Trivia Question of the Day

[John Hill]

Do I still have a turn to take?

Aviation related, what country has an ICAO location indicator which is the same as the four letter name of the country?

[ian16th]

Fiji?
Togo?
Chad?
Peru?

[John Hill]

Those are four letter country names but their ICAO designators are something different.

[John Hill]

I am going to withdraw this question as it may be seen as somewhat confusing.

As far as I know the island of NIUE is the only location in the ICAO listings where the name of the location is the same as the ICAO location indicator.

Open house

OH

[llondel]

How long is one rod, pole or perch, either in metric or some other suitably arcane imperial measurement?

[k3k3]

Is it 6 feet? I seem to remember reading it on the back of a school exercise book in the MacMillan years.

[emjay]

A quarter of a chain. Arcane enough for you?

[ian16th]

A quarter of a cricket pitch!

[ian16th]

Too slow on the keyboard.

[Capetonian]

John's question was quite clear but you would need to have known the following to answer it.

An ICAO 4 alpha location designator refers to an airfield, and all airfields have one regardless of whether they are commercial or not.
Only commercial airfields have an IATA 3 letter designator.
For example Cape Town = ICAO FACT, IATA CPT
Whereas Fisantekraal = ICAO FAFK, IATA none as it was never a commercial airfield.
The IATA designators are often vaguely mnemonic, for example JNB, AKL, LPL, MAN, HEL
Cities also have IATA codes, for example LON or NYC, but obviously they do not denote a specific airport.
ICAO designators have a more scientific construct, where the first letter designates a continent or part thereof, and the 3rd and 4th the airfield.

Therefore as John said : NIUE = NIUE This would only only work for a territory with a single airport.

Since we're playing with codes, here's the next challenge.
Using ISO country codes, e.g
CH=Switzerland
DE=Germany
PL=Poland .....

and IATA two letter airlines codes, e.g
AF = Air France
QF = Qantas

How many ISO country codes match the two letter code of the national (or major) airline of that country?
I'm looking for specific answers, not just a number.
My bedtime now, somewhat past in fact.

I know someone here who will get at least one PDQ!

[emjay]

I yield to ian16th's sharper wit..... You have the ball sir!

[ian16th]

I yield to ian16th's sharper wit..... You have the ball sir!

Decimal units of linear measure, 10 cricket pitches to a Furlong.

Nothing to hand. OH.

[John Hill]

Therefore as John said : NIUE = NIUE This would only only work for a territory with a single airport.

Not exactly true, a second airport at Niue could be assigned any location indicator with the first two letters being NI.

I find the ICAO message routing scheme used on the AFTN to be quite elegant.

[llondel]

Yes, 40 poles to the furlong, 4 to the chain, or 5.5 yards (5.03m) for a more familiar measurement.

It may disappear soon, or be moved elsewhere, but http://www.gwydir.demon.co.uk/jo/units/ is a fascinating trip through weird and wonderful measurements, ideal for trivia questions.

[Ex-Ascot]

Cape:

Only commercial airfields have an IATA 3 letter designator.

Sorry Cape but you have obviously not been involved in ticketing or scheduling to some of these airfields. Perhaps you mean flying club type strips do not.

RAF Brize Norton -BZZ - EGVN
RAF Benson - BEX - EGUB
RAF Northolt - NHT - EGWU
RAF Valley - VLY - EGOV
RAF Lossimouth - LMO - EGQS

Etc........

[Ex-Ascot]

OH. OK, sticking to local knowledge: Which animal never sleeps?

[Capetonian]

Ex-A you are 100% correct. In fact it's not just military airfields that have IATA Codes, they also reference railway stations and locations without airports (for hotel and car rental purpose), heliports, as well as bus and coach stations (whatever those are!)

'Flying club strips' is a better description of those that only have an ICAO code.

Over!

[Rwy in Sight]

Ex-A not far from your northern summer abode there is the island of Santorini (JTR) and much further south CHQ which like SKG or GPA which are dual use airfields (HAF and airlines) most were build by HAF and airlines were allowed due to use them. SKG is a bit of different story where one rwy belongs to the GCAA (not sure which one) and the other to the HAF - literally each one build one rwy. Answer typed before Capes input.

When you mentioned strip I thought something else!

Is elephant the answer to your question?

[Ex-Ascot]

RiS not ellies. They kind of nod off standing but also sleep properly lying on their sides some times using a termite mound as a pillow and they snore like heck. Mind you with a hooter like that what do you expect. They do not sleep for long though as they have to eat for 80% of the day.

[Undried Plum]

Is elephant the answer to your question?

Elephants do sleep. In fact they can sleep standing up. They have a way of locking the joints of their legs so that they don't fall down. Horses can do something similar.

It used to be said that sharks don't sleep, but then an ROV videoed some sharks who were very clearly asleep.

Some birds can sleep half of their brain at a time.

Dunno the answer. Will be keen to learn it.