A330 White smoke from engine
 

I was taxying behind a Gulf Air A330 in Mumbai when the fire watch tower reported smoke from the starboard engine.Since we were directly behind the aircraft I noticed that it was coming from a small vent from both engines and increased marginally in intensity when power was increased for taxi.Calling the gulf air on a different frequency,the nature of the smoke was described to him and he continued for a normal takeoff.

Is this normal on the A330(not sure which engines gulf air has got).

I am assuming its excess oil or is there any other aspect which I am missing.

:ugh:

Low power on any turbine results in a high level of leakage past the internal seals. This causes a larger volume of combustion gasses to be vented overboard via the drain mast.

Once the engine is generating normal power the seals are more efficient and the venting is reduced.

Every engine is monitored in various ways, if there were any issues it would be detected in any of the number of tests performed.

Trent 700 has an oil breather on rh side of cowl, this will emit a vapour whilst running , and particularly in cold conditions can show as white 'smoke' . its not always very visible but it is there.

Air from the engine compressors is ported into cavities around the engine bearings to maintain oil within these bearing cavities. At certain power conditions air does leak across the bearing cavity seals, and is vented overboard. This is known as breather(RR) or or vent air(GE). Worst case is if a large amount of oil is entrained in the air, you have a problem!
Hope this helps

:ok: Thanks alot guys.