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Brainteasers
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Jun. 15, 2006

Brainteasers
Interactive Quiz #108:
Pre-Solo Prep

It's time to leave your Citation, Cirrus or Citabria and forget everything you thought you knew about flight, because you're going aloft, again, for your first solo. Let's begin with the mandatory pre-solo quiz as per FAR 61.87.

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. So sick are you of having your cigar-chomping flight instructor growling in your ear about "... airspeed ... coordination ... watch your flap speed ... straighten the nose with rudder ... aileron into the wind ..." that you pull off to the side of the runway and kick her out while shouting, "I'm going it alone. Please, sign my logbook." Once the flight instructor endorses your logbook (and student pilot certificate) for solo flight, that endorsement is good for how long or how far?
a. 10 Days
b. 30 Days
c. 60 Days
d. 90 Miles
e. 90 Days
2. At the flight instructor's discretion a single solo endorsement can (not "shall") be used to allow a student to make repeated, specific, solo cross-country flights greater than 25 nautical miles to another airport located within (_____) of the airport from which the flight originated.
a. 30 nm
b. 40 nm
c. 50 nm
d. 60 nm
3. On a particularly bumpy solo day as your head smacks the airplane's ceiling, you recall the term "Design Maneuvering Speed" (VA) and decide to fly at or below that speed, because load factor can suddenly increase in turbulence, when attempting to recover from a turbulent upset or performing other abrupt maneuvers. Stalling speed does not remain fixed and stalling at high speeds in turbulence can be catastrophic. According to the FAA's Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge (FAA-H-8083-25), what happens to stalling speed?
a. The airplane's stalling speed increases in proportion to the square root of the load factor.
b. The airplane's stalling speed decreases in proportion to the square root of the load factor.
c. The airplane's stalling speed increases inversely to the square root of the load factor.
d. The airplane's stalling speed increases in proportion to the total of the load factor.
4. A student pilot plans a cross-country trip (daytime) in a Cherokee 140 to an airport located 54 nm from his home base airport. The weather is VFR (clear, visibility 10 statute miles, winds calm). The student owns the Cherokee. It's a creampuff, mechanically perfect, washed and waxed, and even has a pineapple air freshener hanging from the sun visor. The flight instructor reviews the pre-flight planning, while quizzing the student on alternate plans, wake turbulence, wind shear, and ATC procedures. The CFI even ensures that the student has lunch money and a clean handkerchief before endorsing his logbook for the solo flight. Phew! The CFI then walks into the FBO to sit for the next 12 hours by the telephone nervously awaiting a call from the TSA asking why his student landed at Camp David. Meanwhile, a private pilot asks the student for a lift to the pre-planned destination airport and offers to buy the avgas. The student should do what? (Be subjective, if necessary.)
a. Share the actual avgas cost only (50/50).
b. Give the private pilot a ride but take no money (compensation).
c. Give the private pilot a lift but not log that portion of the flight as solo cross-country.
d. Tell the passenger, "No."
e. Take the money and give the ride.
5. A student pilot began flight training (Part 61) in a flying club's Cessna 150 (two seats, fixed gear, single piston engine, land airplane). After several hours of dual flight instruction she switched to training in a Cessna 172 (four seats, fixed gear, single piston engine, land airplane). Both aircraft engines are rated at less than 200 brake horsepower (bhp). Both have fixed-pitch props and flaps. The student completes all the requirements for solo flight in either airplane and receives the logbook and certificate endorsements from an authorized instructor to solo in the local area. The student may solo either the Cessna 150 or the Cessna 172 ... (Complete the sentence.)
a. Provided the endorsements specify both makes and models (C150 and C172)
b. If the endorsement specifies the C172, the C150 will be included because both Cessnas are similar makes and models.
c. Provided the student first performs three landings to a full stop in both aircraft under the "direct supervision" of the CFI
d. Provided the flights do not exceed 25 nm
e. Provided the student pilot does not fly both airplanes simultaneously
6. Aloha! And welcome to primary flight training on Kiwishinola Island, a U.S. Territory in the Condo Island Chain fictitiously located 200 miles west of Hotel Street on Oahu. Assume that all FARs apply here. You're training for your Private Pilot certificate (airplane, single engine, land) and you plan a solo cross-country flight. According to FAR 61.109, one solo cross-country must cover at least 150 nm with one leg at least 50 nm long. Problem is, Kiwishinola Island is smallish, and the nearest island with an airstrip is 120 nm away, which would require solo flight over jellyfish-infested waters out of sight of land. Kiwishinola Island, however, has two civil airports located 40 nm apart with no water in-between. You can earn your private pilot ticket here ... (Complete the sentence with the best answer.)
a. Only if you fly over water to an airport at least 50 nm away
b. Complete two round-trip solo flights to the two airports furthest apart on the island
c. But you will be restricted to one island
d. Both b and c
7. We leave the islands, now, and move to Alaska, a state that grows its own oil but seems to have some of the highest avgas prices in the country, plus more FAA personnel per capita than anywhere outside an Oklahoma City tavern at happy hour. Alaska is a state where, before you can vote, you must prove residency by landing an overloaded Super Cub on a rock-strewn beach without spilling the guns, fish poles, or beer while missing the moose. The Alaskan resident learning to fly during summer, however, may have trouble meeting the night flying requirements of FAR 61.109, so FAR 61.110 allows the Alaskan private pilot candidate to:
a. Simulate night with a view-limiting device
b. Earn a pilot certificate stamped with "Night flying prohibited" until completing the requirements within 12 months
c. Carry passengers as a "Temporary Daytime Private/Sport Pilot" until completing the requirements within 12 months
d. Exercise Private Pilot privileges at night within gliding distance of a lighted aerodrome (including seaplane base)
8. Student pilots should carry their pilot logbook, student pilot certificate and a (_____) on any solo flight. (Fill in the blank.)
a. Photo ID (Driver's license, Government ID, Military ID, etc.)
b. Homeland Security Clearance
c. Current GPS database
d. Visa/MC
e. FAR/AIM
9. Your instructor favors old taildraggers with tandem seating, and after 30 minutes at the stick of a 1946 Aeronca 7AC Champ, you (a student pilot) decide to abandon the modern world of 40-year-old Cessnas and solo in what's possibly the greatest airplane ever built, rebuilt, ground-looped, and rebuilt again. You master the Champ and your instructor proudly endorses you to solo from the front seat, leaving the back seat lighter by 180 pounds. (Ignore for now the fact that it's tough actually finding a taildragger instructor who weighs less than 200 pounds.) With the rear seat empty, the CG shifts forward from what you've become used to, so theoretically what will happen? (Choose most complete answer.)
a. The airplane will fly faster.
b. The airplane will recover from a stall more easily.
c. The airplane will fly slower.
d. Both a and b
e. Both b and c
10. A student pilot has been endorsed to solo repeatedly at an airport located inside Class G airspace below 10,000 feet MSL. It's daytime. The flight visibility requirement (assuming that the instructor has not placed any restrictions on the student beyond FAR 61.89's limitations) is:
a. 1 statute mile
b. 3 statute miles
c. 1 nautical mile
d. 3 nautical miles
11. Bonus: AVweb invited readers to send in stories of their first solo flights, and we have collected some of them here. Enjoy!