Smoke in the cockpit

[I.P. Freley]

One of my former students was a longtime mechanic for NWA, and he told me that the outflow valves did in fact get gunked up all the time in the olden days (you know, like the 70's and 80's har har har).

When you wonder how anyone could smoke that much, think of a 200-seat airplane in which, say, a quarter of the passengers smoked. Figure a few flights per day for the airplane, then over several years you BET that enough tar or whatever would build up.

As for a single smoker in a King Air or some such thing, I'd think it would take much longer for there to be a noticeable buildup... But of course I don't know for sure, never having researched the issue.

 

[dmspilot00]

Even without people smoking in the cabin, I've heard the outflow valves get pretty dirty in airplanes that fly a lot. It's not hard to fathom considering used cabin air is constantly being drawn through it. So imagine how fast it would get "gunked up" with cigarette smoke being pulled through it all the time.