Well, Heston, the answer is....
C! LOL.
So I'll certainly keep this thread in mind when I do the exam
Yes, I tried bumping the decimal place and doing the sums again, but still can't get the peg to fit, as you say. But never mind, I deffo
have learnt something (in the plural) useful from posting my question, so thanks to you all
If I look a bit amateur, and I know I do, what you have to remember is that I'm hitting this as overly-enthusiastic self-study student with extremely basic maths and physics, so it's a very steep learning curve for me (I have a degree in French and German, so my brain is not naturally wired to calculate propeller efficiency, but I like a challenge
)
What you need to understand are trends, not how to perform design calculations. For example what does the drag versus speed curve look like, about what percentage extra power do you need to increase cruise speed by 5%, how does point-to-point fuel consumption generally vary with speed, why does extra power help climb much more than it increases speed... that sort of stuff.
Totally agree with you, Silvaire1, and I have to say the examiners must have had their knuckles rapped as there's been more focus in recent years on general principles, with fewer brain-teasers like this one, which I dug out of a 1989 paper. But I'd like to be able to have a go at batting whatever might come my way...
There are five papers all in all. If you're interested, and have nothing better to do (I hope you have
), you can take a peek at the 2011 quezzies here:
Aerodynamics and Flight Mechanics
Aircraft Knowledge
Meteorology
Navigation-Safety-Regulations
History of Aviation
Yawn
