Test Pilot

1. From reader Mark King: Why is the Gadsden flag—the “Don’t Tread on Me” flag—occasionally flown over Southern California’s Santa Paula Airport in lieu of the U.S. flag?
2. What aeronautical chart displays a symbol showing the location of a UFO crash site?
3. From reader John Schmidt: True or false? Prior to the ditching in the middle of an ocean of a four-engine airliner, the U.S. Coast Guard laid down a lengthy swath of firefighting foam on the water to serve as a runway for the distressed airplane.
4. One of the most famous operations in the history of the U.S. Air Force was called Operation Vittles. What was its more popular name?
5. True or false? In terms of lives lost, the world’s worst midair collision occurred in 1960 when a United Air Lines DC–8 bound for Idlewild Airport (now JFK) and a TWA Constellation headed for LaGuardia Airport collided over New York City and took the lives of all 128 aboard the two aircraft plus six on the ground.
6. A pilot enters a loop. After completing slightly more than one-fourth of the maneuver, the pilot applies full forward pressure to the control stick while simultaneously applying maximum and opposite aileron and rudder. The resultant aerobatic maneuver is called a .
7. What was the first airplane to have wing flaps?
8. In what year did a Goodyear blimp first fly over a sporting event?
   A. 1925
   B. 1930
   C. 1935
   D. 1940

Test Pilot Answers

1. Hoisting the Gadsden flag over SZP alerts those on the field that an FAA inspector is on the airport.
2. The state aeronautical chart of New Mexico. The site is 55 nautical miles from the Chisum (CME) Vortac (near Roswell) on the 310-degree radial. It is uncertain if conventional aircraft are permitted to crash there.
3. True. In 1956, Pan American Flight 6, a Boeing Stratocruiser with 24 passengers, had to ditch because of multiple engine failures. The USS Ponchartrain (better known as Ocean Station November) was stationed halfway between California and Hawaii. The lengthy swath of foam on the water provided the pilots alignment guidance and improved their height perception.
4. The Berlin Airlift provided a flow of food (vittles) and supplies to the isolated city of West Berlin for more than a year beginning in 1948.
5. False. Not even close. The worst midair collision claimed the lives of 349 passengers and crewmembers when a Saudi Arabian Airlines Boeing 747 collided with a Kazakhstan Airlines Ilyushin Il-76 over the village of Charkhi Dadri, India in 1996.
6. The lomcevak is a bewildering, seemingly out-of-control maneuver developed by the Czechoslovakian world aerobatic champion Ladislav Bezak. The airplane flies backwards and sideways, tumbles in somersault fashion, and rotates on all three axes with no apparent forward motion.
7. In 1916, the Fairey Aviation Company in England equipped its Fairey Hamble Baby biplane with a “camber changing gear” that resulted in full-span flaperons, flaps that also served as ailerons.
8. The correct answer is A. The aircraft used was Goodyear’s first civilian blimp, the diminutive Pilgrim.