I was trying to get home but got swarmed!

Icebound wrote:

I often wondered if there are any pilots with this condition. It always
seemed to me that it would be fairly common for wasps to get into those 70's
Cessna cockpits.

A major item on my pre-flight check for a Cessna is to check the vent intakes
for wasp nests. I used to keep a can of bug spray in the gang box at my
tie-down. Other people stuff plastic scrub pads in the holes.

The Maule was a different matter. I never got wasps in the vent system (it's
under the cowl), but they loved to build nests inside the wings near the hole
for the aileron counterweight. I would move one aileron to check it out, and by
the time I got around to check the other one, there would usually be a wasp
sitting on it wondering what was going on. I've gone out for a flight and come
back to find a little wasp family buzzing around waiting on home to return.

George Patterson
Why do men's hearts beat faster, knees get weak, throats become dry,
and they think irrationally when a woman wears leather clothing?
Because she smells like a new truck.

I've never had the counterweight nest before... something else to worry
about. They probably skip the Maule and just add to the hundreds of mud
dauber nests in my hangar. Damn, I'm sick of them!

Mauledriver, AKA Bill Watson, AKA Foureyes

George Patterson wrote:

The Maule was a different matter. I never got wasps in the vent system
(it's under the cowl), but they loved to build nests inside the wings
near the hole for the aileron counterweight. I would move one aileron to
check it out, and by the time I got around to check the other one, there
would usually be a wasp sitting on it wondering what was going on. I've
gone out for a flight and come back to find a little wasp family buzzing
around waiting on home to return.

George Patterson
Why do men's hearts beat faster, knees get weak, throats become dry,
and they think irrationally when a woman wears leather clothing?
Because she smells like a new truck.

George Patterson wrote:
Icebound wrote:


I often wondered if there are any pilots with this condition. It
always seemed to me that it would be fairly common for wasps to get
into those 70's Cessna cockpits.


A major item on my pre-flight check for a Cessna is to check the vent
intakes for wasp nests.

Had wasps a couple times in Cessnas at the flight school where I rented.
(CFI's spilled Pepsi smell good to 'em?) Not allergic so I ignored
them and they returned the favor.

Bees are valuable, though. If you called a local beekeeper I bet they'd
come in full bee-suit and happily carry off the swarm. Or know
professionally what to do if they're the wicked crossbred kind.