Final exam

Checkride-ready

See how you measure up to FAA standards with these questions from the AOPA Pilot Information Center.

1. According to FAR Part 91, what briefing must the pilot in command give the passengers before takeoff? 
1. Instructions on closing and opening the cabin door(s).
2. Operation of the emergency exits.
3. How to fasten and unfasten safety belts, and when.
2. With respect to the certification of airmen, which are categories of aircraft?
1. Gyroplane, helicopter, airship, free balloon.
2. Airplane, rotorcraft, glider, lighter-than-air.
3. Single-engine land and sea, multiengine land and sea.
3. When warm, moist, stable air flows upslope, it
1. produces stratus type clouds.
2. develops convective turbulence.
3. causes showers and thunderstorms
4. Operating an engine with a constant speed propeller at 25 inches manifold pressure and 2,200 rpm is termed
1. over square.
2. stoichiometric.
3. power boosted.
5. Which statement relates to Bernoulli’s principle?
1. A body moving at a constant speed in a straight line will keep moving unless acted upon by a force.
2. Force equals mass times acceleration.
3. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
4. Air traveling faster over the upper surface of a wing causes lower pressure on the top surface.

Ace

Can you correctly answer these questions from retired TWA captain and 28,000-hour pilot Barry Schiff?

1. A pilot is making a low pass over a 2-nautical-mile-long runway. He flies from the threshold to the midpoint of the runway at 60 knots. How fast must he fly over the second half of the runway so that the average speed along its entire length is 120 knots?
2. A pilot is cruising at a true airspeed of 200 knots on a track of 360 degrees while crabbing into a strong westerly wind. If he were to reduce airspeed and wanted to maintain the same track, he would need to _______ the crab angle, and this would result in a (an) _______ of the headwind component.
1. decrease, decrease
2. decrease, increase
3. increase, decrease
4. increase, increase
3. True or false: That popular tape used to repair aircraft is Duct Tape, not Duck Tape.
4. Name a popular, civilian, post-World War II production lightplane in which the engine oil filler neck is in the cockpit.
5. For how long may a pitot-tube heater be operated on the ground?

Final exam answers

1. The correct answer is C. The pilot in command has the responsibility to brief and notify. He or she must brief passengers on how to fasten and unfasten safety belts, and then notify when to fasten. While briefing on the proper way to open and close the cabin door and how to operate the emergency exit is also important, it is not required by regulation. FAR 91.107(a)(1) and (2)
2. The correct answer is B. Category is defined as a broad classification of aircraft. Airplane and rotorcraft are categories. Class is defined as a classification of aircraft within a category having similar operating characteristics. Helicopter and single-engine land are classes. FAR 1.1 and 61.5(b)(1)
3. The correct answer is A. The key here is stable air. A stable air mass tends to produce low stratus clouds and fog. It is in unstable air where we can expect convective turbulence, showers, and thunderstorms. Pilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge, Chapter 12
4. The correct answer is A. When the manifold pressure, in inches, is greater than the rpm, in hundreds, the engine is said to be operating over square. 23 inches and 2,300 rpm is an example of a squared power setting. Stoichiometric, in aircraft terminology, refers to the proper ratio of the fuel/air mixture.
5. The correct answer is D. As the velocity of a moving fluid (liquid or gas) increases, the pressure within the fluid decreases. This principle explains what happens to air passing over the curved top of the airplane wing. The other three are Sir Isaac Newton’s basic laws of motion, in order. Pilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge, Chapter 4
6. This is physically impossible. It takes 1 minute to cover the 2 miles at 120 knots, and that minute was used going 1 mile at 60 knots.
7. The correct answer is D. To maintain a given track with a given crosswind, crab angle must be increased as airspeed is reduced. Turning into a crosswind reduces groundspeed.
8. False. According to its developer, Johnson & Johnson, both are correct. It was called Duck Tape when used by the military to keep moisture out of ammunition cases and patch leaky tents. After World War II it also became known as Duct Tape when used to join heating and air ducts.
9. There are others, but the de Havilland DHC–2 Beaver is probably best known. The filler neck in the cockpit allows the pilot to add oil without having to step outside and into harsh Arctic weather.
10. Only long enough to determine that it is operating. Without air cooling, the heater can overheat and fail.