EAA Sport Aviation

So, why did Jeff shut off the heater? It’s not like he had just turned it on, and it didn’t smell like that dusty heater smell to me. “So, what did it smell like?” a colleague asked me upon returning home. “A burning smell” was all I could say to describe it.

Trying to describe the smell revealed a gaping hole of experience in my résumé as an aviator: I couldn’t differentiate various burning smells.

First Lesson: Think. Be intentional.

Have slow hands.

I know the correct textbook answer for
what to do during an electrical fire, but it
wasn’t until I smelled that burning smell at
9,000 feet that I realized when you’re in
flight, it’s difficult to distinguish a burning
drop of oil from a burning piece of wire.

WINE TASTING

To a rookie wine connoisseur, a wine just tastes like wine. It’s only after a bit of experience that someone can distinguish a merlot from a shiraz or a pinot grigio from a riesling.

Upon returning home, I wanted to conduct something similar to a wine-tasting event by sampling the burning smell of various substances commonly found in aircraft. A couple other pilots joined me for this exercise where after sampling each substance we discussed what it smelled like, where it was found on a plane, and what the correct action would be in each situation.

We all agreed, no matter what was burning, the best action would be to land the plane as soon as possible to investigate the problem on the ground. Even if the smell dissipates, there was a cause, and you and/ or a mechanic should find that cause.

However, on the way to the nearest airport, or even nearest field depending on severity, there may be some things a pilot could do to eliminate or resolve the problem. That was the purpose of this experiment—to discover how these smells differ from each other so we could take some pro-active and thoughtful steps, like Jeff did.

Smoke often accompanies smells, but not always. If you do encounter smoke in the cockpit, landing immediately becomes even more critical. Dealing with smoke in flight is an entire discussion on its own, so for the sake of our experiment, we focused primarily on recognizing and diagnosing smells.

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