Ace the Technical Pilot Interview
Has anyone else read this?
I bought a copy to bone up on a few things. The problem was it was so full inaccuracies and some down-right twaddle that I found it hard to trust the information on topics I wasn't that convercent with.
Some notable howlers-
* Got the Lift formula wrong (Used + instead of * and added some phantom factor S (Wing span area- a new one on me and redundent. L=CL*1/2RHO *V Squared-Period)
*In answering "Why does an aircrafts weight change during flight", went off on some tangent saying that the aircrafts weight varied as a function of it's speed (Something about "Apparent weight". I kinda see what he's getting at, but Weight = Mass*Gravity)
*In answering "How do you increase range with a headwind" tried to say that range INCREASES with a headwind!!!
*Gave some completely unintelligable response to "Why does a light aircraft descend more steeply than a heavy aircraft". Because the heavier one is descending closer to it's best L/D speed right? Ask a glider pilot about that one!!
* Had no real idea about what "G" was, and then said Negative "G" was "The Opposite" of what he'd just failed to explain!
* When talking about wide chord fans, thought the chord of a fan blade was the measurement of the hub to the tip! (I think they called this a Radius!!)
All in all,a pretty poor attempt. People are shelling out money for this in the hope it will help them in their carreer and should expect a supposedly authoritive text to not be so wildley inaccurate.
I think a chat with an aeronautical engineer and a "Revised edition" are called for!!