An airplane is flying at an altitude of 3,000 ft. the pilot dives 988 feet and then rapidly climbs 748 feet. the pilot then dives again 885 feet before making another climb of 1,099 feet. how far above or below an altitude of 3,000 feet is the airplane?

Start off with initially calculating those numbers to find out how far above or below the airplane is from the altitude of 3000 feet. 

To clear things up, when an aircraft dives, the altitude of how high it is traveling decreases. When an aircraft climbs, the altitude of the aircraft increases. When it mentions that the aircraft starts to dive, you need to subtract. When it climbs, you need to add. 

As the pilot initially dives the plane 988 feet and rapidly climbs 748 feet, you'd need to form an equation which contributes those numbers. It can be illustrated as
3000 - 988 + 748, which is equal to 2760. 
The pilot then dives again 885 feet before making another climb of 1099 feet. Adding on to the previous answer we received, this can be represented as 2760 - 885 + 1099, which equals to 2974. 

You can conclude that the airplane is now travelling at an altitude of 2974 feet. To find out how far above or below the airplane is from an altitude of 3000 feet, simply subtract those numbers. 

3000 - 2974 = 26

The aircraft is travelling 26 feet below an altitude of 3000 feet.