Graham wrote:
Having worked it out and got 136 degrees, you discover that two of the multiple choice answers are 135 and 137 degrees
I guess that does apply to all other aspects of life? those PPL exams are character builders 
What I’d like to know is how the above type of question builds anything
Someone kindly pointed out to me that the LCC projection is actually quite good for broad lateral coverage (longitude) so the question could have been settled with a plot on a paper chart, but clearly it would not have given the expected result.
TobiBS wrote:
Just my 2 cents, but I think just saying pilot’s can only solve so and so many percent of the questions after some years in service doesn’t proof the theory is garbage. Because that is probably the same for an engineer, a lawyer and a medical doctor.
So the question could more be: What is the aim of the theoretical exam? Is it only about applicable knowledge, or is it also about general capabilities a pilot should have? And if it’s about that, does he have to have the exact knowledge for the job or is it more about the techniques learned and applied? Then lastly I agree that you should be able to use basic principles behind the automation, before you use that to make your live easier, otherwise you are unable to understand error modes.
This is a good point. The state exams for medical doctors in Germany are also multiple choice questions (though with 5 possible answers instead of 4, and a 60% pass grade instead of 75% as in the PPL). The exam questions are also mostly irrelevant garbage, because they do not test the skills and knowledge that every physician needs, instead focusing on special or odd cases that even specialists often get wrong.
Still, the quota of failed exams is very low because med students are absolute gods at hammering MC questions over and over after 5 years of doing so throughout the course.
All this tells us really is that MC questions are not very good at measuring the skills or knowledge needed to perform complex tasks. The main reason they are used anyways is because they are easy to create and reduce the workload for examiners. They are also easier to get legally waterproof.
Oh yes, speaking of edge cases, calculate Standard Time of sunrise time at Mu’a, Tonga (UTC+13) or QFF for airports below sea level. Lots of fun.
Im afraid I dont even know what QFF is…
Edit: After a bit of a google I believe that if I sit in my aeroplane at an airfield, its the number in the pressure window of an altimeter if I set the hands to indicate the airfield elevation (which I had mistakenly thought was the QNH?)…anyone?
Regards, SD..
Peter wrote:
the question could have been settled with a plot on a paper chart, but clearly it would not have given the expected result.
The question requires no plotting and is answerable by mental arithmetic or simple calculator operations guided by no more than a rough sketch. The question tests knowledge of the convergence factor equaling the rate of change of geodesic azimuth with longitude and the conversion angle as the difference in geodesic and loxodrome azimuths. Useless knowledge other than when plotting radio bearings on a Mercator (*) far from the line of tangency.
loco wrote:
… calculate Standard Time of sunrise time at Mu’a, Tonga …
That’s not as bad as passengers demanding to know the direction and time of sunrise on polar routes.
The question tests knowledge of the convergence factor equaling the rate of change of geodesic azimuth with longitude and the conversion angle as the difference in geodesic and loxodrome azimuths
Aaaah yes of course!
I feel ashamed
skydriller wrote:
Im afraid I dont even know what QFF is…
It’s the pressure at the airfield (QFE) reduced to sea level using current temperature conditions, as opposed to QNH which is same but reduced using ISA conditions. It’s used by meteorologists rather than pilots.
QNH is pressure setting for reference to mean sea level when assuming standard temperature.
QFF is reference to mean sea level when actually compensating correctly for temperature.
Qalupalik wrote:
That’s not as bad as passengers demanding to know the direction and time of sunrise on polar routes.
A regular passenger should know exactly when they serve breakfast or dinner
But which sunrise, the first one or the second one?
Qantas had a slow seaplane commuter to Sri Lanka but they did not need much of earth curvature or passing via north pole for their passengers to get two sunrises on a single trip, then awarded “Secret Order of the Double Sunrise” certificate
https://www.qantas.com/gb/en/about-us/our-company/our-history.html
GA_Pete wrote:
compensating correctly for temperature.
Yes flying on QFF ensures that your altimetre reads zero when you hit water, that is not the case if you set QNH from an airfield at 10’000 and sail to water unless temperature is standard at sea but we are probably talking about less than +100ft mismatch in this scenario…
