HOME
REGISTER/LOGIN
FREE NEWSLETTER
XML|RSS
Advanced Search
PODCAST
VIDEO

Friday 4th July 2008
Brainteasers
Brainteasers Home »

Nov. 29, 2007

Brainteasers
Interactive Quiz #127:
Ramp Check

Run away! Run away! No, it's not that scary. You can turn the tables on an FAA spot-inspection by having your paperwork in order and answering a few questions.

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. Attention Student and Sport pilots: Be prepared to show certain documents when asked (politely) by a FSDO inspector. As a Student pilot on a solo cross-country flight, you must have (among other things) the following items available (choose the best answer):
a. Aircraft logbooks, student pilot certificate, medical certificate
b. Pilot logbook, student pilot certificate, flight plan (Form FAA-FP-2-4-D)
c. Pilot logbook, student pilot certificate, Airport/Facility Directory (A/FD), plotter, E6B
d. Pilot logbook, student pilot certificate, photo ID
2. Among other things, Sport pilots shall carry what items in order to act as Pilot In Command?
a. Pilot certificate, pilot logbook, photo ID
b. Aircraft logbooks, driver's license, thermos
c. Aircraft logbooks, photo ID, medical certificate Class III (or better)
d. Pilot certificate, Class IV medical certificate, current VFR sectional chart appropriate to the area flown
3. Scenario: You hold at least a Commercial pilot certificate and a current medical certificate. You're current as per FAR §61.57 and have a current flight review per §61.56. If you were a Boy/Girl Scout, your sash would be dripping with ribbons. But you're not a Scout, you're a pilot, and the FAA knows not to trust your kind. You're being ramp-checked. The FSDO inspector knows you're flying a rental aircraft that is also used for hire, and she asks when the airplane's 100-hour inspection was completed. To your sudden horror, you realize that the 100-hour inspection was completed 101 hours ago at the time of the airplane's annual inspection, which was completed 6 months ago. You reply, "I ... I ... I just flew it in here to have the 100-hour inspection done." You point desperately at the nearby maintenance facility. The FAAer suspects a ruse. She squints and while resting her hand on her .45 automatic (OK, that's an exaggeration; 9 mm, maybe), asks, "If that's true, and the new 100-hour inspection is completed today, when will the next 100-hour inspection be due?" Select your best answer given these choices:
a. 100 hours from this inspection
b. 99 hours from this inspection
c. 90 hours from this inspection
d. 101 hours from this inspection
4. Same circle of hell as the previous question. The maintenance shop, Earl's Aeroplane Emporium, has -- as the sign reads -- an FAA-licensed mechanic on duty. In order for Earl, the mechanic, to sign off a mandatory 100-hour inspection for your Cessna 172, Earl must have an A&P certificate with an IA (Inspection Authorization).
a. True
b. False
5. During the 100-hour inspection in the previous two nightmare scenarios, Earl, the mechanic, gives you some bad news: "Gunna havta rebuild the Flangimagator." It's a major alteration. Two days later, the airplane is ready to fly. The mechanic explains that the repairs "may have appreciably changed its flight characteristics." Before the airplane can be flown with passengers, it must be test-flown. The test pilot must hold at least what level of pilot certificate? (This is a Type Certificated airplane, not Experimental.)
a. Student
b. Recreational
c. Private
d. Commercial
6. You escape the maintenance horror in the previous questions and fly home VFR. En route you encounter Class C airspace. You're about to call Approach Control when you notice that the transponder doesn't work. Class C airspace requires two-way communication with ATC and an operating transponder with altitude encoding. The top of this Class C airspace is 5000 feet MSL. You're currently at 4500 feet MSL on a magnetic course of 270 degrees. Weather is clear. You have plenty of fuel. Of the following choices, which would be your best option? (Be subjective if necessary.)
a. Climb to 5500 feet and over fly the Class C without talking to ATC.
b. Climb to 6500 feet and over fly the Class C without talking to ATC.
c. Call ATC and ask to transit without a transponder.
d. Fly through NORDO (no radio) at 4500 feet MSL. (ATC can't see you, after all.)
7. Weather up ahead. Listening to several ATIS, AWOS and ASOS broadcasts, you note that the altimeter settings are dropping. You're currently in an area with an altimeter setting of 30.13 in. Hg. Ahead it drops to 29.84 in. Hg. If you hold your indicated altitude and do not reset your altimeter (Kollsman window) to the lowering altimeter settings, your absolute altitude will:
a. increase in the lower pressure airspace
b. decrease in the lower pressure airspace
c. increase in the higher pressure airspace only if the temperature decreases
d. remain the same
8. Back home again, you flop onto the FBO's couch, bite into a stale Snickers and crack open the FAA's Pilot Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge. You turn to the weather section and, just before nodding off, you notice the acronym ISA. What is ISA? (Cue dream-sequence music here ...)
a. Inversion Saturated Atmosphere
b. Indefinite Strato Altonimbus
c. International Standard Atmosphere
d. International Standard Adiabatic
9. Knowledge is power, according to the guy who sold us our complete set of FARs. Some of that power appears in NOTAMs such as this one:

Ailerona IA [IA66]: December NOTAM #9

Terminal area secondary surveillance radar out of service until December 04th, 2007 at 12:00 PM CDT (0712041700)

If Ailerona Muni normally has Class C airspace with 24/7 radar service, during the radar outage (out of service), the radar approach controllers will not be able to detect:


a. transponders
b. rain
c. primary targets
d. migratory water foul
10. Time for "Find The CG," the aviation quiz game that the whole family can play by taking seats in various locations throughout the aircraft. Your task, as PIC, is to decide if the pilot, passenger, baggage, fuel and oil can be loaded and keep the following fictitious airplane under max gross weight and within CG range. Here are the particulars:
  • This is a two-seat, tandem airplane with a CG range from 30 inches to 34 inches;
  • The datum is the firewall; stations (arms) are inches negative (-) forward or positive (+) aft of datum;
  • Max. gross weight: 1800 pounds;
  • Airplane's empty weight: 1222.3 pounds; empty moment: 32,269 inch-pounds;
  • Pilot weighs 170 pounds at station 67;
  • Passenger weighs 160 pounds at station 35;
  • A 20-pound bag of Red Flannel dog food is in the baggage compartment at station 90;
  • Main tank is full (17 gallons useable) at station 10;
  • Aux tank is full (10 gallons usable) at station 21; and
  • Oil: 8 quarts at station -32.

Once loaded, this airplane will be:


a. Under max. gross weight and within CG limits
b. Over max. gross weight but within CG limits
c. Under max. gross weight but aft of CG limits
d. Over max. gross weight and forward of CG limits
11. Bonus Question Time: OK, Air Cadets, get out your Jimmy Allen Aeroplane Recognition Charts and identify the airplane below as spotted by our roving Brainteaser during the 2007 Pumpkin Bombing Festival. It is a:


a. Whitman Tailwind
b. Staggerwing Beech
c. Hyperbipe
d. Waco Cabin biplane
e. Miller C