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Brainteasers
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February 23, 2006

Brainteasers
Interactive Quiz #104:
Preflight This

No person shall begin a flight without ensuring that most of the aircraft parts are attached in an airworthy fashion. That inspection requires more than a laminated checklist, so let's preflight the logbook, fuel, and pilot's airworthiness.

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. Have you ever wondered who "No Person" is? Many Federal Aviation Regulations (FAR) seem to be concerned that Mr./Ms. Person might actually fly and often mention him/her by name, as in FAR 91.203, which says, "... No person may operate a civil aircraft unless it has within it (list of required certifications)." Let's assume No Person is preflighting a civil Piper Cherokee, for a daytime VFR flight, within the continental United States. This is a not-for-hire, Part 91 flight. According to 91.203, what certificates must be found within the aircraft before operating it?
a. Airworthiness certificate, registration
b. Airworthiness certificate, registration, airframe logbook
c. Airworthiness certificate, registration, airframe and engine logbook
d. Airworthiness certificate, registration, operating limitations, MEL (Minimum Equipment List)
2. No person keeps the same airplane forever, so No Person sells the Piper Cherokee to another private pilot. Cash changes hands, sales taxes are paid, papers are signed and before you can say, "No person is an island," the new owner asks the seller, a private pilot, to assist changing the oil. Even though the previous owner is not a licensed aircraft mechanic (A&P), that person holds a private pilot certificate and has always done the oil changes on the Piper. Is it legal for the seller pilot, who no longer owns or operates the airplane, to change the oil (remove cowling, drain oil, replace with fresh oil, change the filter and safety wiring, scrape knuckles) without an A&P's supervision? Choose the best answer.
a. No. Only the owner/operator (or a licensed mechanic -- A&P) may do the work and endorse the engine logbook.
b. Yes, provided the pilot actually doing the work endorses the engine logbook.
c. No. Only a licensed mechanic may change oil filters and safety wiring.
d. No. A licensed mechanic must directly supervise the oil change and sign the logbook.
3. You've landed at Soggy Harbor Municipal Airport near Everwet, Wash. It's raining. With darkness approaching, you fuel your Piper Challenger (low-wing, single-engine, 180-hp Lycoming) with 100LL avgas at a self-serve pump that's operated by inserting all your credit cards until they're pumped dry. By the time you refuel both tanks to the tabs (less than full) it's dark, your sneakers are soaked, and you tie the airplane down before heading to the Soggy Harbor B&B and Fungus Spa for a romantic, three-day weekend of watching the rain fall. Returning on the fourth day, as a part of your preflight inspection, you take a fuel sample from beneath each wing tank as well as from the fuel strainer beneath the engine cowl. Water contamination is a possibility (ya think?), and a water-contaminated fuel sample may look like (assume 100LL is the only fuel the aircraft has ever had):
a. Clear water floating on blue fuel
b. Blue fuel floating on clear water
c. Tiny beads of water floating on blue fuel
d. Red fuel diluted by clear water making it pink
4. Rain and thunderstorms threaten on your departure day. You'll probably get wet for a good portion of the trip, so you file IFR after the preflight briefing with AFSS. Knowing you'll be in the clag, your preflight, walk-around inspection of the rental Beech Sundowner (who says we make fun of Baby Beeches?) gets a tad more attention then on a clear day. You double-check the alternator belt and antennas, make certain the VORs have been operationally checked in accordance with FAR 91.171, and confirm your GPS database is current. All's well. The aircraft is equipped with static wicks, which appear to be in good shape and should help eliminate any potential P-static. P-static means (_____), and the symptoms of P-static may include:
a. Precipitation Static. Loss of UHF communications, erroneous directional gyro readings, high-pitched squeal on audio, loss of avionics, and "St. Elmo's Fire" on windshield.
b. Pitot Static. Loss of VHF communications, erroneous magnetic compass readings, high-pitched squeal on audio, loss of avionics, and "St. Elmer's Fire" on windshield.
c. Presbyterian Static. Loss of VHF communications, erroneous magnetic-compass readings, high-pitched squeal on audio, loss of avionics, "St. Vitas Dance" on windshield, fire and brimstone.
d. Precipitation Static. Loss of VHF communications, erroneous magnetic compass readings, high-pitched squeal on audio, loss of avionics, and "St. Elmo's Fire" on windshield
5. Let's be subjective and subject you to a cold, clear night when dew freezes to coat your airplane with a thin layer of frost (not ice). Luckily, it's only on the top of the airframe. The belly and the bottom of the wings are clean. During your preflight inspection, you wipe the windshield clean and later, when you start the engine, everything works fine including the windshield defroster. Frost, unlike ice, does not alter the shape of the airfoil, so what doesn't blow off will not affect performance.
a. True
b. False
6. Those of us who learned to fly in Hawaii (and we're not just rubbing that in ... well, maybe a little) also learned that it's a long swim from the island of Kauai to Oahu, so every preflight inspection ensured that approved flotation gear was readily available for each occupant on any flight that went beyond power-off gliding distance from shore. As reasonable as that sounds, however, FAR 91.205 says that flotation gear is only required when operating for hire.
a. True
b. False
7. Preflights subject you to all sorts of factors that won't be found on your laminated, walk-around checklist, including what's beneath your feet. Imagine: The ramp, taxiway and runway have large patches of slush and standing water, so the retractable gear legs, wheels, brakes and tires will get soaked on taxi and takeoff roll. No problem on a warm day, but temperatures aloft are below freezing. Pre-plan your climb procedure to include dealing with water potentially freezing in the retractable gear mechanism, creating a real hazard at your destination. The weather is ceiling 1,500 overcast, visibility 6 miles, tops reported at 5,000 MSL, no precipitation but it's getting colder. You should (and we're being subjective here, so pick the best scenario):
a. Leave the gear down for a few minutes after lift-off so wind can dry them.
b. Cancel the flight until all the slush melts.
c. Request de-icing from the FBO in the run-up area.
d. Depart and then cycle the gear up and down several times before reaching cruise altitude.
e. Retract the gear as soon as practicable so airframe heat can melt any ice or slush.
8. An integral part of any preflight planning is figuring out if the aircraft will get off the ground. Ideally, we like to take off into the wind. Sloping runways or a mountain wall at the end of a runway may limit choices. Your airplane's POH should have at least one chart that gives wind data and corresponding takeoff or landing roll distances. But before you squint to read those, you should know that a headwind will reduce your no-wind takeoff distance. And, according to AC-84B: Role of Preflight Preparation, "A tailwind which is 10 percent of the takeoff airspeed ... will ... " (finish the sentence).
a. Decrease the no-wind takeoff distance by about 12 percent.
b. Increase the no-wind takeoff distance by about 45 percent.
c. Increase the no-wind takeoff distance by about 21 percent.
d. Decrease the no-wind takeoff distance by about 21 percent.
9. Bored in cruise? Feel like dropping something out of your airplane to see what it looks like when it hits the ground? Splat! What sounds like a good idea in the airport tavern at the end of the day might strike you as just a bit bone-headed in the light of dawn (most tavern notions do). Still, FAR 91.15 permits a certain amount of aerial/gravitational objective experimentation, provided reasonable precautions are taken, such as not being drunk. FAR 91.17 states, in part, that you can't fly within (_____) hours after the consumption of any alcoholic beverage or with (_____) percent by weight or more alcohol in the blood.
a. Six hours or 0.06 percent (Six or Six Rule)
b. Eight hours or 0.08 percent (Eight or Eight Rule)
c. Eight hours or 0.04 percent (Eight or Four Rule)
d. Twelve hours or 0.10 percent (Twelve or One Rule)
10. Here's another sobering scenario. You've completed your preflight inspection, and while walking from the terminal building where there's a café that serves Primo beer -- but not to you -- you slip and fall on a pineapple husk accidentally left on the ramp by Don Ho. Passengers laugh, scoop you up and guide you toward the PIC's seat. A local county sheriff's deputy, in uniform, sees your graceful act, and as his eyes dart from you -- mid-stumble -- to the café where beer is served, he puts two and two together, gets seven, and stops you -- a federally-licensed commercial pilot, flying a Part 91, not-for-hire, daytime, VFR flight -- and asks you to submit to a sobriety test. You should:
a. Decline, because he has no federal (FAR) authority.
b. Decline, unless an FAA (FSDO) official is present.
c. Submit, because he has a gun.
d. Submit, because he has the authority.

If you enjoyed taking this interactive quiz and would like to see more like it, go to the AVweb Brainteaser page. And if you thought it was unfair, confusing, or a waste of time, we'd like you to tell us that, too. And if you have an idea for a subject that you think would make a good future Brainteaser quiz, be sure to let us know.

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