Cigarette lighter and ash trays

Half Fast said:
When I was in high school in the late '70s, smoking on campus was strictly forbidden for students. School officials were under orders from the school superintendant to come down hard on student smoking.

However,.....

One day the principal called an assembly of all the seniors in the school auditorium. He railed against the students for smoking, gave us grief for the restrooms being filled with cigarette smoke, and told us he would not tolerate smoking by students. Any student caught smoking would face harsh penalties. THEN, he told us that despite his best efforts to stop smoking, there was one particular courtyard in the middle of the school where it would be nigh on impossible for him or any teacher to see or catch a student who was smoking.

And that's how the school got its unofficial student smoking area.
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I have a 9 yr old in school, could you imagine what would happen if that came out nowadays? THere would be lawsuits and massive firings. Hell when I was young (80's-90s) I would go up to the middle and high school and play tennis or basketball. Nowadays the schools are locked down like alcatraz.
 
What's even more frustrating is that new planes come with a 12v cig lighter but no ashtrays!
 
I used to fly with a guy who was Alaska Airlines' youngest pilot. He told me the story of a seasoned captain and his technique for the left turn and LOC capture on the Anchorage -Juneau flight. The captain would initiate the turn..............let go of the controls..........pull out a pack of Camels, tap them on his wrist, pull out the cigarette, light it with his Zippo, take a puff............then look up, place his hand back on the yoke..........and roll RIGHT on centerline of the localizer.
 
I went to a private military school in the 70s, a college preparatory boarding school.

Students were allowed to smoke outside the school buildings and in the dorm rooms if they had written permission from their parents.

Which meant some students tried fake permission letters, but the school followed up with phone calls....

And teachers were allowed to smoke in class. Most of the school buildings were built in the 30s or earlier, so they were not very air tight.
 
I’m amazed by how many people still smoke. I started smoking once, but I quickly stepped away from the firepit and cooled off with a beer. (The hair grew back.)
 
I'm pushing 84. When I was growing up smoking was a part of life. Every end table had an ashtray. In the living room there would be a full cigarette box for guests. When you met someone you'd offer them a cigarette first off. You'd always be alert for a cute gal pulling out her pack of smokes, so you could be Johnny on the spot with your lighter.
 
WDD said:
Yeah - I remember when I got out of college and at my first job having to ask for "non smoking" when buying airline tickets in the 80's.
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I am not a smoker, but in my early days of flying, I saw that the passengers in the smoking section in the back of the plane had a better view of the workings of the wings, flaps, and engines. So, I decided one time to get a ticket in the smoking section. I about died!
 
Still want that feeling of flying while smoking, just hit a casino....smells like an ashtray! On another note, I have often wondered about removing my ashtrays from 1966 172 and save a few ounces of weight. Now i just use them to hold things like as pen
 
scarcherpilot said:
Still want that feeling of flying while smoking, just hit a casino....smells like an ashtray! On another note, I have often wondered about removing my ashtrays from 1966 172 and save a few ounces of weight. Now i just use them to hold things like as pen
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They put my headset jacks where my ash trays used to be front and back.
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francisco collazos said:
I have a 9 yr old in school, could you imagine what would happen if that came out nowadays? THere would be lawsuits and massive firings. Hell when I was young (80's-90s) I would go up to the middle and high school and play tennis or basketball. Nowadays the schools are locked down like alcatraz.
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yeah...schools are pretty well locked down now days in many ways. I'm amazed at the things they can't do and can't get away with....but my highschooler and middle schoolers report that kids are vaping in the bathrooms and even occasionally in the halls....
 
The fun add-on to everyone smoking all the time, was that the favorite solvent for cleaning just about anything, up until the mid 80's anyway, was gasoline. Not unusual to see someone cleaning some sort of mechanical part, with a rag soaked in gas, while smoking. No kidding. Half the working population was a half step away from setting fire to themselves at any given time.
 
kgruber said:
We used to have to clean the outflow valve on the King Air about once a month. The tar from all the smoke would accumulate there and make it stick.
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Wasn’t that a factor or at least a footnote on Patrick Swayze’s crash?
 
It has been interesting to watch the societal changes regarding cigarettes and tobacco over the past 50 years. We get a pretty good view of how pervasive it was in the previous 50 years going back to the twenties through the forties by just watching the movies made at that time. Look up the old movie called "A Guy Named Joe" with Spencer Tracy. Spielberg remade that movie when he did "Always" with Richard Dryfus and Holly Hunter. Anyway, in the original Joe crashes in his P38 and he's okay but when the fire crew shows up he bums a cigarette off one and lights up right there on the wing of his crashed plane. Hard to imagine how pervasive tobacco use was going back even further like the 1800's or 1700's. In Europe it's still not virtually forbidden like here in the US. Almost makes you wanna start smoking again just to be different.

ha, ha just kidding.
 
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Standard callout after take off in the Navy H-46 was, "positive rate of climb, temps and pressures good. Smoke 'em if you got 'em boys!"

If the Zippo ran out of fuel, the crew chief would go aft and drop an engine bay door, then proceed to light a smoke off the hot-section.
 
My CFI smoked (after asking permission) during my Flight Review last month. I will take the second hand smoke risk any day of the week given the instruction I received. Risk, reward.
 
Both of my parents smoked and I learned to really, really, hate it after hours of being cooped up in the back of Mom's Buick. If I'd known the right words at 6 years old, I'd have gotten into loads of trouble by asking (telling?) them to "Crack a F'n window". In hindsight, that would have been extremely funny.

I do remember a flight on a tourist charter to Cancun when I was in my 20's. I asked for a window seat and got one. It was in the smoking section at the back of a DC-9/MD-whatever. My window had a wonderful view of an engine nacelle, but even that was hard to see because of the choking smoke in the back of the plane.

Worst flight ever.
 
catmandu said:
My CFI smoked (after asking permission) during my Flight Review last month. I will take the second hand smoke risk any day of the week given the instruction I received. Risk, reward.
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Sorry but I would have never agreed to have him smoke next to me in a small plane. I don't care who it is. Plenty of CFI out there who can do a FR.
 
Yeah, no way on any flight, flight review, or frankly any situation that I can avoid 2nd hand smoke. Not because I think a bit of casual exposure will hurt me in the long run, heck I’ve breathed so much 2nd hand smoke from my parents that it’s too late for that kind of damage. But I avoid it because it is freakin’ unpleasant and makes me gag.

It’s just a highly addictive drug. One can often identify a chronic user on sight, just like one can identify a chronic meth or marijuana user.


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kgruber said:
We used to have to clean the outflow valve on the King Air about once a month. The tar from all the smoke would accumulate there and make it stick.
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The smoke residue was a prime debugging tool in finding cabin leaks on airliners.
 
catmandu said:
My CFI smoked (after asking permission) during my Flight Review last month. I will take the second hand smoke risk any day of the week given the instruction I received. Risk, reward.
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I know of a (former) fed who asked permission to smoke during a 135 checkride. The pilot refused, as the owner of the airplane was very particular about that.

Fed responded, “we can do this one of two ways…” and lit up.
 
TommyG said:
But then you have the rich white guys and their cigars, which can be more expensive than cigarettes.
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In my experience cigar smokers are more occasional, though I am certain there are folks with a cigar hanging out of their mouth all the time. They are as addictive as cigarettes and equally carcinogenic.

In my undergraduate dormitories the guys on my floor staged the great smoke out. We walked into the cafeteria (still in our robes no less), got breakfast, than all at once broke out and started smoking cheap cigars. The rate at which that giant room filled with smoke was impressive.
 
My favorite "Smoking In School" story:

My dad taught a high school welding shop for many years. The shop had a dozen or so welding booths, maybe 4'x6', with steel walls and heavy curtains, where students would practice arc welding and the light of the arc would be shielded from those outside the booth. The booths also inadvertently provided a private spot for smoking cigarettes.

One year dad had a couple of students who liked to hide in a welding booth and smoke.

So,.....

One day dad knew one of them was smoking in one of the booths. Now dad could have busted the kid and sent him to the dean, but dad had been a sargeant in the Army and had learned that problems should be handled at his own level, not sent up the chain. Dad also had a wicked sense of humor at times. His solution was to fill a large bucket with water and dump several gallons over the top of the booth.

The kid came out soaked to the skin, sputtering and madder than a wet hen. Dad simply said, "I smelled smoke and thought you were on fire. Now if you'd like to complain, you're welcome to go tell the dean all about it."

Dad didn't have any more smoking problems for several years after that story got around.
 
Doug Reid said:
Same here. At one high school I attended, they had big ash trays next to the school entrances.
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Some of our teachers (it was a private Catholic HS) and religious would join us on the 'smoking deck' off the back of the cafeteria after lunch while we all cut a butt. Gave it up after 30 years, and never looked back. Not one of those fanatical ex-smokers...I just move out of the way if I can if someone lights up outdoors.

Of course, being in a state where recreational use of other smoldering substances is legal in public...waiting in line to scan my tix at Fenway the last game of the year, I had a flashback to sitting in my college dorm suite from the scents that were wafting over the crowd. Brought back memories...lol
 
Gary Ward said:
Sorry but I would have never agreed to have him smoke next to me in a small plane. I don't care who it is. Plenty of CFI out there who can do a FR.
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Odd - CFI's are usually sticklers for FAR/AIMs more than your average Joe. Smoking is not allowed according to that big book.
 
Great stories guys!!! The younger generation will never know what we went through. :):);)
 
My High school had an "assembly" for all the smokers in the wrestling room. They all thought they were going to get a lecture about how bad it was for them, but the Principal was there and he instructed them all to light up and enjoy their last smoke on campus! The next day began the policy of no smoking on campus and kids had to go out to the parking lot to smoke.

Also, you should see what a cigarette looks like in the cockpit under NVGs!
 
I quit smoking years ago and my health and fitness has benefited greatly...but if truth be told I miss the days when there was a smoky fug in the pub and you could nip outside for a ciggy break and chat to a few folk from other departments. Just the nostalgia of a man with a grey beard...:rolleyes:
 
WDD said:
Odd - CFI's are usually sticklers for FAR/AIMs more than your average Joe. Smoking is not allowed according to that big book.
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Eh? Where in the "big book" is smoking banned. In fact, the regs specifically make provision FOR it. You don't think the requirement that the upholstery being fire resistant has anything to do with crashes? It's to cover people dropping cigarettes in flight.
 
The easiest way to find pressurization leaks, was to look for the smoke (tar) stains on the fuselage. A loose rivet can make a lot of squealing noise. Easy to find in the smoking days.
Pressurization write ups could be often fixed by cleaning the outflow valves and sensors that got sticky from the tar. It could get pretty gooey in some of those ducts.
 
I just noticed my 120, which doesn’t have an electrical system even, has a ashtray!

Hadn’t even noticed, as I haven’t had to look for fuses... and probably wouldn’t have if not for this thread.
 
Site won't link, but google "nine out of ten doctors smoke Camels."

T'was a dif'nt world not so long ago (and some is better now but some is worse).
 
I had the ashtrays removed when I redid my interior, good riddance.
The 12v cigarette lighter socket I kept, the lighter is gone.
 
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