Drone Basic Exam (RPAS) Practice Test 2

All 35 questions in this test

Every question and its answer choices. The correct answers and explanations appear when you take the test above.

1. What does Transport Canada's policy say about cannabis and drone crew duties?

   1. No limit applies, as long as you feel unimpaired when flying
   2. Abstain for at least 28 days before acting as a crew member
   3. Abstain for at least 24 hours, unless it is for medical use
   4. Abstain for at least 12 hours, the same as for alcohol

2. What time system is used in Canadian aviation?

   1. Daylight time from March to November only
   2. Coordinated Universal Time (UTC, or Zulu)
   3. The local time of the nearest airport
   4. Eastern Standard Time across all of Canada

3. How can you avoid 'empty field myopia' when scanning a clear blue sky?

   1. Stare at one point in the sky for a long time
   2. Close one eye and scan with the other one only
   3. Wear polarized sunglasses for the whole flight
   4. Focus first on a distant cloud edge or tree line

4. Which drones are called microdrones under Canada's drone rules?

   1. Drones with an operating weight under 250 g
   2. Drones sold as toys for children under 14
   3. Drones with an operating weight under 500 g
   4. Drones that fit in the palm of one hand

5. What is the maximum individual fine for putting aircraft and people at risk with a drone?

   1. $3,000
   2. $25,000
   3. $1,000
   4. $500

6. Why should a multirotor avoid descending fast and straight down into its own downwash?

   1. It can lose lift in its own disturbed air
   2. The GPS stops working during any vertical descent
   3. Descending straight down always overheats the battery
   4. Fast descents are banned by Part IX in all cases

7. What is the purpose of an aviation safety investigation by the TSB?

   1. To decide what fine the drone pilot should receive
   2. To decide whether the pilot keeps the drone certificate
   3. To decide who must pay for the damage that was caused
   4. To prevent the same kind of occurrence happening again

8. A walker enters the 30 m zone around your drone. What is a correct response?

   1. Ask the walker to leave, then carry on wherever they stand
   2. Reroute, hold over a clear area or land
   3. Climb above 100 ft, which restores the distance automatically
   4. Keep flying, since the walker chose to come closer to you

9. Can you take off and land your drone in a national park?

   1. Yes, from any parking lot inside the park
   2. Yes, but only outside the main summer season
   3. Not without permission from the park superintendent
   4. Yes, if you hold at least a basic pilot certificate

10. Which aeronautical chart shows the busiest airspace around major airports at a 1:250,000 scale?

    1. The VFR Navigation Chart (VNC)
    2. A standard road map of the province
    3. The Designated Airspace Handbook
    4. The VFR Terminal Area chart (VTA)

11. Does looking down at your screen for two seconds to change a camera setting break VLOS?

    1. Yes, any glance away is a loss of VLOS by law
    2. Yes, unless a visual observer has a second screen
    3. No, brief glances for flight tasks are allowed
    4. No, as long as the drone is set to hover mode

12. Which activity in the previous 24 months keeps a basic pilot current?

    1. Completing TC's endorsed self-paced study program
    2. Renewing the drone's registration certificate
    3. Reading the latest edition of the drone safety web page
    4. Logging at least ten hours of flight time in that period

13. A barometric altimeter is set to a pressure higher than the actual setting. What happens?

    1. It stops working until the setting is reset to 29.92
    2. It reads too low, so the aircraft is higher than shown
    3. It reads correctly, because pressure has no effect
    4. It reads too high, so the aircraft is lower than shown

14. A NOTAM is active from 1800Z. In Toronto during daylight saving time, what local time is that?

    1. 1:00 p.m.
    2. 10:00 p.m.
    3. 6:00 p.m.
    4. 2:00 p.m.

15. When working out a drone's operating weight, what is left out?

    1. The handheld controller
    2. Stickers and propeller guards
    3. The camera that came with it
    4. Any lights added for night flight

16. What does a drone's inertial measurement unit (IMU) do?

    1. Records video and stores it on the memory card in flight
    2. Calculates the remaining battery time from the motor speed
    3. Senses motion and attitude with gyros and accelerometers
    4. Measures the distance to the controller using radio signals

17. Frost has formed overnight on your drone's propellers. What must you do before take-off?

    1. Fly, since frost on propellers is too thin to matter
    2. Fly only in hover mode for the first five minutes
    3. Remove it; no frost may stick to critical surfaces
    4. Fly at full power so the frost blows off on its own

18. During your walk-around you find a small chip in a plastic propeller blade. What should you do?

    1. Sand it smooth and fly as normal
    2. Tape over it and limit the flight to 5 minutes
    3. Replace the propeller before flying
    4. Fly gently and replace it next week

19. In aviation, when does night begin in the evening?

    1. At the end of evening civil twilight
    2. Exactly one hour after official sunset
    3. When street lights come on in the area
    4. At the moment of official sunset

20. How does a wing or rotor blade produce lift?

    1. By heating the air beneath it so that the air rises
    2. By storing static electricity across its upper surface
    3. By creating lower pressure above it and pushing air downward
    4. By spinning fast enough to cancel out gravity entirely

21. After how long missing must an owner report a lost drone to Transport Canada?

    1. After 30 days or more
    2. After 60 days or more
    3. After 7 days or more
    4. After 14 days or more

22. A tourist wants to fly the 900 g drone they brought from home. What do they need first?

    1. A Canadian registration number bought online from the Drone Management Portal
    2. Nothing extra, as long as the drone is registered in the tourist's own country
    3. A special flight operations certificate (SFOC—RPAS) from Transport Canada
    4. A temporary permit from the nearest provincial police detachment

23. In dry air, about how much does the temperature drop as you climb 1,000 ft?

    1. About 0.5 °C
    2. It always rises with height
    3. About 10 °C
    4. About 3 °C

24. Which publication gives the official limits of each airspace class in Canada?

    1. The Designated Airspace Handbook (DAH)
    2. The drone's manufacturer flight manual
    3. The Canada Flight Supplement (CFS)
    4. The Canadian Aviation Regulations, Part IX

25. At night you see an aircraft's red light and white light, but no green. Which way is it going?

    1. Crossing from left to right, toward you
    2. Coming straight toward you
    3. Crossing from right to left and moving away
    4. Climbing directly above where you stand

26. In which airspace classes is a transponder always required?

    1. Classes F and G only
    2. Classes A, B and C
    3. Classes D and E only
    4. Classes C, D and E

27. Without an SFOC, how many drones may one pilot fly at once from a single control station in VLOS?

    1. Up to three, with one observer for each
    2. Up to five, if the system is built for it
    3. Only one at a time, in every case
    4. Up to ten, if all of them stay under 400 ft

28. Near a forest fire, which airspace is closed to all aircraft, drones included?

    1. Below 3,000 ft AGL within 5 NM of the fire area
    2. Below 400 ft AGL within 3 NM of the fire area
    3. Only the airspace directly above the flames
    4. Below 1,000 ft AGL within 1 NM of the fire area

29. A marathon has no fences. Where does Transport Canada consider its boundary to be?

    1. 100 ft from the runners and from the course
    2. 30 ft from the runners and from the course
    3. Wherever the race organizer chooses to say
    4. 500 ft from the start and finish lines only

30. During a flight, what must the pilot be able to reach easily?

    1. A printed list of every previous flight with the drone
    2. The receipt showing where and when the drone was bought
    3. The drone's certificate of registration, paper or digital
    4. The manufacturer's warranty card for the drone

31. Light fog is drifting in, but your drone has bright lights. What applies?

    1. Fly, as long as the GPS still shows a strong signal
    2. Don't fly if the fog stops you seeing the drone
    3. Fly, but only below 100 ft above the ground in fog
    4. Fly, because lights make the drone legal in any fog

32. Which drone event will the Transportation Safety Board of Canada investigate?

    1. A pilot climbing 10 m above the 400 ft altitude limit
    2. A microdrone crashing on a deserted beach at dawn
    3. A 2 kg drone lost in a lake with nobody hurt at all
    4. A collision between any drone and a manned aircraft

33. What should you consider when choosing a take-off and landing site?

    1. Only how close it is to where you parked the car
    2. Only whether the ground surface is grass or pavement
    3. Obstacles, interference and keeping the public away
    4. Only whether the site has good cell phone coverage

34. Why must a drone never enter a cloud?

    1. Every cloud layer is controlled airspace by law
    2. The GPS signal cannot pass through any cloud layer
    3. It would leave the pilot's visual line-of-sight
    4. Clouds always contain lightning, hail and ice

35. Before take-off, what distance must the pilot determine?

    1. How far the drone can go without endangering anyone
    2. How far the controller's maximum radio range reaches
    3. How far the drone could glide if all motors stopped
    4. How far the nearest hospital is from the launch site