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Sunday 8th November 2009
Brainteasers
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Jul. 10, 2008

Brainteasers
Interactive Quiz #135:
Summertime ...

... and the flyin' is easy, provided you remember a few things about warmed-up air molecules, hot holding patterns and steamed air traffic controllers working vacation overtime.

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. Every discussion of warm-weather flight begins with (no, not beer) density altitude. OK, class, all together now: Density altitude is defined as:
a. Pressure altitude corrected for nonstandard temperature
b. True altitude corrected for nonstandard temperature
c. Absolute altitude corrected for adiabatic lapse rate
d. Pressure altitude corrected for Celsius temperature
2. Having aced the previous question, you're ready to apply it. For the past six years, your hangar neighbor Fred has flown a Cessna 172 from your sea-level airport while rarely ever landing at airports above 2000-feet field elevation. It's summer and Fred heads for the high country, where flat-landers routinely become runway-overrun ornaments when they don't pay attention to density altitude and how it affects aircraft performance. Fred knows that, as one approaches a high-elevation airport on a warmer-than-standard day, one should use a higher-than-normal indicated airspeed (IAS) on approach.
a. True
b. False
3. Heat isn't the only factor in aircraft performance. Humidity plays a role, too. Fill in the blanks: The air's ability to hold moisture (_____) as air temperature (____).
a. increases, decreases
b. decreases, increases
c. increases, increases
d. both a and b
4. Cumulus clouds formed by convective currents are a common summertime sight. They're beautiful to look at but not always fun to fly through. There is a rule-of-thumb way to estimate the base of cumulus clouds if you know three things: OAT (outside air temperature) at field elevation, the dewpoint and something about lapse rates. For this question the OAT at field elevation is 82 degrees (that's Fahrenheit, for those of us who still defy ICAO). The dewpoint is 38-degrees F. What would you estimate the base of the cumulus clouds to be?
a. 8000 feet
b. 10,000 feet
c. 13,000 feet
d. 22,000 feet
5. It's a hot, Friday afternoon. You sneak away from work early and file IFR to your favorite waterfront vacation spot for the weekend. Trouble is, so did every other weekend instrument pilot within 300 miles. Air traffic controllers, who couldn't get the day off because they're short-staffed, know that when you stuff 10 pounds of IFR traffic onto a five-pound approach, someone's gonna hold. The holding clearance phraseology may begin with, "Cardinal 81X, cleared to ... " This clearance limit -- the place where you must stop and spin -- is called the holding (______).
a. navaid
b. fix
c. intersection
d. point
e. pen
6. When ATC issues abbreviated holding instructions over a charted holding pattern, the controller must state the ...
a. holding direction
b. EDCT
c. leg length
d. holding speed
7. Standard holding patterns are right-hand traffic unless otherwise stated as left-hand.
a. True
b. False
8. Think old-school and ignore the pretty pictures on your Garmin G1000. When timing a holding pattern, the standard leg length, at or below 14,000 feet MSL, is (_____) minute(s).
a. one
b. two
c. three
d. five
9. Keep orbiting in the holding pattern from the previous question. When timing a holding pattern, which leg should meet the standard leg time? (Hint: One leg will always be longer than the other unless the wind aloft is calm.)
a. Outbound
b. Inbound
c. Crosswind
d. Base
e. Dog
10. Two-part summer question on scuba diving and flight operations, two vacation endeavors often found in concert. SCUBA is an acronym that means (_____), and the AIM-recommended waiting time before going to flight altitudes of up to 8000 feet is at least (_____) after diving, if the dive did not required controlled ascent (non-decompression-stop diving). Fill in those blanks.
a. Sea-Compressed Underwater Breathing Air, 30 minutes
b. Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Asparagus, 12 hours
c. Surface-Contained Underwater Barometric Air, 8 hours
d. Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus, 12 hours