Urinating in a fighter

[drgondog]

Occasionally you can see the stains around the exit hole for the relief tube on side elevation shots just under cockpit (about 12") and approximately centered just under a pilot's elbow (lh side) if he was posing for a shot with an open canopy in a Mustang.

Needed it a lot more for 51's and 38's and F6F's ..

[John Beaman]

Originally Posted by drgondog

Occasionally you can see the stains around the exit hole for the relief tube on side elevation shots just under cockpit (about 12") and approximately centered just under a pilot's elbow (lh side) if he was posing for a shot with an open canopy in a Mustang.

Needed it a lot more for 51's and 38's and F6F's ..

Are you sure about that? I thought it was the flare port.........

[Graham Boak]

Not just fighters. I've seen it said that if a ground crew didn't like the pilot of their Hampden, they would knot the tubing.

Presumably the same applies to Bostons, Marylands, Baltimores, etc.

[yasig]

and its still available on the net, look here:
www.banaire.com/relieftube.html

listed at 98,50$
RGDS
YASIG

[John Beaman]

Hopefully, the horns come in different sizes!


(sorry, I could not resist!)

[drgondog]

John - the 'exit' port is absolutely the flare port, but I vaguely recall that the port was used as the exit point for the relief tube also.

My father's post war toy, a 51D-30, was one I got 56 hours in - and it didn't even have the kit - nor did I ever use it. I do not recall seeing any location in floorboard or aft of Trim console other than the flare port and it was an ideal location for exhaust..

I'm checking now with his old crew chief to see exactly where the exit point is.

[John Beaman]

Well, I just received a photo of a D from a guy who restores them. He has marked the relief tube exit point as a small bulge at the bottom of the tail, behind the tail wheel. I would post it but it is larger than the size allowed by the board and I do not know how to make such sizes smaller.

[drgondog]

well - mystery solved at last John. Thanks.

I know that the one we had didn't have either a tube in that area or a noticeable exit point, as I did a fair amount of work under/back there looking at tail wheel links and rudder/elevator controls... suppose it was taken out before he bought it - because the kit wasn't there either.

[Peter Randall]

Bill,

I spoke to some of the guys about this when I attended the 355th reunion in Dallas/Fort Worth, in particular Bob Garlich as he was always saying that the first thing(s) he did when leaving enemy air space was to have a "smoke and a pee" although not clear in which order. I wanted to know how the liquid got to the outside air without a severe vacuum doing unpleasant things to the "human" fixtures and fittings. None of the crew could remember but I believe that it might have been Julius that eventually came up with the answer about the vent by the tail wheel. They also gave the information that a dedicated crew would apply vaseline to the outlet to save it icing up at high altitude with the resultant "mess" in the cockpit.

Peter