Simviation Forums

Heres a few questions I have been pondering:

If airliners are pressurized, then why do my ears pop, and my soda taste funny?

Can you tell how many engines a plane has by its con-trail? 2 trails=2 engines?

Do you need a rating for adjustable pitch props?

Do you need special certification for each GA plane before you can fly it?

I know they are all unrelated, but I didnt want to start a topic for each one. Thanks in advance.

Q: If airliners are pressurized, then why do my ears pop, and my soda taste funny?

A: Because you don't live at 8,000ft ASL (which is the standard for pressurization)

Q: Can you tell how many engines a plane has by its con-trail? 2 trails=2 engines?

A: Generally, but a 747, a340 or any other 4 engine plane will likely only have two contrails as they will be mixed by the wake turbulence.

Q: Do you need a rating for adjustable pitch props?

A: No

Q: Do you need special certification for each GA plane before you can fly it?

A: No

Q: Do you need a rating for adjustable pitch props?

A: No

You sure about that?  That qualifies as a complex airplane, which means you'd need an endorsement-not necissarily a rating I guess...

Isnt the cessna 182 an adjustable pitch prop?, its not that complex of an aircraft  :)  What do I know... not too much...

Thanks for the quick responses, guys. I guess I need to find something else to wonder about now.

When you have more dumb questions we'll be here for you

Only a few airplanes with adjustable pitch props don't require the PIC to have a complex or high preformance sign off. Some Arrows and Cardinals, for example, have adjustable pitch props with no signoffs needed.

[quote]Isnt the cessna 182 an adjustable pitch prop?, its not that complex of an aircraft

Isnt the cessna 182 an adjustable pitch prop?, its not that complex of an aircraft  :)  What do I know... not too much...

lol, no, it's not, but anything with an adjustable pitch prop is, like citation said, considered a high performance plane, also known as complex aircraft.  They require an endorsement ( a singoff, also just like citation said and I said originally)

whats involved in getting a sign-off? taking an FAA guy for a ride to show him that you know how to use it?

Depends on what you are lookin' to get a signoff for. Some you just gotta prove you can do it, others can require a good amount of training.

What about... a DHC-2?  I wanna fly one of those one day  ;D

Well a guy I know was getting sigened off on a Cardinal and asked if I wanted to come along. The instructor just came up and showed him some emergency procedders, and stalls, steep turns, and that kind of stuff.

Ya gettin' signed off for prop aircraft is easy. They show you what you need to know, compare it to something you've flown before, and congradulate you. Woohoo.

Gettin' signed off for the 757 was a bit of a hassle. Doing everything in the sim, over and over, then finally getting a checkout flight in the real thing. A very very nice and desired change.

You need a rating for a complex airplane which has two or all of the three following things: adjustable pitch prop, retractable landing gear, moving flaps.  If an airplane has only one of these things, no extra rating needed, however, if the airplane has two, you do need tthe extra rating.  Most airplanes with an adjustable pitch prop however have flaps and/or landing gear, I don't really know of many that have only an adjustable pitch prop and fixed gear w/ no flaps.

In my experiance (wich is extremely limitted (FS mostly)) almost all airplanes have flaps.