Peter wrote:
It has to be an old, old rule because who follows line features?
I once met a V formation of black helicopters flying the opposite way down the centre of the Menai straits. We all broke to the right… My passengers were very impressed!
This is a great example of this topic
Q1 has zero applicability to aviation. It is done to sort men from sheep, and to trap those 50% who got the 30ft/millibar adjustment in the wrong direction.
@Peter can you explain why you think these 2 questions have zero to do with aviation or am I missing something. Altimeter is set to airport elevation 300ft.
Is the 2nd question the trick question. My answer is that you don’t have to do anything IAS and TAS are the same “Zero” as the aircraft is obviously parked.
The 1st one is irrelevant because in all phases of flying one either sets an assigned QNH, or sets 1013. One doesn’t do arithmetic on the altitude (the 30ft/millibar, or 27ft if doing the IR exams) and work things out backwards.
Peter wrote:
The 1st one is irrelevant because in all phases of flying one either sets an assigned QNH, or sets 1013. One doesn’t do arithmetic on the altitude (the 30ft/millibar, or 27ft if doing the IR exams) and work things out backwards.
Why should you need arithmetic to answer the question? Blackbushe is at 325 ft elevation, which the altimeter indicates (within allowable tolerances) so it is set to QNH, which is the answer to the question. As Blackbushe is in the UK I guess the expected “wrong” answer would be QFE.
You see, I dont know where that aeroplane is, so I would say the answer to both is “nothing”… 
Peter wrote:
This is a great example of this topic
I have a hard time understanding the questions. “What is set on the altimeter?” I wouldn’t set anything on the altimeter 
My wife is working with teaching teachers how to teach math One of the things she is working with is “national tests” in schools. The intention is to get a view of the level of education in schools. With math, lots of the questions are (traditionally) “practical” in nature. For instance (just an example, but you get the idea). You shall saw a hole for a new window in your wall. The window is 1 by 1 m. Your saw will saw 10 cm for each stroke. How many strokes are needed to cut out the hole for the window?
This is a typical question that girls on average will get “right” much more so than boys. Hence, the conclusion is that girls are on average better in math than boys. The real reason girls are doing better on such “practical” questions is that boys, on average, have more real world experience on such and similar practical matter. For more boys than girls, they will think in practical ways on how to actually make that hole. The hole would have to be considerably larger than 1 by 1 meter, and so on. And what kind of saw will saw 10 cm for each stroke? And why does the number of strokes matter? It will confuse them. Another reason is that girls and boys on average attacks problems differently. Girls tends to attack problems systematically and “accurately” while boys tends to attack problems from “the top”, and less “accurate”. The end result is that such made up “practical” problems are only suitable for one kind of logic. That logic can only work if you disregard all practicalities and instead find the only systematic approach. Hence girls are better in “math”
There is no such thing as a stupid question. Well, there certainly is. When it comes to tests, stupid questions are made by stupid people. Well, perhaps not stupid, but certainly seriously under educated and lack of basic knowledge of what the job is.
Now I am really confused. I don’t get how saws, windows, the difference between boys and girls have anything to do with this.
I didn’t know it was Blackbushe but I do know that if you turn an altimeter until it equals the elevation on the airfield, available from the VAC the little window shows the QNH. Round here this is what we do every flight because many airfields have no AFIS, ATIS, or ATC to give us the QNH. There’s no reason to multiply the difference between 1013 and xxxx QNH by 30 or 27.
Looks like a classic “theory question” to me. Of course gallois is 100% right, you set the altimeter to the field elevation and you’re done. But you’re supposed to “know” a bunch of useless stuff that only people who make up test questions care about, My favourite – no longer on the FAA questions but I bet the CAA still has them – is all the nonsense about ADF navigation. You know, you’re 12.3 miles from the NDB and your heading is 163 and the NDB is at 173, what heading do you need to fly if your destination is 2086 miles away on a heading of 273? Like you’re ever going to do that kind of mental math while trying to fly a plane, no matter whether you’re a girl or a boy or how good you are at useless mental math.
Is there anyone on earth who does not know their airfield elevation and their runway heading?
once this obvious stuff is out of the way, the rest of mental altimetry maths is pretty much useless
PS: fights where one does not need to know their airfield elevation usually don’t require even looking at altimeter: the cub I fly has one but it does not even have a Kollsman window
