Depression after Washing

On 2008-06-30, John Smith wrote:
It really isn't as bad as you make it out to be.
You polish on rainy spring days, before the real flying season begins
and let it go the rest of the year. Maybe touch it up in August on days
when it is too hot to fly.

Coming in to this thread very late...

Actually, it is as bad as that unless you live in the desert. I owned a
polished plane (Cessna 140). It was only half polished, too - just the
lower half of the fuselage, the tailplane, and flaps. The rest was
painted.

To keep it looking nice required a whole day of polishing, a minimum
period of once every two months. By whole day I mean at least 12 hours.
(I rarely did it all in a day, usually I spent a weekend doing it so I
could do other stuff too). This was for an itty bitty plane and only
half polished with the more difficult to polish bits (things like upper
wing surfaces) painted. A completely polished Cherokee, for example,
would be at least three days work every two months to keep looking nice.
The plane absolutely must be hangared too. We also used Nuvite, the
final polish grade of that stuff also leaves a bit of a coating that
keeps it shiny for much longer.

The result with our C140 was of course stunning, especially when the
plane was parked on a rural turf airfield, with the polished underside
and tail reflecting the green grass, trees and blue sky. But it was a
BIG commitment to keep it that way. On the plus side you really get to
know the skin of the plane well and each session of polishing is a
rather thorough inspection.

--
From the sunny Isle of Man.
Yes, the Reply-To email address is valid.

The result with our C140 was of course stunning, especially when the
plane was parked on a rural turf airfield, with the polished underside
and tail reflecting the green grass, trees and blue sky. But it was a
BIG commitment to keep it that way. On the plus side you really get to
know the skin of the plane well and each session of polishing is a
rather thorough inspection.

(Note: I've deleted .piloting from this reply. That group is gone, I'm
afraid.)

This is an asset of a cosmetically well-maintained plane that rarely gets
mentioned. The act of thoroughly cleaning/polishing/waxing an aircraft
gives you the opportunity to really inspect your plane, and lets you detect
problems early on.

For example, just the other day I was cleaning the 'Coupe when I bumped into
the exhaust pipe -- and it moved! Turns out a clamp was loose, and we were
able to simply tighten it up, rather than "discovering" it in flight when it
could have potentially become a serious problem.

Just another reason to look askance at planes with two summers' worth of
dead bugs on the struts...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
Ercoupe N94856
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

On 2008-07-11, Jay Honeck wrote:
For example, just the other day I was cleaning the 'Coupe when I bumped into
the exhaust pipe -- and it moved!

This is why I was taught, on preflight, to give the exhaust stack a firm
shake. (Unless the engine was just run, of course.)
--
Jay Maynard, K5ZC http://www.conmicro.com
http://jmaynard.livejournal.com http://www.tronguy.net
Fairmont, MN (FRM) (Yes, that's me!)
AMD Zodiac CH601XLi N55ZC (got it!)

This is why I was taught, on preflight, to give the exhaust stack a firm
shake. (Unless the engine was just run, of course.)

Reminds me of an (otherwise good) movie we watched at "Movie Night at the
Inn" a few months ago. George Peppard stars in "The Blue Max", a story
about German World War I aviators. After he lands his plane, he jumps out
and is engaged in conversation with another pilot.

The scene cuts away, and then back -- and they show Peppard with his hand
laying casually on the cylinders/exhaust stack! Everyone in the movie
night crowd let out a yelp of disbelief and sympathetic pain. Needless to
say, the guy in charge of continuity in *that* movie really dropped the
ball...

:-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
Ercoupe N94856
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote

The scene cuts away, and then back -- and they show Peppard with his hand
laying casually on the cylinders/exhaust stack! Everyone in the movie
night crowd let out a yelp of disbelief and sympathetic pain. Needless to
say, the guy in charge of continuity in *that* movie really dropped the
ball...

Funny! I'll have to look for that, next time I see it.

I really enjoyed The Blue Max. Great flying scenes and camera work, as I
recall.
--
Jim in NC

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message news:vyVdk.249112$yE1.134425@attbi_s21...
This is why I was taught, on preflight, to give the exhaust stack a firm
shake. (Unless the engine was just run, of course.)

Reminds me of an (otherwise good) movie we watched at "Movie Night at the Inn" a few months ago. George Peppard stars
in "The Blue Max", a story about German World War I aviators. After he lands his plane, he jumps out and is engaged
in conversation with another pilot.

The scene cuts away, and then back -- and they show Peppard with his hand laying casually on the cylinders/exhaust
stack! Everyone in the movie night crowd let out a yelp of disbelief and sympathetic pain. Needless to say, the
guy in charge of continuity in *that* movie really dropped the ball...

:-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
Ercoupe N94856
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Well, they would land many of those old birds dead stick, modulating the mags on and off, so maybe by the time he
deplaned, etc, it would have been cool enough. What kind of plane was it?

On Fri, 11 Jul 2008 12:00:56 +0000 (UTC), Dylan Smith
wrote:

On 2008-06-30, John Smith wrote:
It really isn't as bad as you make it out to be.
You polish on rainy spring days, before the real flying season begins
and let it go the rest of the year. Maybe touch it up in August on days
when it is too hot to fly.

Coming in to this thread very late...

Actually, it is as bad as that unless you live in the desert. I owned a
polished plane (Cessna 140). It was only half polished, too - just the
lower half of the fuselage, the tailplane, and flaps. The rest was
painted.

To keep it looking nice required a whole day of polishing, a minimum
period of once every two months. By whole day I mean at least 12 hours.
(I rarely did it all in a day, usually I spent a weekend doing it so I
could do other stuff too). This was for an itty bitty plane and only
half polished with the more difficult to polish bits (things like upper
wing surfaces) painted. A completely polished Cherokee, for example,
would be at least three days work every two months to keep looking nice.
The plane absolutely must be hangared too. We also used Nuvite, the
final polish grade of that stuff also leaves a bit of a coating that
keeps it shiny for much longer.

The result with our C140 was of course stunning, especially when the
plane was parked on a rural turf airfield, with the polished underside
and tail reflecting the green grass, trees and blue sky. But it was a
BIG commitment to keep it that way. On the plus side you really get to
know the skin of the plane well and each session of polishing is a
rather thorough inspection.

I once had the care of a polished all aluminium cessna 150A.(lovely
thing)
polishing it took a weekend. what caused it to be painted eventually
was the realisation that the night time condensation appeared to
penetrate the wax polish. this continued the activity in surface
pitting that had developed all over the aircraft.
the eventual cure to the pitting was the wash and phosphoric acid prep
done prior to alodining the aircraft and painting it.

since painting, not a problem since.

in hindsight if I wanted an all aluminium finish aircraft I'd paint it
that colour.

Stealth pilot