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What's the dumbest memory aid you've created?

BrianS

BrianS

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Oct 2, 2019
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West Chester, OH
I'm studying for an FAA exam and you know how it is - sometimes things don't stick and you just need SOMETHING to remember it. We all know the "normal" infinite acronyms out there. But am I the only one who creates ridiculous things so I can remember details?

For instance. I just can NOT keep in mind which way the VOT / CDI should read, and the FAA questions are tricky because they know you know it's the 360 radial somehow, but is it 360 TO? FROM? 180?

It's 180 - TO. Also, a 182 is a cool airplane, so that's how I know. (Shrug - ridiculous).

Also, when I learned private material lo those many years ago the literary side of me just couldn't stand that eastbound headings aren't even thousands. It really should be "East is Even" - (East of Eden...).

To this day I puzzle it out like this: "It SHOULD be east is even, but it's not, so east is odd and west is even..."

Just me? It's probably just me...
 
It predates my flying, but when I was a kid I learned port & starboard via: right has more letters than left, starboard has more letters than port, thus right = starboard.
 
BrianS said:
It predates my flying, but when I was a kid I learned port & starboard via: right has more letters than left, starboard has more letters than port, thus right = starboard.
Click to expand...

I learned the same thing. Plus green has more letters than red. :)
 
For headings, I simply remembered that the first one numerically on the indicator (East) was odd, and of course, the second was even.

I imagined that the VOT was located somewhere in the right direction (South) to indicate the way it does. That is, the VOT is always south of me. As it happened, that was actually the case at my homebase.
 

What is the stupidest FAA acronym?

I'm torn between ALNOT (because even when you know what it stands for -- ALert NOTice-- it doesn't tell you what it means) and the new designation of NOTAM, since the FAA has not even bothered to define "Air Mission." What have you got got that rivals those for stupidity?
thepilotsplace.com thepilotsplace.com
 
When I was a kid we had a boat, and I just remembered that port wine is red.

Apparently the Norse language and English are related. When in Norway I saw a Viking boat that had been recreated from a long buried hull. The rudder, instead of being on the back, was on the right side of the boat with a big handle. I imagine it could take some muscle to move, so that side is logical since most people are right handed. The Norse word for rudder is something like "steer-board". Aha! And you wouldn't want to bust the "steer-board" you'd put the dock on the left side when pulling into port -- the other "Aha!".

But the question was what was the stupidest memory aid. . .

When I was in college about when Kennedy was assassinated, I was taking freshman chemistry and needed to memorize the letter names of the atomic orbitals S, P, D, F, G. I and my study friends came up with "Spudfug, and drop the vowels". Which, for absolutely no conceivable reason, I still remember to this day even though I've never needed that information in the interim. How's that for stupid?

Roy
 
Ok, I can't resist.

Once there was a young midshipman -- I'll call him Smith -- on a ship commanded by the legendary naval captain John Paul Jones. Smith worshiped Jones and wanted nothing more than to learn his ways and eventually become like him.

After some time of careful observation, he became aware that each evening just before retiring, Jones would walk over to a dimly lit spot at the edge of the ship, pull a little book from his tunic, and open it. Then, Smith could see, Jones would quietly read and repeat something. Although he could see Jones' lips move and barely hear some sound, he couldn't quite make out what Jones was reciting.

Night after night, Smith secreted himself to watch this ritual but was never able to get close enough to learn what Jones was saying. And it frustrated him no end because he was sure that it must be the source of some great inspiration and knowledge held by the great man, and an important key to his skill and success.

This went on for a very long time. But one day, suddenly, the great John Paul Jones died. The ship's crew filed one by one through Jones' cabin to pay respect. And neatly laid out on his bunk were his personal possessions. Which, Smith immediately saw, included the little book! As he filed by, he managed to surreptitiously snatch the book and conceal it in his tunic without anyone noticing.

Shaking with excitement, he could barely contain himself as he impatiently waited for the rest of the crew to retire. It seemed to take forever, but when they finally did, he made his way to a quiet spot at the edge of the ship and, hand trembling, extracted the book. Now, at long last, he would finally learn the great secret that the great John Paul Jones had been reading. He opened the book, and read:
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"Starboard - right. Port - left"


With apologies,
Roy
 
So...

I was studying for the instrument test and there was a question that I never got right on the practice tests I took.

It was something about using some WWII era nav equipment in an odd way.

Because I could not relate the question to anything I would use for equipment I could not figure out or remember the correct answer.

Then it came to me!

The correct multiple choice answer for this question had the most words.

It was on the real test and I got it right.
 
Not all, but MOST of the "if this happens how does it affect the altimeter" questions can be answered by the least optimal option. Oh, one answer is "the altimeter shows you higher than you actually are"? - that's probably it.
 
When I was 11 or 12 and at Girl Scout camp, one of the songs they had us sing was called “Barges.” One line was “starboard shines green and port is glowing red, you can see those barges dead ahead.”

EVERY SINGLE TIME the words port and starboard comes up in the same sentence, or I preflight a plane and look at the nav lights, I hear those lyrics
 
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