Purpose of carpet?

[sufferingcadet]

Does carpet serve any purpose?  The stuff in my 1966 M20E looks terrible and I was considering just ripping it out.  I figure it's easier to sweep than to vacuum and it would just give the plane a cleaner look without me having to shell out any money.  Before I did it I just wanted to make sure that the carpet didn't serve some functional purpose like protecting the underlying metal from corrosion or something of that nature.

[orionflt]

It does a lot to help cut down the noise, other than that there is no reason you can't pull it out. I will say that i personally prefer having carpet and for the $350 it cost from airtex it was worth it to me to replace it until I found carpet I liked.

 

Brian

[SkyPilot]

I took mine out. I used approved heavy vinyl in a medium grey with the round circle pattern. I use a Telex D50 headset noise is not an issue

[AmigOne]

Cuts down the noise, looks better and I doubt that it is easier to sweep under the seats or near the rudder pedals or other tight places than to vacuum.  I have a small (about the size and shape of a basketball) but powerful vacuum cleaner which I keep in the hangar and bought for $35 which does a great job.    There are also ways to make a nice carpet of fire resistant material for far less than $350.  You can use the existing carpet as a template.  

[scottfromiowa]

New handle: Cheap sufferingcadet...

[KSMooniac]

I think you'll find the floor under the carpet to look very ugly, with 40+ year old tape, some paint, some bare, perhaps a bit of corrosion, stains, etc.  

 

Work with a hot rod shop and cut your own new carpet, and have the shop bind the edges.  Easy DIY, and will look much better than bare.

[N33GG]

Carpet makes ingress and egress safer.  Without carpet, any bit of oil or grime on the bare floor can be very slippery.  Very slippery!   Personal experience in a Mooney many years ago bringing back memories...

[kerry]

Lay down some wood and stain it.  It looks sharp in my friends Stinson.

[Bob_Belville]

I'm thinking you won't like a relatively slippery floor in a Mooney. There is too much contortion required getting in and out. Until I put a lot more wide Velcro strips on the floor/carpet new passengers in particular would cause the carpet to move.

[aaronk25]

I put a 1/2 pad under mine....yes meets burn requirements.....and it cut noise substantially.

[chrisk]

I'm thinking you won't like a relatively slippery floor in a Mooney. There is too much contortion required getting in and out. Until I put a lot more wide Velcro strips on the floor/carpet new passengers in particular would cause the carpet to move.

How about painting the floor with wing walk?   --Mind you, I am not advocating this for my plane. I am quite happy with carpet.

[scottfromiowa]

How about painting the floor with wing walk?   --Mind you, I am not advocating this for my plane. I am quite happy with carpet.

Perfect...that would look awesome. Let me know how that works out cheap sufferingcadet.

My vote for best thread of the year. Good stuff.

[carusoam]

If you ever get stationed at Wightman? In N. Dakota... You will appreciate the insulation properties of the carpet......

Best regards,

-a-

[VetRepp]

We replaced the carpet and most of the interior in my Old K a while back. Did a lot of the work ourselves. One note of caution - The carpet going in has to have a certain burn rating for FAA approval - recorded somewhere in the logs. This isn't a big deal as far as most carpets go, but could be a gotcha if it ever comes up with FAA etc.

[Bob_Belville]

We replaced the carpet and most of the interior in my Old K a while back. Did a lot of the work ourselves. One note of caution - The carpet going in has to have a certain burn rating for FAA approval - recorded somewhere in the logs. This isn't a big deal as far as most carpets go, but could be a gotcha if it ever comes up with FAA etc.

I redid my M20E interior including carpet, leather and headliner using automotive materials. I sent all materials to the lab for flame spread where they passed easily. As I understand it, the auto industry is much more up to date on all things safety than aviation.

[Dcflyn]

Glad to hear thar, Bob. I just finished my headliner with the old fashioned auto 'suspended style' material. Soft, felty, and glued to a layer of 3/8" closed cell foam.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[cujet]

Interestingly, the FAR's permit pilots the authority of interior removal, installation and rework. 

 

Carpets hold dirt and dust. This is a good thing, as shoes are often dirty. 

 

We fly an Extra 300L, without any form of carpet. The amount of flying debris in this aircraft and the airborne dust always amaze me. Of course, you are upside down when you notice it....

 

Believe it or not, NASA noticed the very same thing with the lunar lander. No matter how clean they worked, it was always dirty. Carpets really do help prevent loose dirt. 

[neilpilot]

Cuts down the noise, looks better and I doubt that it is easier to sweep under the seats or near the rudder pedals or other tight places than to vacuum.  I have a small (about the size and shape of a basketball) but powerful vacuum cleaner which I keep in the hangar and bought for $35 which does a great job.    There are also ways to make a nice carpet of fire resistant material for far less than $350.  You can use the existing carpet as a template.  

Be careful about using that powerful vacuum in your Mooney.  I've been told that some motors (vacuum, drill, etc) have the potential to magnetize sections of the frame, depending on how much EMI the motor generates.  I know two aircraft owners (1 a Mooney, the other an RV) who have been trying with limited success to degauss interior pieces, and one definitely blames their issue on the repeated use of a small shop vac inside their aircraft.

[DonMuncy]

I wish that some electrical guru could tell us how an alternating current could magnetize anything in a plane. I understand how a DC current could.

[N33GG]

Are we talking about AC or DC motors and equipment here?

[DonMuncy]

Sorry, we hijacked the thread. I was responding to the belief that "some motors, drills, vacuums, etc.", could magnetize parts of the airframe.

My electro-magnetic knowledge is minimal, but I remember from science class that exposing an iron bar, to direct current (like a battery) could magnetize it. But it seems to me that exposing a metal part to alternating current would tend to magnetize and de-magnetize the part 60 times a second.

Does anyone with real knowledge have opinions here.

[N33GG]

I probably pass the real knowledge bar.

AC devices with purely changing magnetic fields will not tend to magnetize nearby objects that would be susceptible. Static magnetic fields are indeed the problem. There are a few caveats that really do not apply to the application we are discussing, but these are the basics.

Don, I think your understanding is solid.

The trick is definitively saying what magnetic field or fields any particular device is emitting without a bit more information. Some equipment configurations, although AC powered could emit a combination of static and time varying magnetic fields. A portable battery operated vacuum might very well have static magnetic fields that could be a problem. (DC or AC motors...)

Hope this helps!

[DonMuncy]

Hate to ask more. But do you think it would be safe to use an ordinary "plug it in a 120v receptacle and turn it on" type vacuum cleaner, in your plane.

[Marauder]

Don - most of the times a plane get magnetic interference, it is usually caused by DC carrying wires attached to the steel frame. You can degauss a plane and then magnetize it again by not addressing the wire routing issue.

When I use a vacuum in my plane, I keep the AC powered vacuum outside of the plane and just run the hose in. AC should not cause magnetism but the motors inside them are called electromagnetic motors.

[Bob_Belville]

I think I could find my whiskey compass, it's probably still up there on the post above the panel. Does anything else affected by a magnetized airframe?