Skywriting Expertise

[Milt]

Skywriters

Canberra in Oz has just observed the expertise of a Skywriter at around 0900.

Pilot formed well shaped upper case letters spelling out DOMA ????? HOTELS in white smoke against a clear blue sky flecked with short trails formed by RPTs climbing south out of Sydney through a thin conning band.

Skywriter was at about 12,000 in a stable air mass moving SE at about 100 Kts.

How do you guys do it?
Ever use running writing?
What aids do you use? GPS any use?
What oil do you inject into the exhaust?
Do you pop up or down between letters to see what you have just written.?
Can you do it solo or do you carry a nav?
Are Oz and NZ the last places in the world with skys clear enough?
Is it a good earn?

You must be like a one armed paper hanger keeping track of everything.

Must be like trying to write upside down on paper with your eyes at paper level.

Last century a RAAF pilot found a band of conning air and managed to draw a huge phallic thing over Perth.
Claimed at his court martial that he was authorised for general flying and he was only practicing steep turns.
Anyone out there with a picture?

[Obiwan]

Sorry, don't have your answers although I saw some skywriters in the US on TV who flew 5 aircraft in formation who wrote like an old dotmatrix printer, thrning the smoke on and off. More expensive with 5 planes, but the wrote quicker and could get more done in a shorter time. Never seen it done out here like that.

[AerocatS2A]

Yeah I've seen 5 T6 Texans (or Harvards to us) flying line abreast. They had a little computer gadget linked to each aircraft with the words written into it. The sytem would turn the smoke on and off as required, the guys just had to fly straight and level.

I have tried sky writing, wrote QANTAS over Queenstown NZ in a Pitts Special. I had no expertise and it probably didn't turn out all that well (I couldn't really see the effects myself). I had someone on the ground giving me guidance as to what they wanted.

You can use diesel/kerosene but it's better to use a parafin oil which burns thicker and whiter.

It was always great fun doing aeros with the smoke on, specially tail slides and torque rolls.

[Aerodynamisist]

The only skywritter I know of is a c-185 that fly's out of maitland/rutherford. Used to use cotton oil (baby oil) in ag planes to drop smoke for determining wind direction.

[Floose]

Milt, I have done horizontal (Above 2000 feet agl) and vertical sky-writing (For low work - down to 500ft - against a distant back-ground) in my Pitts.

Most surprisingly, many people who are averse to light aircraft over their houses in the U.K. like skywriting and are fascinated by it....!!

You cant see the overall effect from the air whilst you are doing it at all and if it's for an event. What you can see is the top and bottom of the letters and relative angles. It's as hard as you want to make it. I've never tried running lower case for example!

Best to keep it as simple as possible and think about the location and wind before you go up. I have had the writing whizz past a spectator point location and as they all turn round, it magically becomes upside down and back to front!! They usually all end up looking at bent over backwards if this happens...

I use Ondina oil which is made by shell and pumped at 3 gallons per min into my exhaust...awesome amount of smoke that lingers for a very long time. It's Non toxic, non flammable and used for lubricating food industry process machines. It tastes just like castor oil. However it's horribly expensive, so I also use diesel but never in a situation where I will be sitting in a cloud of it. The old Lycoming can backfire if you close the throttle (e.g. in a stall turn) and ignite the diesel vapour....which, needless to say has the ability to blow ones wings off! Also if diesel leaks from any of the system and hits the exhaust on the outside of the pipe.....I'm going to be wanting firemen with some long hoses!!

Now that brings me neatly to wandering if I should try that phallic thing?!

Cheers Floose

[gaunty]

Floose mate

Reckon that "flaming" skywriting would be quite spectacular :E

The phallic thing?

'twere a boy when the RAAF were the only ones capable of contrails, with, in those days Vampires.

And there, on a gin clear winter day I think, over Perth, actually more in the direction of Pearce training area, was this giant dick and balls. Hung there for some time too. :) And who said we don't get our monies worth from the RAAF. :p

Ermm Milt old chap wasn't you perchance. :)

Even got a photo in the West Australian as I recall also when an annual event was sending the bored reporter to them for some news and they would zip up to FL"restricted" and take a photo of Albany and the SW fro O/H Perth as a wonder of the universe. Something we now take for granted. :\

[Hempy]

http://www.users.on.net/drew.dickson/skywrite.jpg

[Obiwan]

hempy Nice pic - is it real?

I remember watching Guido Zuccolli in the Sea Fury at the '95 Avalon airshow. He had smoke generators on the wing tips and for some reason the smoke trails formed into rings - it was freaky!

[gaunty]

Obiwan me old

Not sure whether this is "wry humour" :)He had smoke generators on the wing tips and for some reason the smoke trails formed into rings - it was freaky!

Milt just in case, take this young gent round the back of the bike shed please and review aerodynamics 101 with him please.:ok: :D

[Obiwan]

Not sure whether this is "wry humour"

Obviously you didn't see it

For the benefit of yourself and those not there - the smoke from the wingtips broke at points to joint together in rings. I've never seen it before. I had some photos, but they're in boxes in the garage - there was also discussion about it in the AOPA mag at the time (check your back issues) with a drawing describing it.

If you would like to post the part of aerodynamics 101 that explains how it happened, I eagerly await your reply.

(ps - they were not regular wing tip vortices if that's what you're alluding to)

Ok - here\'s photos to explain what I meant

http://www.airshowfan.com/winecountry/smokinfury1.jpg

http://www.airshowfan.com/winecountry/smokinfury2.jpg



Over time the left and right smoke joined together in to rings. The photos I found on the web don\'t do justice to how cool it looked however.

This is a Sea Fury in the US - but how COOL does this look?

http://www.airshowfan.com/winecountry03/air/304.JPG

More here (http://www.airshowfan.com/winecountry03air6.htm) (scroll down a bit)

[gaunty]

Obiwan sorry wasn't being a smartass.

And thanks a lot for fantastic pics and the website, great stuff and now bookmarked with the others.

Part of the answer lies on the web page. :)

[Runaway Gun]

Guido's smoke generators wee little small turbine engines, the exhaust of which was spinning rapidly in a concentrated low pressure area.

They really had some energy, and the smoke would spin as if in a flexible transparent hose.

I think that the ends would meet with areas of similar pressure, hence forming these smoke rings, which Guido would fly back through.

It really did look spectacular.