December 1, 2005

Interactive Quiz #101:
Risk Analysis

Flight involves risk. ATC and AFSS supply information, but only the pilot-in-command can analyze potential threats and make the go/no-go call. Winter offers lots of decision-making material, some of which might stick to your pitot.

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. At an airport with an operating control tower, pilots and vehicle operators need permission to operate on the runways or taxiways (FAR 91.129). This seems reasonable, and tower controllers are quite willing to grant permission by saying, "Runway 12, cleared to land." If the runway is closed, for whatever reason, but high winds favor its use, and the pilot requests to land on the closed runway for safety reasons, the tower air traffic controller may approve this by saying, "Landing will be at your own risk, cleared to land."
a. True
b. False

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2. "Shock cooling" is the feeling that the newly rated Arizona instrument pilots get when making their first IFR cross-country through Iowa. Ice on the wings, tail, and pitot tube suddenly loses its academic wonder and becomes a chilling, butt-puckering ordeal if you don't know the territory or at least the icing terminology. So, let's begin by identifying the three types of structural icing that can form in flight. They are:
a. Clear, Rime, Frost
b. Clear, Rime, Mixed
c. Sublime, Rime, Mixed
d. Clear, Opaque, Glaze

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3. In order for ice to form on the airframe there should be moisture and cold air present, often in the form of a supercooled cloud. Your airframe slams into this misty blob of suspended liquid droplets and before you can say, "Gee, she ain't climbin' like the salesman promised," you've iced up like a cheap wedding cake. One of the first places you may notice ice is on your OAT probe (see photo). Near what temperature can you expect the greatest icing threat? (Assume moisture is present and you don't have anti/de-ice equipment.)

a. -20º Celsius (-4º F)
b. -10º Celsius (14º F)
c. Not too far below 0º Celsius (32º F)
d. At or below 0º Fahrenheit (-18º C)

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4. One of the nastiest types of icing encounters happens in freezing rain. Because the freezing rain droplets are much larger than supercooled cloud droplets, freezing rain can spread ice on your airframe well aft of where you might expect it. Bottom line: Avoid freezing rain, and if you encounter it: Get out! But how? If you encounter freezing rain in flight you should (Choose best answer):
a. Descend
b. Hold altitude and course
c. Hold altitude and reverse course
d. Climb

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5. You're flying across Ohio headed for somewhere up in Michigan to attend your Uncle Ricky's ski-plane weekend at Lake Studebaker. The AFSS briefer painted a gloomy, ice-laden image of your route with cloud bases around 700 feet AGL and visibilities ranging from 1 to 3 miles. In-flight structural icing is a definite possibility because ... well ... because it's winter near the Great Lakes, which are great at producing ice. Oddly, the local pilots don't seem intimidated by ice or FARs about flight into "known icing." You attribute this to long-term exposure to polka music and lutefisk. Still, you make the risk analysis and launch IFR into the clag. En route you pick up ice and report it to Center as "light rime." Coming out of the clouds you configure to land when you notice that the elevator wants to pitch your nose down. You suspect tailplane icing but can't see the tailplane. You should (choose best generic procedure):
a. Add full flaps and fly a much faster approach.
b. Retract all flaps and slip to lose altitude.
c. Fly a no-flap or partial flap approach.
d. Cry "Help, Mr. Wizard!" and pledge to read the POH chapter on icing when you land.

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6. Let's freeze your unprotected propeller. Where does the greatest quantity of ice normally form on a spinning prop?
a. Tips and outer radius
b. Spinner and inner radius
c. Mid-span (between spinner and tips)
d. First tips and then spinner

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7. Departing Duluth, Minn., on a warm (for Minnesota) winter day you encounter light rime in the clouds, but as you climb the OAT drops and icing accumulation quits although ice still adheres to your wings. Breaking out on top in bright sunlight with temperatures below freezing, you watch the ice slowly vanish. It doesn't melt into water and run off but simply vanishes. What is that process called when ice turns directly into water vapor?
a. Subrogation
b. Sublimation
c. Orographic oscillation
d. Adiobatic oscillation

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8. So, now that you've found it, identified it, and -- it's hoped -- shed the ice, you need to tell someone about it. Chances are your passengers have already suspected something was up by the shower-door glaze to the windshield and your thumb turning blue pressing the glycol pump button, so no need to tell them. But other pilots really, really want to know about the ice, so give a PIREP to ATC or AFSS. Accuracy counts. Ice should be reported in one of four categories: Trace, Light, Moderate, or Severe. Which definition fits the "Moderate" ice definition?
a. The rate of accumulation is such that even short encounters become potentially hazardous and use of deicing/anti-icing equipment or flight diversion is necessary.
b. The ice thickness is such that even short encounters become potentially hazardous and use of deicing/anti-icing equipment or flight diversion is necessary.
c. The ice weight is such that even short encounters become potentially hazardous and use of deicing/anti-icing equipment or flight diversion is necessary.
d. The ice consistency/adhesion is such that even moderate encounters become potentially hazardous and use of deicing/anti-icing equipment or flight diversion is necessary.

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9. Freight dogs and Englishmen safely fly out in the moonlight clag, but what about VFR-only pilots? Clear skies and unlimited visibility is ideal. However, imagine that you want to navigate the amorphous cusp between IFR and VFR. This gray (literally at times) area is known as MVFR or "Marginal VFR" and isn't just for VFR pilots with marginal skills. Quite the contrary, MVFR requires exceptional VFR skills with the ability to transition to the gauges or land before the world goes completely gray. To navigate in MVFR you must first define it. Please chose the correct AIM definition:
a. Ceiling 1,000 to 3,000 feet and/or visibility 3 to 5 miles inclusive
b. Ceiling 1,500 to 3,000 feet and/or visibility 3 to 5 miles inclusive
c. Ceiling 1,000 to 1,500 feet and/or visibility 1 to 5 miles inclusive
d. Ceiling 1,000 to 3,000 feet and/or visibility 1 to 3 miles inclusive

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10. Upon briefing through DUATS, we were shocked (shocked!) to see the following NOTAM:

Ailerona, Iowa [IA66]: January NOTAM #10

WDI out of service effective from January 04th, 2006 at 07:00 PM UTC (0601041900) - January 04th, 2006 at 09:30 PM UTC (0601042130) ...

OK, what shocked us is we didn't know what "WDI" stood for. You, of course, do, so please, tell us what WDI means.

a. WAAS Detection Index (similar to RAIM)
b. Wind Direction Indicator
c. Waypoint Direct IAF
d. Weather Detection Indicator
e. Women Dancing Indecently

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