Feb. 22, 2010

Interactive Quiz #148:
Whaddya Know?

Airlines lock their flight crews in the cockpit so passengers won't embarrass them by asking a lot of tough questions. We have no such qualms. Time to unlock your pilot minds and take this quiz.

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. While waiting for a passenger to arrive at the airport, you stare at the nearby mountains where afternoon clouds form. As the air is moving up slope, it expands with the reduction of atmospheric pressure and cools. Feeling smart, you wish your passenger were here so you could explain that the process is called:
a. Anhydrous lifting
b. Coriolis force
c. Adriatic cooling
d. Adiabatic cooling

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2. Days earlier, when the winds aloft were strong, you noticed smooth, lens-shaped clouds high above the mountain ridge. These clouds are called:
a. Lenticular clouds
b. Roll clouds
c. Wall clouds
d. Virga

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3. Walking around a GA tiedown ramp, you point out to your non-pilot passenger that many airplane wings point up; the tips are higher than the wing roots. There's a positive, acute angle between the airplane's lateral axis and a line through the wings' centers. "We pilots call that 'dihedral,' " you proudly note. What is the term for wings with a downward slant?
a. Ahedral
b. Anhedral
c. Bihedral
d. Cathedral

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4. This same inquisitive non-pilot points to an airplane that doesn't have the common design of an engine in front, wings in the middle and tail feathers at the rear of the fuselage. Instead, there's a horizontal surface mounted ahead of the main wing (think Wright Flyer, Piaggio P180 or VariEze). You explain that this forward horizontal surface is called a:
a. Cunard
b. Canard
c. Stabilator
d. Ruddervator

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5. Later, you hope to quiet your non-flying guest by asking her to help wash your airplane. Bored, she begins swinging the suds bucket by its handle. It's full of soapy water, but the water does not spill out, because -- you explain -- centrifugal force, an outward force in the swinging arc, keeps the water in the bucket and off the annoying kid's head. Then, she asks, "What's the opposite of centrifugal force?" We're asking the same question: What's the opposite of centrifugal force?
a. Magnus force
b. Ground effect
c. Centripetal force
d. Centipedal force

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6. Later, hoping to staunch your guest's endless questions, you take her flying to dry the airplane. Unfortunately, you left the water running in the wash area and, returning two hours later, find a portion of the runway covered in standing water that is deeper than your airplane's tire treads. "Don't worry, I have a seaplane rating," you boast, and land in the giant puddle. Your tires, however, don't seem to gain any traction, and the airplane rides across the water's surface as you apply the brakes. Before Little Miss Inquisition can ask, you say, "We're losing direction control due to (_____ _____)." (Fill in the blanks.)
a. Static hydroplaning
b. Dynamic heliotroping
c. Dynastic hydroplaning
d. Dynamic hydroplaning

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7. You manage to taxi clear of the runway onto a strip of pavement along side of which is a sign with a black background and a yellow letter "A." What is your position?



a. On taxiway A
b. Approaching taxiway A
c. Clear of taxiway A
d. On an airline ramp

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8. Signs, signs, everywhere are signs, and near the runway is a sign beside the taxiway. It shows a yellow background and black diagram that resembles a horizontal ladder or a railroad track. What does this sign indicate?



a. Hold short
b. ILS critical-area boundary
c. Contact tower here
d. VOT

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9. Satellites may control life on earth, but there are still plenty of VORs dotting the landscape, and some of them even work. What defines the limits of the volume of airspace that the VOR serves?
a. Null coverage volume
b. RAIM volume
c. Standard service volume
d. Service ceiling volume

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10. As you taxi back to the ramp, your passenger notices a "strange, red, fence-like contraption" that you know to be an ILS localizer antenna. Unable to resist, you recite this from the AIM: "The localizer signal is transmitted at the far end of the runway. It is adjusted for a course width (full-scale-fly-left to full-scale-fly-right) of (_____) feet at the runway threshold."
a. 500
b. 700
c. 1000
d. 1700

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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.

Return to the AVweb Brainteasers page.