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Brainteasers
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August 11, 2005

Brainteasers
Interactive Quiz #97:
Unscramble Your Head

When your brain is unfairly teased in flight, how well you score on this quiz may determine your ability to handle unusual aeromedical factors, attitudes, and illusions.

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. While taxiing your Citabria past a large mirror you notice not only how cool you look, but also that the airplane's name spelled backwards is "Airbatic." Ignore for a second that the letters are backwards and the fact that "airbatic" isn't a real word, but it looks close enough to "aerobatic" to inspire you to strap on a certified parachute and go aloft to pull some Gs. On your first maneuver you experience the outside world going red. On the next maneuver it seems to appear gray. You've experienced "redout" and "grayout." Redout is caused, in part, by (_____), and grayout is caused, in part, by (_____). Fill in those blanks with the most complete answer(s).
a. Redout: The cornea, reacting to negative G-forces constricts the pupil. Grayout: Diminished blood flow to the eyes from positive G-force.
b. Redout: The lower eyelid, reacting to negative G-forces, rises to cover the pupil. Grayout: Diminished blood flow to the eyes from positive G-force.
c. Redout: The eyes, reacting to positive G-forces, become congested from blood (like standing on your head). Grayout: Diminished blood flow to the eyes from negative G-force.
d. Both b and c.
e. Redout: Exploding eyeballs. Grayout: Age.
2. You don't need an acrobatic airplane to become completely disoriented in flight. A mishandled Bonanza in the clouds will do the trick. In visual meteorological conditions (VMC) the pilot can visually determine attitude, but in instrument meteorological conditions (IMC) other senses conflict to form a bum picture. For instance, the vestibular system inside the inner ear senses pitch, yaw, and roll through:
a. Three tiny diaphragms positioned in series that detect changes in atmospheric pressure.
b. Three tiny diaphragms positioned in parallel that detect changes in blood pressure.
c. Three semicircular canals positioned at approximate right angles to each other detecting acceleration in any direction.
d. Three semilouvered canals positioned at approximate right angles to each other detecting acceleration in any direction.
3. Even in VMC, the outside world you thought you knew can deceive. Imagine you're flying across Lake Superior at night beneath a solid overcast (no moon, stars, or northern lights) and you stare at an isolated point of light against the dark water. Suddenly, it moves or appears to do so. Are you nuts? (That's not the quiz question.) Instead, you've experienced an illusion that can -- if left unchecked -- lead to spatial disorientation. This particular illusion is called:
a. Autokinesis
b. Autonomic
c. Persistence of Vision
d. The Bends
e. EFS (Edmund Fitzgerald Syndrome)
4. The in-flight illusion called "the leans" is the bane of all instrument pilots regardless of experience levels. It sounds like something pilots get in a tavern after flight hours, but it's not, at least not here. Easily overcome with proper instrument scan and interpretation, the leans, according to the AIM, is caused when an abrupt correction of a banked attitude creates the illusion of:
a. Tumbling
b. Pitching up
c. Banking in the opposite direction
d. Banking steeply into the turn
5. You've no doubt heard of the coriolis force, which deflects air to the right in the northern hemisphere, causing it to follow a curved path instead of a straight line, and causing Iowa drivers to swing right before turning left. Well, that last part is still under study. Meanwhile, define the coriolis illusion. (Hint: It's unrelated to the weather.)
a. An abrupt eye movement in a prolonged, constant bank that can create the illusion of movement in an entirely different axis.
b. An abrupt heading change in a prolonged, constant-rate turn that can create the illusion of movement in an entirely different axis.
c. An abrupt pitch change in a prolonged, constant-rate turn that can create the illusion of movement in an entirely different axis.
d. An abrupt head movement in a prolonged, constant-rate turn that can create the illusion of movement in an entirely different axis.
6. Inversion illusion does not come from staring at warmer air aloft but, instead, attacks the pilot making an abrupt change from a climb to straight-and-level flight and may cause a feeling as though tumbling backwards.
a. True
b. False
7. Recognizing illusions is fine -- recovering from them even better. Imagine you're IFR, in the clouds, and in air so rough your passengers can't operate their iPods and vomit simultaneously. Regrettably, you have no autopilot. You reach for a chart, and, upon looking back at the instrument panel, you see the VSI indicating a rapid descent, confirmed by a quickly unwinding altimeter, and doubly-confirmed by ATC asking you, "Say altitude?" Your heading and attitude indicators show you in a left turn, confirmed by the turn coordinator and that same pesky controller now asking you to, "Say heading?" Meanwhile, the engine is screaming, its RPMs past redline. Your priorities are (chose best scenario):
a. Answer ATC, level wings and reduce power, re-establish climb.
b. Level wings and reduce power, reestablish straight and level, climb, answer ATC when able.
c. Declare an emergency, reduce power, pull back on the yoke.
d. Pull back on the yoke, add power, trim, answer ATC.
8. Same scenario found in the previous question, only as you scan the instrument panel you spot a low-vacuum warning and suspect that both the heading and attitude indicators are shot, ka-flooey, busted, t/u, no good. Before you reach for the cell phone to call the manufacturer, you realize that the electric turn coordinator -- although it lacks pitch information -- does give bank angle and will indicate when your wings are level by showing when its wings are level.
a. True
b. False
9. Phew! It's been a long IFR day wrestling with illusions in the clouds, recovering from a steep spiral, and yelling at the kids in the back seat to put away those iPods and enjoy the flight. Now you break out of the clouds from a GPS-A approach and must circle to land on the active runway. The weather is hazy with light rain. You're beneath the ceiling and can see the runway and are cleared to land. Looking through a rain-coated windshield into the haze you can expect the illusion of:
a. Grandeur for having endured all these trials.
b. Lower height from the rain and the illusion of being at a greater distance from the runway due to haze. You'll be tempted to fly a higher approach.
c. Greater height from the rain and the illusion of being at a greater distance from the runway due to haze. You'll be tempted to fly a lower approach.
d. Greater height from the rain and the illusion of being at a closer distance from the runway due to haze. You'll be tempted to fly a faster approach.
10. All of this aeromedical awareness exists for the sole purpose of getting you to the Cayman Islands, so you can scuba dive and lie on the sand beneath an umbrella while drinking fruity rum things with little umbrellas sticking out the top. Taking precautions not to poke your eye out, you make a point of not flying within at least eight hours of consuming any alcohol (FAR 91.17). Likewise after scuba diving, the minimum recommended time between scuba diving on non-decompression-stop dives and flying is (_____) hours, while the minimum time recommended between decompression-stop diving and flying is (_____) hours.:
a. 12, 24
b. 24, 36
c. 36, 48
d. 48, 72