He tried to turn the recirc fans off. It’s an old trick on the 73. The recirc fans help with efficiency by using less bleed air for cooling. Turn the fans off and you can sneak a smoke in the cockpit. Don’t turn the ******* packs off. Recirc fans off is the proper procedure for smoking in the cockpit, from what I’ve heard...

What puzzles me is this - How TF can you confuse the recirc fan switch for the pack or bleeds ? They look different, and they feel different. The switches even operate slightly differently. The Recirc fan can be ‘flicked’ off. The others not so much (for obvious reasons)

Touch wood :E

It’s a cockpit dating from the 1960’s. A 737 classic was the aeronautical equivalent of a record player, an NG is a brand new record player. The switches are very similar in appearance and location. Also, when I was learning to fly, the Chinese cadets were on a short leash and were the cream of the crop. I just saw an old friend who is CP at a flight school in Georgia with a primarily Chinese student body. The level of aptitude and discipline has gone down a few notches it seems. We laughed at this and said that a few years ago, this guy would’ve been shot at dawn in his uniform.

how does cockpit air get recirculated? I thought it all goes overboard and recircs are only for the cabin..

only cockpit-smoking trick I know is putting a large coin under the smoke evac lever in the 747-400 cockpit opening slightly the (which in the early design used to be) sextant-periscope port...

Not just the streaks, it used to clog the valves as well. And people still wanted to suck it into their lungs ???

im in the process of upgrading on a bigger Boeing, so don’t want negative transfer. However, if I’m not mistaken, the air goes through the E&E bay and forward cargo. I quit, but have heard stories of what cig smoke did to avionics cooling fins and gyros.