Mandrake

Thank you for sharing. I am passionate about this because I had a dirty sock smell flight and didn’t exactly know what it was (being it was the first time). Thank goodness there were no short term symptoms. Need to raise awareness. You know darn right that the next time this happens the mask is going on and we’re getting it on the ground.

Slowhawk

I encountered the dirty sock smell recently, pretty strong on takeoff roll and the first 5 min of the climb then it went away.

FWIW, it was the first flight after oil was added to the engines so I’m not sure if some oil was spilled somewhere or if excess oil vented or if that was even related. Same plane had no smell on the next leg

I agree, we need a little more guidance for this scenario, I feel like we could be asked “why the heck did you do that?” No matter which course of action we take (or don’t take).

That letter is a must read

Fpmx772

I too have encounter this smell a couple months back right on take off for about 5 mins or so. The smell never came back in the next leg...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Excargodog

If nothing else, maintenance needs the feedback about what is happening. A quick story.

Back in the 1980s the USAF put a different engine in to the F-16. And on a couple of flights - overwater flights (and in a single engine aircraft the engine turns or the pilot swims)- oil seals blew and suddenly the planes had no oil pressure. Surprisingly, an engine with no oil pressure will continue to spin for awhile (a short while anyway) if you keep the turns, climbs and descents shallow and don’t abruptly change throttle settings the precession forces on the bearings aren’t high. You’ve already ruined them of course, but they’ll hang together for awhile. I think the record was almost 600 miles to a successful flameout pattern landing in the Azores.

Turns out this came down to the maintenance people at the base that prepped new aircraft for deployment flights deciding they would add something less than one extra quart of oil to the new aircraft, just to be sure they had enough to make it across the Atlantic. And with the previous F-16 engine, that was not only OK but probably a good idea. But it had a different design and different seals.

In the new engine, especially with new seals, at cruise the oil system simply couldn’t contain the volume it could cold on the ground and, oil being incompressible, pressure would skyrocket and shortly it would blow out a seal. Strangely enough, EXCESSIVE oil pressure wasn’t a warning anybody had placed on the annunciatior panel. When the cause was discovered they quit adding extra oil and the problem was solved.

And sometimes the fix is as cheap and easy as letting maintenance know there is a problem so they can figure out what they did wrong. It’s not just senior pilots the majors are hiring away from us, it’s senior maintenance people too. We need to keep the feedback to maintenance up. It helps both us and them.

Vectorss

I think this was covered in the Newsletter 19-4? Talking about coffee residue in one of the packs that cause the smell. Something about FAs pouring coffee down the sink. Not sure how that correlates though.

startTwo

There is no dirty sock smell, it’s just coffee. This man is delusional, take him to the infirmary.

UhOh

I think that Newsletter probably added more confusion to the issue. It should be addressed again with more clarity. Oil fumes from the bleed systems / AC packs will smell like “dirty socks” too.

If it’s coffee on the AC pack you’d probably smell dirty socks once the packs kick on at the gate when you turn the APU. If it’s coming out after APU Shutdown and engine bleeds open up it might something else.

I had the smell too on t/o roll and it dissapated. I remembered that sock smell file and figured it was just a stinky pack. The FAs didn’t notice and the we felt fine. We still called it in to be sure.

Mandrake

Do not believe the propaganda

Vectorss

Haha couldn’t agree more! And yeah I guess we would have smelt it as soon as the packs were on. So getting it on the takeoff roll indicates something else.

desertdweller

Had almost this exact scenario except we had the airplane for two legs before with no smell then they topped off the oil. Strong smell on the roll and for maybe a minute after takeoff, then went away. We kept the airplane for another leg and never encountered the smell again.