Pilots

The everyday math

Pilots work with numbers before and during a flight. For airline pilots, O*NET rates "Check passenger and cargo distributions and fuel amounts to ensure that weight and balance specifications are met" at 90 out of 100 for importance, and monitoring engine operation and fuel consumption at 93.¹ For commercial pilots, it rates considering airport altitudes, outside temperatures, plane weights and winds "to calculate the speed needed to become airborne" at 98.² The UK National Careers Service lists "knowledge of maths" among an airline pilot's skills, with tasks such as creating a flight plan.³

The FAA's Instrument Procedures Handbook gives rules of thumb: "To determine ROD for a three-degree path, simply multiply your groundspeed by 5. If you are going 120 knots, your ROD to fly the desired path would be 600 fpm (120 × 5 = 600)." It also says "The calculations should be made before the flight and rules of thumb updates should be applied in flight."⁴ The US Air Force's officer qualifying test, the AFOQT, includes Arithmetic Reasoning (25 items in 29 minutes) and Math Knowledge. Calculator rule: the AFOQT pamphlet gives no calculator rule, and it is an older scanned document, so check the current rules with your recruiter.⁵

The skills behind it, built around science

A rule of thumb is a times table in disguise: groundspeed times 5, height divided by 300. The classic workouts practise those facts, and The Brain Cruncher practises keeping a number in your head while the next step arrives. The first three sums above follow the FAA's own worked example.⁴

• The Brain Cruncher
• Classic workouts

Honest limits