What's new
Van's Air Force

Don't miss anything! Register now for full access to the definitive RV support community.

Favorite smells?

ChiefPilot

Well Known Member
You know how some smells are almost magical in how they trigger memories of good times gone by? One of them for me is Hoppes #9 - makes me think of fun times with my dad when I was a boy, and with my own boys several years ago.

For my RV, I gotta say air tool oil reminds me of fun times building, and even the memories that were more frustrating than fun have mellowed with the passage of time and are now enjoyable. Cutting, drilling, or riveting didn't matter - I'd come home after a building session smelling like air tool oil. Mmmm...good stuff.
 
Last edited:
Funny you should mention Hoppes... I love the smell of burnt IMR4895....

Air tool oil is a pretty neat though. Most good shops smell like that.
 
I love the smell of an old airplane. I do not know if it is the zinc chromate or the old schalac in the radios but it is very memorable to me.
 
Funny you should mention Hoppes... I love the smell of burnt IMR4895....

That and WC844...

I kind of like the smell of Mobil ATF as well after using it for the brakes. It sure has persistence - it sticks around a long time!
 
Smells

Proseal. Yea. I know. Sick. I even opened the tank cap a few times to get a wiff.
Hey, you asked right.:D
 
Reply to a former girl friend

I once had a girl friend ask me what my favorite fragrance was.

My response: Jet Fuel, AvGas, and Motor Oil.
 
Low concentrations of turbine-combusted Jet-A, especially if they are wafting across the field on a quiet evening, bring me back many years to my first solo assignment after starting out in commercial helicopters. That smell does it for me, but the faint "tick-tick-tick" of a turbine ignitor is almost a guarantee of flashbacks to those incredibly exciting days of learning at light speed, and making fast friends in some of the most beautiful places on earth.
 
Klotz Techniplate for me. Still run it in my 2-strokes. Sweet smell like castor oil.

This thread makes me think of some special candle scents I saw a couple of years ago at a local knick-knack shop.

http://www.man-cans.com
Take a look under the candle section of the web page.
 
Last edited:
My grandmothers old Ford LTD Air Conditioner. Getting in the car, she'd start the car and the AC would already be blowing. The smell of the AC before it got up and running and blowing cold. One of my favorite smells. Always reminds me of my Grandma.
 
I love the smell of an old airplane. I do not know if it is the zinc chromate or the old schalac in the radios but it is very memorable to me.

I don't know what it is but I agree. I was climbing in the back seat of a friends T-6 a while back and made that same comment. He laughed and agreed, no clue what the smell is but all old airplanes have it.
 
I think Avgas has a sweet smell. My wife thinks it smells horrible..... She thinks mogas smells much better :mad: but she loves to fly :D
 
Hot engine/oil

Nothing like opening up the oil door and taking a good whiff of hot engine!!

I always smell the engine after a good ride on my '69 Triumph motorcycle as well...


Alex
 
Smell & sound

Two for one! Standing behind any big, old radial engine on start-up. The smell of the exhaust and the sound that goes with it as it comes to life.

I have a coffee cup that says "I love the smell of jet fuel in the morning". Reminds me of Happy Times drinking a cup of coffee by the wingtip watching the sun come up before an early morning launch.
 
There is nothing in the world to compare with the smell of a submarine's backup diesel generator purring away on a cold morning.

The boss however tended to bar me from bringing my "ode to submarine" smelling cloths into the house after a few months submerged in one ocean or another. Go figure.

Carl
 
Lacquer thinner! When I started my build I hated the smell of the stuff. Now I LOVE that smell .... cuz it reminds me of the many pleasant hours in the shop working toward a wonderful flying RV.
 
JP-4 exhaust during formation taxi many years ago.
Proseal after testing leakfree tanks.
Leather interior from Classic Aero before a flight.
 
Coffee in the morning and bacon in the frying pan come to mind but my favorite is the smell of glow fuel exhaust (castor oil) from a model airplane engine! Early in my aviation obsession, that smell was the smell of success after flippin those little props till my fingers bled!
 
100LL and Nitromethane

Getting my nitro fix this weekend in Valdosta Georgia, wish I could get my 100LL fix to get there and back, but that is coming soon enough.
 
Fox Missile Mist

For me it is Fox Missile Mist powering my Fox .36X combat motor in my Riley Wooten Voodoo. Still got the engine and plane, I'll have to fly it again one day.
 
Aviation

The nerves from the nose go directly to the part of our brain associated with emotions - thus the emotional, sometimes visceral responses we experience to smells.

To me as a boy it was Friday afternoons coming in the house from school to the smell of fresh made pizza dough rising. When I make pizza dough now it still brings me back.

But one thing I've always noticed - in the 55 years I've been around airplanes and hangars, they ALL smell the same. I don't quite know what it is, but it's unmistakable and it's WONDERFUL and unique to airplanes. You don't experience that with cars and automotive garages.
 
Old airplanes, old cars! You cannot duplicate that! Beyond that the smell of round engine exhaust and even turbine exhaust to a certain exhaust.

The other side of the coin...? The smell of dirty socks at 37,000 ft.! A quick look at the engine parameters confirming that in fact an engine has blown some internal seals and that it is burning and entering the cabin air system. All whilst rapidly running out of turbine oil and headed for a quick engine shutdown!
 
JP-4 exhaust during formation taxi many years ago.

Boy ain't that the truth! Spent nearly 25 years on the flightline supporting Uncle Sam's pointy nosed jets from Europe to Asia to good ole USA in searing deserts and frozen arctic tundra; there's no way to avoid having memories flood back when smelling that burnt jet fuel! Ahhh good times... :)
 
Coffee in the morning and bacon in the frying pan come to mind but my favorite is the smell of glow fuel exhaust (castor oil) from a model airplane engine! Early in my aviation obsession, that smell was the smell of success after flippin those little props till my fingers bled!

Same smell as a 1960's Formula 1 car burning castor oil.

Made standing by the track a real experience..:)
 
Funny you should mention the air tool oil

I am too-slowly relearning a lesson from two decades ago - air tool oil will form a bloom on the lower half of one's tee shirt as you work with air tools. It will not wash out. Wife WILL notice - and ask how many shirts you intend to ruin in the course of the build because you are too lazy/forgetful/impatient to change into a grub shirt before going to the shop.

Favorite smells? You've covered most. Hoppes, tool oil, burnt avgas, warm vintage radio components. I'll add the whiff of rosin-core solder on an iron, and the musty sweet smell of my grandma's basement. Never smelled another basement as rhapsodous before or since.
 
Diesel Exhaust!

It's diesel exhaust for me.

To this day, the smell the exhaust of a diesel engine, takes me back to younger, carefree days.

As a gunner, loader, tank commander, platoon sergeant, and master gunner in a tank battalion, the smooth clatter of an idling engine was a comfort; the bellowing roar at full throttle was intoxicating.
I never thought of the hydrocarbons I made, much less those I breathed, when I warmed up, even as the rest of the tank would chill you to the bone. Once, we'd made an amphibious landing, and waited on a cold, damp beach as the rest of the company came ashore. Even as I was thrilled to finally be ashore, I'd placed my tank in hull defilade, then got out to walk round; the rear deck was just at neck height. I walked up to the engine, pressed my chest against the engine exhaust doors, and luxuriated in the warm blast, even as the crew inside tried to warm up 58 tons of steel... from the inside.
Young (invincible and immortal), the comfort kept me there for some time; I never considered the amount of carbon monoxide I was breathing.
 
Has to be just old airplane interiors... probably sweat and 100LL but it snaps me back to my training days and soaking the back of my shirt in the FL heat doing touch n goes
 
How about your own fart?...when you are in a confined space with a friend and you just wait for him to first notice?...I know...you just can't keep a straight face long enough.
 
Eucalytus

Every time I smell eucalyptus it takes me back to 1971, MCRD San Diego, doing knuckle push-ups on hot asphalt... Even when I was a Drill Instructor there it brought back memories.

AS FOR aviation, I would have to agree with those who have posted JP-4. The smell of that stuff reminds me of all the times, in 20 years, being around Marine Corps aviation.

Dam... I miss that!
 
Smell this

For me it is Fox Missile Mist powering my Fox .36X combat motor in my Riley Wooten Voodoo. Still got the engine and plane, I'll have to fly it again one day.

Remember the Double VooDoo kits? Two combat jobs for under $5.

For me, a freshly spent shotgun shell and the very early model engine fuels which contained benzene (now a known carcinogen no longer used). They should make women's perfume from these.
 
Ill add one more vote for the "old airplane" smell. That smell was burned into my brain as a 5 year old when Dad would take me flying in the Taylorcraft. Something about dope, fabric, oil, fuel, and leather that is so distinctive.

Last April I tracked that old T-craft down and bought it. I had not seen the airplane in 43 years, but as soon as I opened the door the smell took me right back to that wide eyed 5 year old.
 
Last edited:
Brake Fluid

I distinctly remember entering the hanger the day after bleeding my brakes, it was a little messy, and the smell of the brake fluid. For the first time, it smelled like a real, functional airplane.
 
The smell of the cabin when I slide back the canopy to begin a preflight on my RV9. I consider a consistent cabin smell to be an important preflight item. :)
 
First flight

Mark,
First flight this past week and all is good. It's a climber with that engine/prop combo and the slow flight characteristics are exactly what I was wanting. Right now just flying the pattern at 65mph getting the feel of it and avoiding all those hard-to-understand Diamond trainers.

The smell of leather and avgas are my favorite second only to hot racing tires after qualifying.

Ouch! I hear you are quite close to first flight.
 
I worked as a flagman for crop dusters in Texas during my teen years. Without a doubt favorite smell was the exhaust from the 450 H.P. radials on those Ag-Cats. Climbing up on the wing to load the hopper and the smell of the engine exhaust mixed with the rice or fertilizer I was loading into the hopper was heaven!! Ahhhh, the good old days!
 
Back
Top