Scudrunners

As a child  I used to  get  mesmerized watching an airplane writing in the sky , Im talking about the old Waco spewing smoke  leaving messages and words for thousand of people to read from the ground. It was a phenomenal way to advertise a product
When I started flying I often though about it and wonder about how it was done
Years ago down in Disney world I had the opportunity to ask an  American skywriter where could a pilot learn this craft , He said something like '' no one is going to teach you and as magicians do not reveal their  secrets  neither do we''
I remember reading about B Hoover and C Yager  trying to write their wife's names with terrible results  so I imagine it takes a special kind of skill to do it
So ever since I wonder if there is a ''magician'' somewhere willing to share the knowledge  :)

[quote]Im talking about the old Waco spewing smoke  leaving messages[/quote]

Likely gone to the same place as the old Waco

here is the "new age" of sky writing

Skywriting FAQ's


[quote]How Many Letters Can We Do While Skywriting?

Single skywriting aircraft capabilities depend on the size of our smoke oil tanks. Usually up to 12 letters or characters. 30 gallon tanks at 2-3 gallons per letter. 6 Plane digital skywriting formations can skywrite up to 30 letters.

How High Do We Do Skywriting?

TRADITIONAL SKYWRITING - Accomplished with a single airplane flying through the sky to form letters. The white smoke is emitted like writing across the sky is composed of a special combination of oils, which is emitted through the plane’s exhaust system. The average skywriting message can be up to eight characters long.




DIGITAL SKYWRITING (SM) - Five airplanes! They fly parallel in line in as perfect unison as possible. The skywriting message to be written is loaded onto a computer, and as the planes fly, electronic signals trigger the smoke-emission mechanism in each plane to release the smoke accordingly. Digital Skywriting is executed by a number of planes that coordinate to print different segments of the message. Every five seconds new letters or logos are finished. The average message is up to thirty (30) characters long and can stretch four to six miles long.[/quote]

As most other things today. Where has the romance gone

If your aircraft has a smoke system, you
can skywrite.  Remember, the letters are
placed HORIZONTALLY not VERTICALLY.

[img width=500 height=333][/img]

Do I need to be an acro pilot to do it?
But more important  would the  regulators allow such enterprise?
vN

''Means no acro, the worst you might do is a steep turn.

If one really wanted to get into this I suspect that to make the most efficient use of smoke it would be clever to be able to set up some sort of GPS based system so you don't misspell in the sky and automatically turns on the smoke when you want to start a line. Similar to some of the systems used in cropdusting or survey work.''quote

I appreciate the difference  of using some GPS based system as opposed to just doing it by the seat of the pants, however if I were to do this I think I would find it more gratifying  to  do the job  based on skill and precision flying.
Acquiring that knowledge , knowing the '' magicians'' secrets , would have  been more rewording for me
vN

It is very simple, to make a O you leave the smoke on for a 360 degree turn to make an I it is a straight line next to the O.... the other letters are smoked as needed to make them

The wind has no effect on the message as you are flying in the same parcel of air.

The only effect the wind has is the message moves over the ground at the speed of the wind.