- Joined
- Mar 8, 2017
- Messages
- 37
- Reaction score
- 9
I had an incident with some smoke in the cockpit and was looking for help/ideas from others. 1973 Arrow. Warm evening, just before sunset, after runup, at the runway waiting for takeoff clearance. I happened to glance down at the panel and noticed a thin column of white smoke drifting up from behind the panel in the general area of the ammeter gauge. I declared an emergency, immediately shut everything off, and taxied back to the ramp and shut down. I then started troubleshooting with the engine off turning one thing on at a time. No matter what I did I could not reproduce any smoke. I also ran the engine by itself and again no smoke. There were no breakers popped. It was now getting dark so I tied down for the night and my friend who was with us flew us back home in his airplane. The next day another friend flew me back to my plane. I looked under the panel with my flashlight & inspection mirror and did not see any signs of burnt wires or leaks. Took the cowling off and could not find any leaks. Tried turning things on again with and without the engine running and could not re-produce the smoke. I decided to bring the plane home by starting the plane then turning the master off. My friend & I flew as a flight of 2 with him doing all the radio work and me talking to him on my handheld. I left the gear down and only flipped the master on briefly before landing to make sure I still had 3 greens for the gear. On the ground I did extensive troubleshooting and could not find anything. My A&P on the field spent several hours on it and could not find anything either. Everything works fine. The only similar experience I had years ago in a friends plane happened after he turned on the panel lights using the white rotary dimmer wheel/switch but his had to be replaced. I have no failure or no known cause. This has me concerned as I would like to know for sure so it does not happen again. My wife is also nervous about getting back in the plane without a know cause/resolution. Any thoughts/ideas or similar experiences? Thanks in advance.
