position report no. 196 - AOPA Switzerland

AOPA Switzerland 23 Position Report 196
Nice to know – hard to remember…
This are five more interesting questions for cockpit talks while you wait for your next slot.
Questions indicated by Q - upside down answers indicated by A
Q1 What must a pilot do to qualify for membership in the Caterpillar Club?
A1 He must have saved his life by using a parachute.
Q2 What does a WWII-Pilot mean, when he talks about “a Chinese landing after flying the
iron beam?”
A2 It’s cockpit slang and means, that he was navigating by following
the railroad track and then landed with one wing low.
Q3 Which company built the most powerful piston engine for an aircraft?
A3 It was a Lycoming XR-755 - a 36-cylinder radial engine that
developed 5’000 horsepower and weighed more than 6’000 pounds.
Q4 What was the world’s first certified helicopter and in what year was it?
A4 The “Glass bubble” flies now in it’s 58th year. It was the honourable Bell 47
which was certificated in 1947.
Q5 Some time, AOPA-members go for a hop and are the only person on board. But what
was the largest number of people ever to fly together on one flight? Please select
from the following suggestions: a) 602, b) 855, c) 1084, d) 1087
A5 The answers are c and d (yes Sir, both c and d ar correct). In 1991,
a Boeing 747 operated by EL AL Israel Airlines took off during an evacuation
from Ethiopia with 1084 people on board. There where three births during
the flight, which landed in Tel Aviv with 1087 people on board.