Antonio wrote:
I would use them with caution rather than regularly on aircraft since ozone accelerates aging of rubbers and plastics, and increases corrosion in moist environments.
Agree, but I don’t think it will have a significant effect if you let it run for 2 hours. I have been using one doing some renovations, and you get rid of most of the organic smells, but it doesn’t damage anything else, nothing I have noticed, at least.
Funny how I always wanted to start a thread about the same topic. When I started flying I made the same observations. Often when I came home from a flying lesson I changed my t-shirt because for the lack of better words airplane it smelled like airplane. Basically sweaty and funky plus Mogas stink. I guess being tortured through almost 30000 landings will leave some traces of this and that (better not to think too much about it) in an aircrafts upholstery. Never really had fuel smell in the cabin of that plane but storing dipsticks in the seat pockets will definitely not make it smell more pleasant.
The Diesel planes seem to smell everywhere probably because the fuel doesn’t evaporate that well and even a small drop is going to smell for a long time.
Also my flighbag quickly got that Mogas smell from the dipstick. At least that issue I got rid of with an airtight dipstick container.
dutch_flyer wrote:
Scores of 70’s era 172’s and Cherokees (among others) I rented all seemed to have the same smell. I’m also not exactly sure of the source, as I only equate it to the smell of that era airplane.
Yep, and fabric covered tube and rag planes have their own version too.
My plane smells like a 1980s Alfa, Maserati etc inside, on top of 1970s green primer… the reason being that it was reupholstered with 1980s Italian car leather at that time. Now lightly worn but still presentable, part of the planes individual history.
The smell of aircraft is part of the appeal for me, as long as they aren’t Jet fuel or Auto fuel powered. AVGAS smells great, and since nothing I fly has had body fluids distributed within, I like the airplane cabin smell that reminds me of past adventures and experiences. Also the smell of burned 100LL that wafts down that hangar row for a few seconds after somebody starts up and taxies out. Great stuff.
My plane smells of “something” but I am not sure what. It might be ACF50. It doesn’t seem to bother anybody.
During maintenance, one does need to be careful with lubricants in the cockpit. It is fairly normal to use spray lube everywhere (because it is much less work that applying grease in the proper places) and if you use it in the cockpit (on e.g. the yoke tubes) then you get lube everywhere, and it stinks. My mountain bike stinks of various oils, really bad, and the whole garage smells of it.
Silvaire wrote:
Yep, and fabric covered tube and rag planes have their own version too.
Old vintage Cub smell 
I love the smell of aircraft. Especially cockpits. As a child my father, who worked for BEA, would take me into the cockpits of Handley Page Heralds, De Havilland Doves and Herons, Dragon Rapides, Vickers Viscounts, smell the nostalgia??. I always associated the smell of dank leather and body sweat, and mixtures of other weird smells that gave the distinctive odour of a busy cockpit workplace.
As I write this I can still recall that smell. Today as mentioned above coming back form the hanger, after a flight, you have this oily fragrance about you which personally I love.
I owned a Chipmunk and as you slid the cockpit hood back that smell would waft out. The plane was over 60 years old…..
