Owning more expensive than renting

You obviously don't get your cars or airplane very dirty. Washing off mud
or any amount of dirt with Pledge and a diaper would make a great abrasive
that would trash your paint in short order. Vehicles should always be
washed with lots of water prior to touching the surface with a sponge or
cloth. Soap helps loosen the dirt and avoid scratches, but water alone
does a pretty good job. Never take a cloth to a dry and dirty painted or
plexus surface.

You're correct -- our plane never has a chance to get dirty. We (the whole
family) wipe it down after every flight with Pledge and diapers.

I get the left leading edge, cowling and wheel pant.

Mary gets the right leading edge, and beer/pop.

My son gets the empennage

My daughter gets the main gear wheel pants.

The procedure is:

a) Push Atlas into the hangar
b) Spray our respective surfaces with Pledge
c) Crack a cold one
d) Half way through aforementioned cold one (or, at this time of year, hot
chocolate) wipe down our respective surfaces.

We usually fly twice a week, and the plane is always immaculate.

;-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

On Mon, 20 Dec 2004 02:08:46 GMT, "Jay Honeck"
wrote:

You're correct -- our plane never has a chance to get dirty. We (the whole
family) wipe it down after every flight with Pledge and diapers.

I get the left leading edge, cowling and wheel pant.

Mary gets the right leading edge, and beer/pop.
What about the rest of the wing?

My son gets the empennage
Does this include the belly?

My daughter gets the main gear wheel pants.

What about the horizonta and vertical stabilizors and rudder?

Not picking, but it seems like you'd need to wash the rest of it at
some point.

z

Mary gets the right leading edge, and beer/pop.
What about the rest of the wing?
What about the horizonta and vertical stabilizors and rudder?

These parts get "The Pledge" treatment occasionally, when we're feeling
especially ambitious. They don't really get dirty -- only dusty. (As long
as your plane is hangared, of course.)

My son gets the empennage
Does this include the belly?

Our new M20 air/oil separator has basically put my son out of business. I
used to pay him $.50 per wingspan foot (30 feet = $15) to clean the bottom
of the plane once a month. Now, he hasn't had to do it since August.

:-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

On Tue, 21 Dec 2004 04:47:18 GMT, "Jay Honeck"
wrote:

Mary gets the right leading edge, and beer/pop.
What about the rest of the wing?
What about the horizonta and vertical stabilizors and rudder?

These parts get "The Pledge" treatment occasionally, when we're feeling
especially ambitious. They don't really get dirty -- only dusty. (As long
as your plane is hangared, of course.)

My son gets the empennage
Does this include the belly?

Our new M20 air/oil separator has basically put my son out of business. I
used to pay him $.50 per wingspan foot (30 feet = $15) to clean the bottom
of the plane once a month. Now, he hasn't had to do it since August.

:-)


Ahhh. No hangar here = dirty tail. The birds love to practice bombing
the horizontal stabilizer from the beacon. Also no M20 separator, or
children = more work for me!

Thanks,
z

On Tue, 21 Dec 2004 04:47:18 GMT, "Jay Honeck"
wrote:

Mary gets the right leading edge, and beer/pop.
What about the rest of the wing?
What about the horizonta and vertical stabilizors and rudder?

These parts get "The Pledge" treatment occasionally, when we're feeling
especially ambitious. They don't really get dirty -- only dusty. (As long
as your plane is hangared, of course.)

Yah, but how do you get the bugs to stick if you put pledge on the
wings?


My son gets the empennage
Does this include the belly?

Our new M20 air/oil separator has basically put my son out of business. I
used to pay him $.50 per wingspan foot (30 feet = $15) to clean the bottom
of the plane once a month. Now, he hasn't had to do it since August.

Air oil separator on the Deb (IO-47N) with no oil filter and it has a
wet vacuum pump, has no noticeable oil use in 25 hours. Engine is
nearing TBO.

The belly would stay clean if I'd only fly in nice weather and stay
off the grass farm strips.

Bugs on the wings and cowl are another matter.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

:-)

Roger wrote:

On Tue, 21 Dec 2004 04:47:18 GMT, "Jay Honeck"
wrote:


Mary gets the right leading edge, and beer/pop.

What about the rest of the wing?
What about the horizonta and vertical stabilizors and rudder?

These parts get "The Pledge" treatment occasionally, when we're feeling
especially ambitious. They don't really get dirty -- only dusty. (As long
as your plane is hangared, of course.)


Yah, but how do you get the bugs to stick if you put pledge on the
wings?

Fly faster, of course.


Matt

Jay Honeck wrote:
You obviously don't get your cars or airplane very dirty. Washing off mud
or any amount of dirt with Pledge and a diaper would make a great abrasive
that would trash your paint in short order. Vehicles should always be
washed with lots of water prior to touching the surface with a sponge or
cloth. Soap helps loosen the dirt and avoid scratches, but water alone
does a pretty good job. Never take a cloth to a dry and dirty painted or
plexus surface.


You're correct -- our plane never has a chance to get dirty. We (the whole
family) wipe it down after every flight with Pledge and diapers.

Flying on paved strips only helps a lot. My airplane was based on a
grass/dirt strip for several years and pledge and a diaper just wouldn't
cut it! Likewise, I have a 1700' gravel driveway and my cars definitely
need a water bath before washing or I'd have my paint ground away in a
few washings.


Matt

Flying on paved strips only helps a lot. My airplane was based on a
grass/dirt strip for several years and pledge and a diaper just wouldn't
cut it!

We fly into a grass strip half a dozen times per year, and it takes Pledge,
diapers, and Simple Green (on the fiberglass parts) to clean up after those
excursions...

Likewise, I have a 1700' gravel driveway and my cars definitely need a
water bath before washing or I'd have my paint ground away in a few
washings.

Gravel driveways are the norm in rural Iowa. You can really tell the
"out-of-towners" by the beaters they drive into town. I'm sure they don't
see much point in buying an expensive car when you basically trash it
without ever leaving your property. (Of course, crushing rural poverty has
something to do with this, too...)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

On Tue, 21 Dec 2004 04:51:53 GMT, "Jay Honeck"
wrote:

Flying on paved strips only helps a lot. My airplane was based on a
grass/dirt strip for several years and pledge and a diaper just wouldn't
cut it!

We fly into a grass strip half a dozen times per year, and it takes Pledge,
diapers, and Simple Green (on the fiberglass parts) to clean up after those
excursions...

Likewise, I have a 1700' gravel driveway and my cars definitely need a
water bath before washing or I'd have my paint ground away in a few
washings.

Gravel driveways are the norm in rural Iowa. You can really tell the

We have a lot of "dirt" driveways in rural Michigan as well.
Although I don't see it much any more, at one time you could purchase
a car with a "chip guard" right from the factory, which was a kind of
plastic coating on the bottom foot of so of the doors and fenders.
The stuff really worked.

At that time I had nearly a mile and a half of gravel road going into
town. It was gravel right up to the village limits.

Of course that is the same town where my 40 acre field (on which I
used to land the Piper Colt) was within the city limits.

One of the guys who lived about 15 miles out actually brought his
equipment up and mowed a strip full length of the field. He could fly
up to the field and walk the rest of the was faster than he could
drive it. Of course that didn't work if he needed to carry a lot.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com
"out-of-towners" by the beaters they drive into town. I'm sure they don't
see much point in buying an expensive car when you basically trash it
without ever leaving your property. (Of course, crushing rural poverty has
something to do with this, too...)