Ace the technical pilot interview.
Seems many people who are preparing for their CX interview have bought ”Ace the technical pilot interview” (myself included). I like the idea of the book and I did find it quite useful when preparing for the first interview.
But, as has been mentioned on the forum before – there seem to be many errors in the book. I was thinking that we could try to list the questions that SEEM to be wrong and have a discussion about them.
I have the e-book version, but I think the pages would be the same in the printed version. Since I don’t know how much interest there is for this post I will just start from the beginning of the book with the first errors I have found, and list more if someone replies.
Some of the answers I have marked down are probably correct in the book, and the error is on my part not having understood it. To be honest, it just seems unlikely that they would publish it if all the answers I found strange/incorrect were in fact not right
Page 4. –What is the formula for lift:
"½R+V²+S+CL"
(+ instead of *) - embarrassing!
Page 13 - How is the pitching moment of the lift-weight couple balanced?
"Lift forward of weight has a nose-up pitching moment, which is counterbalanced by the downward deflection of the horizontal tailplane, which creates a nose-down counterpitch. Therefore, lift aft of weight requires the opposite balance."
Other way around, no?
Page 31 - What causes Dutch roll?
...a marked bank occurs to the point where the outer, upward-moving wing stalls and loses all lift, and therefore the wing drops, causing a yaw to the stalled wing and thus leading to the sequence being repeated in the opposite direction.
Im not sure about this one, but would the upward-moving wing generally stall?
Page 40 - What are the effects of extending flaps in flight?
Lowering the flaps in flight generally will cause a change in the pitching moment. The direction and degree of the change in pitch depend on the relative original position of the center of pressure and the center of gravity.
The factors that contribute to this are
...
3. The flaps will cause an increase in the downwash, and this will reduce the angle of attack of the tailplane, giving a nose-up
moment.
If the tail is considered to produce "negative" lift, wouldnt an increased downwash INCREASE the AOA, giving a nose-up moment?
Page 60 - How does a crosswind affect the critical engine?
A crosswind, depending on its direction, can either help to restore or aggravate the yawing moment of an aircraft with a failed critical engine. For instance, a failed critical number 1 engine will cause a yaw to the left. A crosswind component from the left will apply a restoring force to the aircraft’s fuselage, whereas a crosswind from the right will aggravate the yawing moment further to the left due to the sideways force experienced on the right side of the aircraft’s fuselage (which is from the right to the left). Therefore, a crosswind landing is of even greater importance with a critical engine failure.
Other way around again, no?