SmoothOnTop

I hadn't assumed one way or the other, but, thanks for the reply!!!

etflies

I had smoke in the cockpit a couple weeks ago, that caught my attention. Fortunately it didn't get to the point where my student or myself had trouble seeing outside or breathing but none the less, we paid attention. I was out in the practice area with a student when I saw and smelled a pretty steady stream of smoke coming from behind the instrument panel. Off everything went and we turned towards the airport. By process of elimination when we turned things back on one by one, it turned out to the the transponder. Evidently it wasn't a fan of it's wiring so it decided to burn it up.

Planespotta

On my pre-solo phase check, I had just finished all the maneuvers and turned to head back to the airport when we (my examiner and I) smelled an unforgettable odor and saw what resembled smoke coming from the instrument panel. We turned off everything electrical and diverted to an non-towered airport just west of our home airport and about 3 nm from our current position, which was also where the flight school's maintenance center was located, conveniently killing two birds with one stone. We landed uneventfully and hitched a ride back home.

There really wasn't much smoke at all, but the smell was overwhelmingly strong, and I'll never forget that feeling of vulnerability when we entered the traffic pattern with no working radios and had to flip on the master for an instant to lower full flaps before switching it off again. Nothing like a reminder of our own mortality to maintain a healthy dose of respect for the dangers of flight.

On the plus side, I got to loiter in the maintenance hangar for a good hour or two and check out Michael Goulian's Extra and a beautiful Pitts

. . . And, as fate would have it, I flew the same plane on my first cross-country and on my PPL checkride, so I guess we got the fire out of the way on the right flight

USMCFLYR

I had one the other night that COULD have been scary. A night bombing flight as a division (4 airplanes) with a student who is afraid to fly formation in the day time much less at night! You can imagine that I kept a close eye on him (and we put an IP in his baclseat as insurance). The good news is though that he did pretty good. Maybe he gained some of that confidence back that he had lost earlier.

USMCFLYR

AZFlyer

How much seperation is there between you guys during formation flight? Any difference during day/night??

USMCFLYR

Depends on what type of formation flight we are doing - but the parade formation gives 4' of wingtip clearance.

USMCFLYR

ERJ135

Thats just unacceptable.... No ACARS no GO!

AZFlyer

4' sounds pretty close, man.