Smokin'!

[Craig]

I remember reading - I cannot recall where - that German pilots in Mercedes-powered planes would use a trick to escape unpleasant situations: they would "douse their cylinders with oil', whch caused considerable smoking, and dived out of the fight.

Does this sound familiar?

I know a jet jockey from the '60's, who released a condom filled with fuel in the cockpit, radioed that he smelled fuel and excused himself from unpleasant situations. The music is the same; only the lyrics change.

I too, have read this somewhere.

[Craig]

I wonder if this may be a factor in the British Empire victory scores, which, I think, are roundly considered to be inflated, at least in relation to the other combatants. A German pilot finds himself in a sticky situation, or is hit, and dives out of the fight, bluffing and puffing away. There are four Brits in the fight, all shot at him, all get an OOC or something similar. So, four "victories" are given out for 0 German planes destroyed.

How would a pilot go about dousing the cylinders (out of his reach) with oil with a 100-mph wind blowing in his face?

[Craig]

The combustion occurred INSIDE the cylinders, with the resulting smoke pouring out of the exhaust manifold.

[Craig]

I didn't respond to the first part of the question, the bit dealing with "how" the cylinders were actually doused. Honestly, I don't know, but there were many functions in a WWI plane that were manual. All sorts of pumps and valves were in the cockpit; perhaps one of them had to do with oil.

Perhaps some Forumite with more knowlege of these controls could help? Hmm? Hello?

it was my thought that this post refered to smokin' of the type that results in a distorted mental state. Never heard of any early war pilots using the stuff, but hey, they were peolple too.