC communications site for Oakland ARTCC with VHF and UHF frequencies. When calling, transmit on 128.7 and receive over the Priest VOR (ROM).
d. A remoted military frequency box that's not for civil use.

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3. Strong headwinds slow your groundspeed to a crawl, affording time to recall how much you really hated sharing a room together in college. You avoid conversation by studying the IFR en route chart above. Find SARDO, CITIE, and BRALY intersections. (From Priest VOR, SARDO is southwest and CITIE is north; BRALY is northwest of Paso Robles VORTAC). All three intersections are on airways and can be identified by crossing radials. Which of those three intersections is/are also identifiable as DME fixes?
a. SARDO only
b. None
c. SARDO, CITIE, BRALY
d. SARDO AND CITIE

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4. See the illustration below from another section of the same IFR en route chart. There's a squared-S symbol on the airway with a number on the top and another number on the bottom. What is this symbol called and what are the two numbers?
a. Change Over Point (COP); each number is the mileage to the next navaid.
b. Change Over Point (COP); each number is the mileage to the next COP.
c. Change Over Point (COP); each number is the mileage to the next intersection.
d. Communications Operations Point (COP); each number is the mileage to the next remoted ATC transmitter.

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5. After witnessing your old school lose in double overtime, you depart the following day, VFR, to the San Juan Islands in Washington State. Refer to the VFR sectional shown below. Your destination airport, Orcas Island (ORS), has a hard-surfaced runway that is (_____) feet long and (_____) feet above sea level.
a. 3100 feet long and 29 feet MSL
b. 3400 feet long and 31 feet MSL
c. 3400 feet long and 29 feet MSL
d. 3100 feet long and 25 feet MSL
e. 2900 feet long and 31 feet MSL

	Click graphic for larger version.

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6. Orcas Island Airport (ORS) in the chart above has the underlined name, EASTSOUND printed nearby. What does that mean?
a. The Eastsound NDB has no voice capabilities; Morse Code only.
b. Eastsound is the AFSS sector serving that area.
c. Eastsound is the name of the ATC approach control facility on Orca Island on frequency 125.85.
d. Eastsound is a reporting point.

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7. The weather turns sour in Washington so you divert and shoot an instrument approach into Portland International Airport (PDX). The weather there is 3 miles visibility in mist, and a 1000-foot broken ceiling. The airplane owner occupies the left seat and has logged three landings to a full stop within the past 30 days in that aircraft. However, she only has five instrument approaches logged within the previous six calendar months; that illusive sixth instrument approach was logged six months and one day earlier. You, a CFII, are IFR current, proficient, and otherwise qualified, treat this as instrument dual instruction given to the left-seat pilot. The approach goes well and you break out at 1000 feet AGL. She lands the airplane without you, the CFII, once touching the controls. You can both log the instrument time.
a. True
b. False

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8. With the reunion trip over you both go your separate ways; she back to her home in Rancho de Queso Estates near Sacramento, Calif., while you return to your room at the back of the hangar where you teach. On a Tuesday morning after washing down a heart-stopping McBreakfast with a can of Pepsi, you have the following schedule: At 6 a.m. you give 1.5 hours flight instruction to a primary student, 1.1 hours flight instruction with another primary student at 10 a.m., and 1.3 hours flight instruction with a commercial student at 12:30 p.m., followed by a vending machine lunch of cheese 'n' crackers and a 32 ounces of French Vanilla-flavored coffee. A brief nap in the fuel truck is followed by 2.0 hours of instrument ground instruction at 2 p.m., and 2.0 hours of dual flight instruction at 5 p.m. to an instrument student who wonders why you're talking so fast. Dinner at 7:30 p.m. (you have the microwaved burrito supreme with extra salsa and Rolaids) before you launch into the night skies to give 1.5-hours dual night cross-country instruction to another primary student. That flight terminates at 10 p.m. Tuesday. At 5 a.m. Wednesday, you have a student scheduled for pre-dawn pattern dual instruction in a Cessna 150. Given your schedule (forget your health) you will be legal to give flight instruction to the 5 a.m. student. (Assume all other CFI, aircraft, and certification issues are correct and current.)
a. True
b. False

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9. In preparation for the oral portion of your commercial student's upcoming checkride, you quiz her on these NOTAM contractions: BRAG, BRAN, BRAF, BRAP. While it sounds like rude cow noises, these contractions really mean:
a. Braking Action Grand, Braking Action Nil, Braking Fair, Braking Action Poor.
b. Braking Action Good, Braking Action None, Braking Fair, Braking Action Poor.
c. Braking Action Good, Braking Action Nil, Braking Fair, Braking Action Poor.
d. Braking Action Good, Braking Action Nope, Braking Fast, Braking Action Poi.

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10. As your commercial student heads for the examiners' lounge for her checkride, the weather deteriorates. The cloud deck changes from 2000-foot scattered to 2000-foot broken. Visibility is six miles. The student is already instrument rated and current, so files an IFR flight plan in case the examiner wishes to fly IFR to nearby VFR conditions for the exam or to shoot an approach back home. If the aircraft's VOR is to be used for IFR flight, according to FAR 91.171 it must have been operationally checked for accuracy within the previous (_____) days, and if certified using a VOT must be within (_____) degrees of the permissible indicated bearing error. (This aircraft is not maintained under any approved progressive schedule.)
a. 30 days, within plus or minus 4 degrees
b. 30 days, within plus or minus 6 degrees
c. 60 days, within plus or minus 4 degrees
d. 60 days, within plus or minus 6 degrees
e. Who uses VORs in this the RNAV/GPS world?

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11. Remember the airplane in the Bonus Question from last month's quiz?

This is a one-of-a-kind Larkin Skylark, also called (by some) a Skylarkin. It sat on the ramp at Watsonville, Calif., for many years, rumored to have flown once. Its present status is unknown. We think it was designed and built by Keith Larkin -- the founder of headset-maker Plantronics -- although that can't be confirmed. Brainteaser author Paul Berge took the picture in 1976. None of the Brainteaser readers who sent in responses had the right answer. Does anyone have further information about it?

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