How to wash a dirty dusty plane

[Tommy]

Just finished a 2 week long air race and my plane is half covered - particularly the undercarriage - in dust. What's the best way of removing the dust on the plane? Will washing with low-pressure hose remove any grease / lubricant? 

Thanks guys

[bonal]

Being mostly on the underside would that be mostly "down under"

[bonal]

Seriously though when cleaning ours we use Gojo hand cleaner on all the surfaces avoiding the spots where grease is supposed to be and when rinsing the areas with the cleaner are clean and the greased areas are unaffected by the water.

[Andy95W]

47 minutes ago, bonal said:

Being mostly on the underside would that be mostly "down under"

So he may actuallly be talking about the top of his airplane, from our perspective.  Now I'm getting confused...

[Hector]

LOW pressure hose is fine. Key word LOW. I don’t particularly like washing my plane with a hose. I do it once a year when I come back from my Florida Keys vacation and the airplane has been sitting outside for a couple of weeks. I wash it then with a hose just to make sure I get any salt residue off the airplane. The rest of the year my plane is hangared and I do clean it regularly with a spray bottle with a mixture of water and NO rinse Wash & Shine.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[ArtVandelay]

LOW pressure hose is fine. Key word LOW. I don’t particularly like washing my plane with a hose. I do it once a year when I come back from my Florida Keys vacation and the airplane has been sitting outside for a couple of weeks. I wash it then with a hose just to make sure I get any salt residue off the airplane. The rest of the year my plane is hangared and I do clean it regularly with a spray bottle with a mixture of water and NO rinse Wash & Shine.

Why, when you fly through rain, that’s water at 175 mph, pretty sure that’s higher speed than water from a hose?

[RLCarter]

Wash it a hose and by hand , go fly it for an hour when done to blow out the water, like above no different than flying in the rain

[LANCECASPER]

1 hour ago, teejayevans said:

Why, when you fly through rain, that’s water at 175 mph, pretty sure that’s higher speed than water from a hose?

Not a good comparison, the psi on some hose trigger nozzles can remove loose paint in a hurry. Individual water droplets in a rain storm don't even come close to that psi.

[ArtVandelay]

Not a good comparison, the psi on some hose trigger nozzles can remove loose paint in a hurry. Individual water droplets in a rain storm don't even come close to that psi.

Maybe a pressure washer, but I would estimate a garden hose nozzle stream of water has a velocity of around 25mph. I would be very careful when pointing the water from any direction other than the front or at any vents.

[LANCECASPER]

6 minutes ago, teejayevans said:

Maybe a pressure washer, but I would estimate a garden hose nozzle stream of water has a velocity of around 25mph. I would be very careful when pointing the water from any direction other than the front or at any vents.

Not to beat a dead horse, but the water coming out of a pressure washer can come close to 250 mph. But it's not the mph that removes the paint or cleans your driveway. It's the 1500 to 4000 pounds per sqaure inch pressure that is concentrated on one area. 

Jets fly through rain at well over 250 mph and they don't lose their paint. However, even without a pressure washer, taking 60-80 psi from your faucet and restricting it down to a very small point at the end of a hose nozzle causes the psi to rise exponentially (bernoulli).  So the psi all depends on on the size of point of the nozzle you are using on a hose and what your water pressure is to begin with. 

[N201MKTurbo]

3 minutes ago, LANCECASPER said:

Not to beat a dead horse, but the water coming out of a pressure washer can come close to 250 mph. But it's not the mph that removes the paint or cleans your driveway. It's the 1500 to 4000 pounds per sqaure inch pressure that is concentrated on one area. 

Jets fly through rain at well over 250 mph and they don't lose their paint. However, even without a pressure washer, taking 60-80 psi from your faucet and restricting it down to a very small point at the end of a hose nozzle causes the psi to rise exponentially (bernoulli).  So the psi all depends on on the size of point of the nozzle you are using on a hose and what your water pressure is to begin with. 

I've flown through the rain and lost paint....

[Hector]

Why, when you fly through rain, that’s water at 175 mph, pretty sure that’s higher speed than water from a hose?

When you are flying through rain you are not applying water under pressure in the wheel well areas nor the landing gear nor many of the other places where there is grease or cavities where water can pool.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[N201MKTurbo]

4 minutes ago, Hector said:

 

When you are flying through rain you are not applying water under pressure in the wheel well areas nor the landing gear nor many of the other places where there is grease or cavities where water can pool.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

When you are landing in the rain the greasy parts get blasted with water.

Here is the type of paint damage I got on my old Mooney with the original factory paint before I had it repainted. Even after I had repainted with Imron I would get some small pits in the paint on the leading edges while flying in the rain.

[Guest]

Washing dust off with a garden hose shouldn’t pose any real danger to the plane.  Re-grease the zerk fitting and spray the rod ends with Tri Flo.

Clarence

Edited September 3, 2018 by M20Doc

[RLCarter]

Most city water systems are 45~75psi, add spray nozzle (or your thumb) to the end of a garden hose and it will go up to maybe 120 on a good day, but that is right at the nozzle and drops rapidly after that. A little common sense will keep things dry that shouldn't have water on them. I use a garden hose to rinse the plane off then a bucket of soapy water and a wash mitt followed by another rinse, once its all done I go fly for an hour. Once back in the hangar I re lube all the control surface pivot points, rod end bearings, door hinges, fuel caps and gear. Never spray right at a pivot point, hinge or seal (door, window, fairing, etc...). I have done this with both the Mooney and Cessna with no ill effects and the Cessna doesn't even have good door or window seals. Blowing paint off isn't really a bad thing, it might look like hell but the reason it came off is it wasn't bonded any more which is one of the places were corrosion starts

[skydvrboy]

If you can knock your paint off with a garden hose, that paint needs to come off ASAP!!!  It is just inviting corrosion to start under the paint.  Better to have bare aluminum than loose paint.