Top Law Schools

How on Earth can you infer that the planes are in the air at the same time? The game doesn't explicitly state that a pilot can fly only once in the air show, so how are you supposed to assume they can't? Can't they simply fly one plane, get off, and fly another? Nothing about simultaneous flights is present in the rules.

This game is annoying because you're punished heavily if you don't make that assumption, but if you do the game is a cake-walk, it literally took me 3 minutes after I realized the major "deduction."

Can anyone help explain why it's assumed each pilot/co-pilot gets on only one plane (meaning one plane will be empty)?

The first and second rules define the time frame. The wording "are all aboard planes that are flying in the airshow" narrows the scope to the pilots and copilots flying concurrently. Therefore, none of the pilots or copilots can be on the ground within the framework of the game, nor can they switch planes, since they are in the air.

Ah, that's a little tricky. It seems that almost every single game, even difficult ones have very explicit rules, whereas the main rule of this game is not very obvious. It sure got me, once I realized that the game was unsolvable I knew something didn't go right after I read the rules. The sad part is I already did this game a few weeks ago and didn't have a problem with the rules.