There was light rain today, with a 1500 foot ceiling, so we didn't go up. Instead, Adam grilled me on the forces of flight, the varieties of stability, and their effects upon an airplane.  It was essentially a review of the text and groundschool, but I found it useful both to know that I had most of the stuff cold and because of the educational experience.  (More about that later.)  After he was satisfied that I really did understand that stuff aod some other things, he checked off several pages of items in the Jeppeson Syllabus, which this school uses to log the progress of each student.  (Or he does, anyway.)

Then we started in on a discussion of airspaces.  This is pretty complicated, so I'll try to summarize it here and find out what I don't know.

The FAA divides the sky into six classes of airspace, viz.,
 

(Fixed some bad errors on 97.12.13, but still trying to get this damn stuff straight...)
 
 

Airpsace Class	Description	Marking on Charts	VFR Requirements	Basic VFR Weather Minimums  (FAR 91.155)
A	flight level 18   and Above		NO VFR in Class A Airspace   (18,000 ft + AGL)	N/A
B	Busy   airports	Blue   circle	("Four C's") 2-way radio Communications  Clearance--prior permission from ATC Certification--private pilot or student pilot with logbook endorsement  mode C transponder  Extends out to 30 miles	3 statute miles visibility [Remain] Clear of clouds
C	Congested   airports	magenta circle	("Three C's") 2-way radio Communications  Certification--prior permission from ATC mode C transponder  Extends out to 5 miles ???	3 statute miles visibility  1,000 ft above clouds  500 ft below clouds  2,000 ft horizontal from clouds
D	Airspace surrounding an airport with an operating control tower not associated with class B or class C   Normal airspace--   up to 2,500 ft AGL& within 4.4 nm from geograhic center of airport  Actual dimensions are based on instrument procedures Airspace at an airport with part time control tower is classified as class D only when tower is operating.; otherwise it is class E.  (If no weather observer, it is class G.)	Dashed   blue   circle		3 statute miles visibility 1,000 ft above clouds 500 ft below clouds 2,000 horizontal from clouds
E	Remaining controlled airspace	dashed  magenta   line	ATC commo with IFR traffic,   enroute to airport  Extended controlled airspace usually begins at 1,200 ft (blue) AGL Non-tower airports with approved instrument approach, controlled airspace begins at 700 ft (magenta) When class E begins at surface a weather observer gives weather advisories.  When there is no obvserver the airspace is class G. Federal airways are designated as class E airspace, are 8 nm wide; begin at 1,200 ft to but not including 18,000 ft.	Less than 10,000 ft. MSL  3 statute miles visibility 1,000 ft. above clouds 500 ft. below clouds 2,000 ft. horizontal from clouds At or above 10,000 ft. MSL  5 statute miles visibility 1,000 ft above clouds 1,000 ft below clouds 1 statute mile horizontal from clouds
G	Uncontrolled airspace NO ATC responsibility			Surface to 1,200 ft. (regardless of MSL altitude)   Day  1 statute mile visibility 1,000 ft. above clouds 500 ft. below clouds 2,000 ft. horizontal from clouds Night:   3 statute miles visibility  1,000 ft. above clouds  500 ft. below coulds  2,000 ft. horizontal from clouds  More than 1,200 ft AGL and at or above 10,000 ft. MSL  5 statute miles visibility  1,000 ft above clouds  1,000 ft below clouds  1 statute mile horizontal from clouds

 

Why is there no Class F Airspace?
 

Being grilled turned out to be interesting in itself because it had been many MANY years since I was last in the position of having to supply not only the concept but the exact terminology as well.  Picking out such an answer on a multiple choice test usually isn't very hard if you know anything at all about the subject, but saying the right answer is something else again.
 
How is this related to the kinds of courses I ususally teach? Right now, I don't really know. Writing courses have essentially no content of their own, so this kind of question and answer routine seems pretty much irrelevant.  (You could grill a student on punctuation rules, say, but they have almost nothing to do with writing in the sense of composition or creative writing.  In a lit course the question and answer routine seems to make a little more sense, and in fact I used to ask my lit students questions that had specific answers--until I realized that questions with specific answers aren't very interesting, don't require my intervention or monitoring, and are essentially irrelevant to a student's learning or understanding of a work of literature.  (The answers are useful only as tools, not as ends in themselves.)
 

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