10 exam-style questions with answers and explanations, straight from our 1,030-question bank. Tap an answer to check yourself. When you're ready, take the scored version in the free practice test.
The Aerospace Medicine exam has 200 questions and runs 4 hours 30 minutes.
These 10 free Aerospace Medicine questions are organized by exam domain, so you can see how each part of the Certification in Aerospace Medicine blueprint is tested. Reveal the answer and explanation under each question.
On a moonless night, a pilot accelerates rapidly during a go-around over unlit terrain. The attitude display shows the commanded climb pitch, but the pilot feels that the nose is rising excessively. There has been no sustained turn or head movement. Acting on this sensation rather than the instruments would most likely produce which control error?
Correct answer: C - Pushing forward to correct a falsely perceived nose-high attitude
After six months in orbit, a 46-year-old astronaut reports new difficulty reading instruments at a previously comfortable distance. Compared with preflight imaging, examination shows optic-disc edema, posterior globe flattening, and chorioretinal folds. Which additional finding would support spaceflight-associated neuro-ocular syndrome rather than isolated age-related presbyopia?
Correct answer: C - A new hyperopic shift in distance refraction
Thirty minutes into a winter flight in a piston-engine airplane, the pilot and passenger develop headache, nausea, and slowed thinking. The cabin heater has been on since takeoff. After landing, both have room-air pulse-oximeter readings of 99%; the pilot's arterial PaO2 is 96 mmHg. Supplemental oxygen is started. Which test would best establish the suspected cause of their shared symptoms?
Correct answer: B - Blood carboxyhemoglobin measurement by laboratory co-oximetry
A 28-year-old woman with an uncomplicated singleton pregnancy at 24 weeks plans a seven-hour commercial flight. She is fully mobile, has a normal BMI, and has no personal or family history of venous thrombosis, thrombophilia, cardiopulmonary disease, or obstetric complications. The airline permits travel. She asks whether she should take aspirin or cancel the trip. What advice best fits her risk profile?
Correct answer: D - Travel with periodic walking, calf exercises, and graduated compression stockings.
A pilot's standardized office blood pressures on three separate visits are 150/92, 152/94, and 148/92 mmHg. No acute target-organ injury is found. Using the AHA/ACC adult categories and FAA examination limits, which statement correctly distinguishes the clinical classification from the aeromedical threshold?
Correct answer: A - The readings meet stage 2 hypertension criteria but remain within the FAA examination ceiling.
An attended polysomnogram for a 53-year-old aviator records an apnea-hypopnea index of 24 per hour of sleep from obstructive apneas and hypopneas, with no central apneas. His Epworth Sleepiness Scale score is 4/24, and he denies nodding off while flying. He argues that the normal questionnaire score makes the sleep-study finding unimportant. Which interpretation is justified by these two measures?
Correct answer: D - Moderate obstructive sleep apnea is present despite little reported daytime sleepiness.
An intubated patient is ready for air transfer. At the prescribed settings, the ventilator draws 10 L/min from the oxygen cylinders; the patient's minute ventilation is 6 L/min. The cylinders contain 1,500 L of deliverable oxygen. Connection at the referring hospital through handoff will take 90 minutes. Planning must include a further 20-minute delay and leave 300 L unused as an emergency reserve. No other equipment uses this oxygen. Which assessment correctly accounts for consumption and reserve?
Correct answer: A - Adequate: 400 L would remain after transport and the planned delay.
After a general-aviation crash, firefighters have controlled the immediate fire hazard. A survivor with worsening respiratory distress is trapped by a displaced seat frame. Cutting and moving the frame is necessary for extraction, but the NTSB investigator has not arrived. Under 49 CFR 830.10, the rescue team should:
Correct answer: B - Cut the frame for rescue; preserve it and document its original position when feasible.
A proposed spacecraft atmosphere-monitoring system has two carbon dioxide sensors. Either can activate the alarm, and their electronics and power supplies are separate. Both receive cabin air through one sampling tube. The reliability analysis multiplies the sensors' individual failure probabilities to estimate the chance of missing a hazardous CO2 level. What change is needed before this is a credible estimate of missed-alarm risk?
Correct answer: A - Include common-cause failure from obstruction of the shared sampling tube.
Six months after an air-ambulance fleet replaces interchangeable medical-gas connectors with keyed connectors, the medical director reviews misconnection reports, observes equipment setup, and checks whether staff have introduced bypass adapters. The purpose is to determine whether the installed control remains effective in service. Within a safety management system, this activity is primarily:
Correct answer: A - Safety assurance
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