Ever looked up into a deep blue summer’s sky and seen a tiny black dot, high overhead, writing cloud-words in the sky? Sky writing is an amazing way to advertise people, products and events – even if only briefly – to a huge audience on the ground. David Smith decided to give it a go.

I’ve always loved watching sky writers at work. The little aircraft moves with such precision, ducking and weaving, turning the puffy white smoke on and off at just the right moments to create words in the sky. And as the words drift into incoherence in the gentle breeze, I’m left wondering, 'what’s involved – how do they do that?'

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Insider Tip
The author of this article had limited success with his skywriting attempts in Flight Simulator X because of how quickly the show smoke effect dissipates. If you want to give it a try, you can make the smoke last longer by editing the relevant effects file. Here's how:

Only attempt this if you're comfortable editing configuration files using Notepad!

1. In C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Flight Simulator X\Effects, locate fx_smoke_w.fx.
2. Make a backup copy of this file and put it in a safe place should you want to revert to the original file.
3. Open fx_smoke_w.fx with Notepad or another text editor.
4. In the [Particle.0] section, change the line that reads Lifetime=30.5, 30.5 to Lifetime=1200, 1200.
5. Save the file.

The Lifetime parameter determines the number of seconds that the smoke will remain visible (1200 seconds = 20 minutes). (The first value is the minimum amount of time, and the second value is the maximum. With the Lifetime parameter set to 1200,1440 the smoke will last between 20 and 22 minutes.)

To turn smoke on and off in Flight Simulator, press I.

Have fun, and send us your screenshots! (Spelling counts...obviously!)