smoking in the pitts
 

Should club members be allowed to smoke while in the pitts? I can think of a few reasons they shouldn't, namely courtesy to other pilots and safety around gasoline and glow fuel.

Anyones club have a policy on this? (Mine apparently doesn't, so whenever someone lights up we all get to, um, enjoy it.)

RE: smoking in the pitts
 

depends on the Pilot who is flying the Pitts


if you are talking about in the Pits on the ground...
then it is up to the club I guess...

my old club in MI had a no smoking rule around the tables

RE: smoking in the pitts
 

Our club (Largest in the USA) recently banned smoking in the Pits.

RE: smoking in the pitts
 

Personally I do not smoke, yet I believe those that do smoke, have the right to drive those coffin-nails if they so wish. Outside, it only takea several feet away and it is not a bother to me.
My club's policy is for smokers to use the butt-cans provided, and do not litter the grounds with cig. butts. In reality, the smokers are very good about that bit of house-cleaning.
No problems here.

RE: smoking in the pitts
 

Here we go, trying to legislate common sense.
Most smokers I've seen don't partake while transfering /handling fuel. I don't recall anyone with a lit cig in his mouth flying a plane, either. [Imagine how miserable that would be with both hands on the sticks].
I have seen accidental fires in the pits and smoking had nothing to do with any of them.
Is there a rash epidemic of fires being caused by smokers now?
Or is this more like a neo-fascist issue? They have a grand vision of Utopia, [just like Polyanna did]......They know so well what is right for both you and me that they will make any behavior that they collectively disagree with illegal.

RE: smoking in the pitts
 

As this discussion has nothing to do with the AMA I am moving the thread out to The Clubhouse Forum. It's probably a better venue to for a discussion such as this.

Ken

RE: smoking in the pitts
 

I am not a smoker either and I certainly agree with Hoss and CP but if your club gives ample opportunity to consider the issue and then vote...the majority should have it however they desire.

Of course discretion in regards to bringing up such petty issues will pay big dividends in the long run. AS it stands now, all the laws and rules we live with on constant basis can’t be contained in most people’s home much less be understood by them.


Before long, legally speaking, people will be afraid to do anything at all…even fly model airplanes…

BTW does anyone know if I can legally put a hydrogen generator on my automobile?

RE: smoking in the pitts
 

I'm not a smoker, never have been, and I suppose you could call me a militant anti-smoker. I see daily in my occupation the results of smoking on the body and NONE of them are positive. I think it's the stupidest habit we humans impose upon ourselves.

That said, I don't feel that I should dictate to a fellow member who does smoke whether he can or cannot satisfy his bad habit while enjoying his good one (r/c) :). I just file in my own memory whether I should stay upwind or downwind from these particular people.
I haven't noticed any problems in the pits with smokers and their own planes, but I have cautioned several of the mainly non-flying members who just like to walk around looking at the others' planes, while they fuel, defuel and otherwise prep their planes. These guys don't have, or have lost, the safety awareness and they will walk right up to a guy with a gas can fueling his plane, cigarette hanging from their fingers or lips.

"I don't mind at all if you smoke. Do you mind if I fart?" -Steve Martin

RE: smoking in the pitts
 

Good quote:D.

The club I belong to has a NO Smoking rule in the pits, but the center pavillion is acceptable. It's a rule not that's strictly followed or strictly enforced. It sometimes depends on how many people are in the pits. I (unfortunately[:@]) am a smoker, but I do try to be considerate of those around me who are not, and my butts go into the garbage. I suppose it's mainly left to common sense, but I've known highly educated persons with little or none.

RE: smoking in the pitts
 

Don't you just hate it when one of your good flying buddies, heavy smoker, comes to the field with a long face and annouces he has lung cancer?

RE: smoking in the pitts
 

I only hate it when they start looking for sympathy. We all know what smoking can do to us. I won't live forever and I'm not going to try. I'm going to do all the things that I enjoy, good or bad. To me, that's what living really is. I won't go into my views on religion[>:].

RE: smoking in the pitts
 

We have lots of trash cans around the pits and even some metal ashtrays for smokers. For many, many, many, many, many years it's worked out fine. Smoke if ya want too. Use common sense.

Making a "No Smoking in the pits" rule is STUPID IMO.

Whats next? No farting around the campfire? No 4-wheeling into the field to snow fly in December? No laughing at the crashes? :eek:

Anti-Smokers who run around blabbing their worthless opinions to the rest of the world need a smack in the teeth. SHUT UP about it!! [>:]

No. I don't smoke.

Yes. I feel very strongly about people telling OTHER people how to live their lives.

RE: smoking in the pitts
 

we're not allowed

RE: smoking in the pitts
 

How about smoking at the gas station?

RE: smoking in the pitts
 

I worked in a service station as a kid. That was when it appeared there were more smokers than non-smokers around. And everyone that worked there and the owners smoked. Same for most service stations everywhere.

And we all smoke while pumping gas in high 90's heat, you could see the vapor distortion coming from the tank fill opening all around the smoker.

Never saw anyone dumb enough to strike a match or a lighter in the vapor field because all of us that smoked knew what the result could be.

But as much noise as anti-smokers make about the hazards of smoking have you ever deliberately tried to start a fire with a burning cigarette? Sure, it happens but the fact is its very unlikely. An open flame will do it much more reliably.

As a kid we even put gasoline in a coffee can and tossed burning cigarettes into it to see if it would ignite. Out of hundreds of tries I only saw it happen once.

If you don't like the smell of it, the mess of it, just be honest about it. Don't spend so much time trying to "document" every last ill associated with the habit. Don't you thing we all know about by now?

Regards,

Clay

RE: smoking in the pitts
 

>>But as much noise as anti-smokers make about the hazards of smoking have you ever deliberately tried to start a fire with a burning cigarette? Sure, it happens but the fact is its very unlikely. An open flame will do it much more reliably.<<

I aways wanted to see someone catch a mattress on fire with a cigarette. Sounds like a job for Mythbusters.

RE: smoking in the pitts
 

So you don't want to smell tabacco exhaust while your busy making glow fuel exhaust. makes sense to me.

RE: smoking in the pitts
 

Hello; No one smokes at our field, we fly on a cow pasture and the farmer says that if the cows eat the buts, it'll affect the milk given which is tested thouroughly. If any nicotine turns up in his milk, they dump the whole load down the drain and he doesn't get paid for his milk. We don't want to lose our field, actually two fields back to back. The farmer mows our field and doesn't mind us flying there. He fences off one field with temporary electric wire when he needs our field and mows the next field for us to use.

RE: smoking in the pitts
 

It totally amazes me how some smokers do not seem to consider a cigarette butt to be trash. They'll flick them on the ground like they're nothing. They look terrible and when a mower picks one up it makes a mess.

Our field owner's wife came out one day and was very annoyed by this. There is a 'butt can' at the field but some of the smokers seemed to be incapable of using it. A statement was made that it would be a bad thing if she ever saw another butt on the ground. That worked better than any written rule.

RE: smoking in the pitts
 

I am a GM tech at a dealership.I do not smoke.There is no smoking allowed in the shop,but some techs still do it.
I hate having to deal with second hand smoke.I have told other techs,if you come into MY work area smoking,I will put it out for you
or you can.If they want to smoke in their area,fine,I will not go over there.Had a tech come into my area smoking,I told him,leave or put it out or I will put it out for you.He says yea right.So I calmly go over to my bench and grab the water hose with a sprayer and put it
out for him while he is puffing on it.Yea he got pissed,but he does not come into my work area smoking anymore.Neither does anyone else.:D.If I go flying and someone comes up to me smoking,I just walk away from them.In the pits or when I am flying.
If they want to smoke,fine,but don't come up to me and smoke around me.Smokers want respect.I,as a non-smoker,want respect also.

RE: smoking in the pitts
 

I smoke, but I'm cutting down - I don't even have an ashtray in the shower anymore.

But seriously, I know how bad it smells and how bad it is etc. etc. etc.

And I know that non-smokers have rights too. But with all of the anti-smoking legislation, the great outdoors is about all we have anymore.

Last summer I was having dinner in a restaurant when 3 of the people at our table went out for a smoke. As we were standing by the front door (Where the Butt Can was) some guy sitting at an outdoor table yelled over to us. The conversation went like this:

Him: Hey... HEY!

Me: Who? Me?

Him: Yea, you. You wanna get outta here with those cigarettes? It's blowing right over here.

Me: Then why the F*%# don't you go sit inside in the NO SMOKING section A$*H*%#? You see this Butt Can? What do you think they put it HERE?

Him: (Silence)

I guess he thought I was rude. Good, I was trying to be as rude as he was by telling ME to move from the place that was DESIGNATED for me.

So my next question is this:

If you ban smoking in the pits, shouldn't you also ban testing glow plugs? I see THAT happen all the time too.

RE: smoking in the pitts
 

Of all the discussion on smoking I still have to ask WHY? Yes, I smoked back when everyone else did but I quit - and survived to make my 79th orbit around the sun. I just don't understand why reasonably intelligent people continue and can't kick the habit. The financial cost is getting ridiculous, not to mention the health impact, burned holes in your new sport coat, feeling like crap in the morning, being treated like a leper in most public places, stinking clothes, holes burned in the upholstery of your new car, fire hazard in your balsa dust loaded work shop, the panic when you find you have no matches with you, or have forgotten your cigarettes - hard to bum them nowadays . . . . While it is their God given right to smoke if they so choose, but WHY?

RE: smoking in the pitts
 

Look at the price of airplanes.
The cost of fuel is skyrocketing, Dues in some clubs are $300 / year - not to mention initiation fees.

Then there's driving to and from the field, and a crash could cost thousands. And those LiPo packs! Big bucks!

Then you feel like crap when you crash and you have to listen to your wife complain about how much time you spend building your toy airplanes.

And shall we talk about the health hazards of CA and Epoxy fumes? Not to mention good ol' AIRPLANE GLUE.

Bottom line - we all have our vices. Smoking was acceptable, even encouraged for many years. We smokers have been very good about following the new rules - we don't like them, but we follow them. And I would love to see the day when tobacco products are no longer sold in the US.

But let's take things one step at a time, shall we?

Give the smokers time to adjust to the new rules before saddleing them with newer ones.

RE: smoking in the pitts
 

A few of my good modeling friends are smokers yet, and I would dearly love to give them more time to enjoy their friendship, but it is not within my power. And I hate funerals for people younger than I am. And good moderators are hard to find.

RE: smoking in the pitts
 

i believe in the wild west code. "you can do what ever you like, so long as it doesn't harm anyone else or their property."