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Smoke on for safety ??

S

Sonex 541

Member
Well flying a fully polished airplane can be near invisible in the sky so I hear , while flying into my local class D airport I was number 2 on final and there was a cirrus on the downwind , he was goin back and forth with the tower trying to locate me , and kept saying he couldn't see me , would it be acceptable to turn the smoke on for a few seconds to make myself visible , I was so tempted to turn it on but wasn't sure if this was the right thing to do while on final , I have had this issue before of not being seen in the traffic pattern , and has anyone else had this issue and turn the smoke on ,
Btw I had my led nav and strobes on the entire time .
Adam S
 
Adam

I would have no hesitation giving a quick burst of mine (primary reason why I fitted it). When I approach an intensive area of activity I switch it to standby ready for such an event.
 
Absolutely! Have done this dozens of times. Kind of fun at home field when Ellington calls me out to other traffic and I can lay out a couple of streams of smoke for them. I've never not been seen.
 
You've heard of TCAS? Well, smoke is VCAS... Visual Collision Avoidance System.

If someone can't see me in the circuit, I would do anything possible to become visible. Right now, that's rolling into knife-edge and out again. When I get smoke, it'll be with smoke.

I wonder if a small circuit to pulse the smoke at regular intervals, making a dotted line, would be useful... Turn it on as you join the circuit, turn off after touchdown. It wouldn't have to use very much smoke oil, just a short pulse every 10 seconds maybe?
 
In the interest of safety....

Snowflake said:
You've heard of TCAS? Well, smoke is VCAS... Visual Collision Avoidance System.
Click to expand...

And this, my friends is precisely why my wife readily approved the expense for Marvin's smoke system. She's so great!!, and appreciates my concern for safe flight :):D
 
Smoke

Don't leave your smoke on at idle on the ground it can cause a fire! Some systems even require a switch on the throttle. If you have it on while on final you could forget it.
I have used my smoke going into Oshkosh after the AV Cup Race, semi mass arrival controller couldn't figure out which flight of three we were, 2 seconds of smoke and he said "thanks".
 
Any chance the plane behind would have any visibility issues if he flew direct in your flight path ? I'm thinking no but wanted to be courteous of others. I think it would dissipate plenty fast
 
Fly the plane...and watch the other guy/gal!

"Smoke on" for a short burst might be okay, but if I'm getting ready to land and there's a pilot that says he/she can't see me, I would first fly the plane, then keep an eye on HIM(or HER). If he/she can't see me, watching him/her would be a higher priority than going for the smoke button.

And what if he/she SAID he/she saw me, but he/she really saw someone else? I usually assume everybody in the pattern is a Mr./Mrs. Magoo, unless I know them, and then sometimes I wonder about some of them! :eek:

[The proofreading committee has reviewed this post and made corrections to assure political correctness! Dougie, I knew you'd like this! :D ]
 
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I have also seen this happen we're the aircraft on downwind could not see or locate the the aircraft on final , and the tower told him to extend his downwind and he would call his base , that way there would be plenty spacing In between so there would be no chance of mishap , I would be more worried out of a non towered airport than the class d that I normally fly out of ,
Adam Simmons
 
erikpmort said:
Any chance the plane behind would have any visibility issues if he flew direct in your flight path ? I'm thinking no but wanted to be courteous of others. I think it would dissipate plenty fast
Click to expand...

At my airport, the plane behind will more often than not be a Cessna or Piper from one of the flying schools... Giving them a path of smoke dots to follow might be instructive. And a little extra oil on a school airplane wouldn't be noticed. :)
 
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