Thanks Tony for the Smoke System Ideas

Almost 4 months has passed since that first flight! The bird now has 38 flight hours in the book and all has gone very well. The only thing to fix was a heavy right wing; squeezed the left aileron and all is well A trim wedge was added to the rudder mid way up as she needed right rudder at cruise and thats it.

The initial 25 hours was flown of by the first week of March and passengers could now be carried with the new SCofA. At the same time, a flight permit was requested for the one off aerobatic demonstartion to remove the ‘aerobatics prohibited’ restriction.

While waiting for all the paperwork, I decided to build up a smoke system that would fit in the forward baggage compartment and be removable in less than 3 minutes. total cost was around $210 and boy does it work well ! I am pumping aprx. 0.8 USG per minute using a spray injector into # 1 and 3 exhaust. Remember that I have an unchambered muffler so the injectors are about 8″ from the exhaust manifold.

Maybe too much smoke and a needle valve is needed but she sure smokes good! Oil used is Noco BL050HT http://www.noco.com/NOCO-MSDS/Prime_BL_Series.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=bQVcFifwLtg

That is incredible! Nicely done. Would you mind posting some pictures of your system and install and maybe a parts list. Love the idea of being quickly removable.

Thanks!

I echo everything 999 said - nice system and some info of your design would be great! I have not been interested in a permanent smoke system but a setup that is easily installed/removed is very attractive!

Smoke system

Sounds like a great system. Like the others said, please share a description, parts list and maybe a picture or two.

Are you getting much oil on the belly or do you notice any dripping from the aft fuselage after running the smoke oil system?

No oil on the belly. The oil that I bummed from Andrew for testing has a low flashpoint and appears to all burn off. Remember that I have a muffler and my injectors are ahead of it so it is being injected in a high temp area of the exhaust.

Next time that I pull the cowls, I will take some pictures. I basically followed Tony Spicers notes, using the 6 gallon tank, the sureflow oil change pump, checkvalves on the two lines going to the injectors, and the spray type injectors made by a fellow in Ohio. Check out this page for more information;

http://www.berkut13.com/berkut64.htm

The pump and associated relay (smoke button is on the infinity stick grip with an enable switch on the panel) is mounted to the tank. Two lines, number 4 and 6 go to bulkhead fittings in the upper firewall area of the baggage compartment. There is a quick disconnect for the wiring. Four tank restraints were made from angle and .063 aluminum taht hold the tank on all four sides. Nutplates were installed in the baggage floor for removal.

To remove the tank, the two lines are undone and capped, the end tank restraint is unscrewed, wiring unplugged and the tank is removed. You then have your full forward baggage compartment available.

My iteration looks very similar to what one can find at Smoking Airplanes...look for one mounted in the baggage compartment of an 8.

It was a fun project

I'd love to take a close look at your system sometime Ken. I've pondered putting a smoke system in my aircraft, but I've always been put off by having a bunch of dead weight to carry around on the flights where I don't plan to use smoke. How much extra weight do you think your system adds when the quickly removable portion of the system is removed?

I like carrying a couple gallons of smoke (probably a 15 lb weight penalty) around if for not other reason than to help people spot me, when they're looking for me.

A few seconds of smoke, esp when there's some blue sky, draws an incredible arrow right at your airplane, and helps with the joinups.

With the right smoke oil, you won't get any gorp on the belly. I wrote an article for the IAC magazine about this, a few years ago. It's probably online on the EAA/IAC website somewhere. Most people run the wrong smoke oil, which is dark and thin, and gorps the belly.

This is what you want:

http://www.pittspecials.com/images/gat_s1.jpg

You can put the NASCAR guys to shame

"How much extra weight do you think your system adds when the quickly removable portion of the system is removed? "

Once the tank with the attached hardware is removed, the only things that remain are:
2 bulkhead fittings
1 in 2 out manifold block
2 check valves
2 injectors
2 36 " -4 hose to the injectors
20 " -4 aluminum tube for the vent line

I;m guessing, but i will say 2.5 lbs max, probably less.