January 2022 Quiz: Not What You Planned

Flight planning is usually routine—plan the flight and fly the plan—but occasionally it ends up being quite a bit different than expected. Are you ready for those surprises?

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Working remotely has its perks. The commute is great, the view is pretty good, and the dining options are usually decent as well. But, being cooped up in the same place day after day can lead to stir craziness. So when the opportunity arose to take a work trip from your home in Boston to Montreal for a day of meetings, you jumped at the chance. Making the trip in your Turbo Cessna 206 seemed pretty attractive.

Departure and en-route weather had snow showers, but clear skies for your Montreal arrival. The cold weather blanketing the region made your Stationair climb well and you quickly broke out of the top before leveling off at 9000 feet. As the heater kept up with the extremely low outside air temperature, you settle back in your seat and soak in the view of a sea of white stretching beneath you.

Your serenity is short lived. Scanning the panel, your oil pressure seems a little lower than where it always settles. The oil temperature also seems a touch higher, but that might be your brain playing tricks on you. A short while later you get a sinking feeling in your stomach when you confirm that the pressure is slowly decreasing as the temperature slowly increases.

You’re east of Burlington, Vermont, so you notify Boston Center of possible engine issues and ask to divert to Burlington. They declare an emergency for you and hand you off to Burlington Approach, who clears you direct ALOKY for the RNAV (GPS) Z RWY 33 approach, and reads the ATIS: “Winds 030 at 15 gusting to 20. Sky overcast at 300. Visibility 1 SM, snow. Temperature -15 C; dew point -18 C. Altimeter 29.65. Arriving Runway 33 condition codes 5/4/4 at 1914Z.” That’s when you know things have gone from bad to worse. Do you think you’ll be able to keep a clear head and pull this all together?  Fair warning: You might need external resources for this quiz (hint, hint).

 

 

January 2022 Quiz

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7 COMMENTS

  1. Thank goodness others asked the same question I had about 9000 vs 6000! I thought I’d had too much eggnog this holiday season…

  2. I think we’re supposed to be reading data from the panel image, but it’s too fuzzy for me to.ready anything other than the altitude of 6000 which is ok in some of the TAA.

    • This one is flawed both technically and in the narrative to the point of being nearly useless.
      Questions I answered correctly were marked with a red x but bolded indicated it was correct and confirmed by the answer narrative.
      The altitude defect set a really bad tone in the first question.
      There is no such thing as ‘Snowflake Temperature’ in the FAA lexicon. I thought they were being cheeky. There are Cold Temperature Restricted Airports as designated by a Snowflake ‘Icon’ on Gov plates and comments in the Jeppesen plates.

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