Trivia Testers : Carrying the Torch

~ Jeff Pardo

Carrying the Torch
If an IFR aircraft which precedes you into the same airspace ceases to communicate with ATC for whatever reason, how long will ATC block that airspace from other IFR (or special VFR) traffic-or you?

  1. They don’t.
  2. 15 minutes
  3. 30 minutes
  4. 45 minutes

RHIP
The amount of time that an airline pilot has logged in his logbook library can be misleading because

  1. If a pilot is a captain, he (or she) is allowed to log all time spent on the flight deck as “Pilot In Command” or PIC time, even while the copilot is actually flying the aircraft.
  2. The above is true, but the rules are even more generous. The captain does not even have to be on the flight deck. (This is also true in principle for flight instructors in general aviation aircraft, but rather difficult in practice.)
  3. Choice (B) is actually true, however, this is allowed only for each leg of the flight for which the captain actually performs the landing.
  4. Amazingly enough, not only does the captain not have to land the aircraft to log flight time, and not only is it allowed to be PIC time, but it is also allowed even when he or she is not present on the flight deck. Most incredible of all, a captain doesn’t even have to be awake, or on duty. He can be snoring away in a bunk (say, while another relief crew is flying), and it still counts as PIC time.

Collector’s Item
The first US postage stamp featuring an aircraft was issued in

  1. 1917
  2. 1912
  3. 1908
  4. 1889

The Answers…

Carrying the Torch
Answer: choice C: ATC will block the airspace for 30 minutes before allowing in another IFR or SVFR aircraft inside it (FAA 7110.65 10-3-1 and 10-4-1). In the meantime however, phone calls will be made to the FBO, the airport manager, local law enforcement, or anyone else who can go and look for the aircraft.

RHIP
Answer: Choice (A) is true. So is choice (B). In fact, although it’s rather unlikely that a general aviation airplane has another internal space that would be very far from the flight deck, according to Title 14 CFR, Part 61.51(e)(3), an authorized CFI can log as PIC time all of the time during which he or she is acting as the authorized instructor (which is usually from an adjacent seat). Choice (C) is fiction. That leaves…choice (D). According to FAR 61.51(e)(1), although a recreational, private, or commercial pilot may log pilot-in-command time only for that flight time during which that person-

(i) is the sole manipulator of the controls of an aircraft for which the pilot is rated.
(ii) is the sole occupant of the aircraft, or
(iii) except for a recreational pilot, is acting as pilot in command of an aircraft on which more than one pilot is required under the type certification of the aircraft or the regulations under which the flight is conducted…

That’s not so for an airline transport pilot (which is what an airliner’s captain would probably be). FAR 61.51(e)(2) says that an airline transport pilot may log as pilot-in-command time all of the flight time while acting as PIC of an operation requiring an airline transport pilot certificate.

Collector’s Item
Answer: The answer is choice B. It was a 20-cent parcel post stamp, and it was issued on December 16, 1912. It was actually the first stamp in the world to depict an airplane (and its arrival was some six years before the first airmail stamp).

Published by Jeff Pardo