From here
Great post, thanks for the work putting this together!
Whenever I see an outflow valve, I recall seeing the slightly bigger one of a Caravelle being restored to full functionality. That plane had been used by smokers a lot and the outflow valve was shortly before failing when it got taken out and eventually repaired. The view of its condition, with all the tar and other dirt from the smokers on board pretty much stopped the work on the whole maintenance floor with people from all sides flocking to see the mess for themselves. It took the better part of 2 days just cleaning it and several more to actually overhaul the valve. No choice, as there were no spares. We were told later on that several formerly heavy smokers stopped smoking that very day, having been adequately disgusted with the sight…
No smoking in my airplanes though. Which raises a question: is there any regulation for smoking on private flights?
Antonio wrote:
is there any regulation for smoking on private flights?
Probably not, but I’m sure someone will find (or create) one 😅
Thanks for those explanations, still here to learn and though pretty familiar with pressurisation on the big iron, didn’t know much about it in SEPs. Interesting stuff which explains all the care you take to operate that mini-airliner of yours, all of which I was privileged to see first hand 👍🏻
I don’t think so…?
There is a 1992 ICAO resolution to ‘urge member states’ to ban smoking on international flights. This is commercial flights, and can only be implemented through national legislation, e.g. the UK Air Navigation Order has something like ‘don’t smoke if there is a “no smoking” sign or the captain forbids it’. Wikipedia says the EU banned smoking on flights in member states 1997, but doesn’t provide a reference, so the assumption again is commercial-only.
During my PPL (France, 2007) one student was a smoker, so she had to use the PA28 because it had a storm window. The instructor would put it in a slip to suck the ash and smoke straight out, but it still left streaks on the fuselage 
Many (all?) of the more recently type-certificated aircraft ban smoking on board. So this is from an airworthiness pov. I don’t think is anything in Part 91, Part-NCO etc. to that effect.
Capitaine wrote:
the captain forbids it
This is the one that matters, isn’t that why we fly private: so we can make our own rules! Or maybe not ;)
Antonio wrote:
No smoking in my airplanes though.
Guess what… after that the airline in question also banned smoking on board for good.
Flyingfish wrote:
@Antonio this is a masterclass!
Absolutely. This one will need to be saved some place for future reference.
Thanks again Antonio!
I don’t know if there is any legislation on smoking on GA flights but it has always been part of my passenger briefing. I know I didn’t just decide to put it in there so I can only assume it was something I learned during training. Passenger briefing always starts with “This is a no smoking flight ………”
I have quite nice ash bins in my vintage aircraft. So it was made with this in mind.
A friend told me just recently (we were talking about the vacuum system) that some decades ago those AIs all turned yellow very quickly. They sucked the smoke out of the cabin and it covered the whole interior parts of the gyros.
Has anyone an idea of what to do with the ash bins or the place where they are mounted? I use them actually only during maintenance, to deposit screws 🤪
