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your airplane. You just spray the cleaner on the paint and wipe it off with a high-quality microfiber towel. Besides eliminating added water into your aircraft’s copious nooks and cran- nies, it’s also more environmentally friendly. For any number of reasons, many airports today are eliminating the wash racks we all grew up with.
But let’s say you can still wet wash your airplane. The question is, what’s the right way to do it?
“The practices we recommend are hand washing routinely with a mild soap and water in the shade or han- gar,” said Carol Swigart, president of Hillaero Modification Center. “There are a lot of options for aircraft de- tergents that are safe for a properly maintained paint job.”
“Remember, though, most deter- gents like these are concentrated and have to be properly mixed with water. Twice as much isn’t always better,” she added. “What you want to be careful with is using any types of off-the-shelf cleaners. Many are much too abrasive
and can actually be corrosive to air- craft metals.”
“You need to do your homework and make sure what you are using is safe for your airplane,” Kennedy said. “The AMM (aircraft mainte- nance manual) is the best place to start. They’re updated periodically and have the current list of approved cleaning products for your aircraft’s interior and exterior.”
“If you can’t safely use any cleaner on your skin, then don’t ever use it on your airplane,” Royals said. “Nothing caustic or acidic like the green, purple, or orange cleaners – unless they are citrus oil-based. They’re not meant to clean aluminum.”
“It will get down in there and cause all kinds of problems that you can’t even see,” he said. “Then one day you’re replacing parts and sheet metal, and that’s extremely expensive. If any cleaner is not on the approved AMM list, then the risk is too high. Just don’t use it.”
No matter what you use, just make sure you rinse all of the detergent residues off and out of any areas where they can accumulate. Even if they don’t promote corrosion, their build- up will capture dirt and other ma- terials that won’t do the underlying metals any good.
Okay, now that you know what not to do regarding soaps or detergents, what about choosing the cleaning tools themselves? Again, it’s mostly a matter of common sense.
As Brown explained, along with the pressure washer, you also never want to use stiff-bristled brushes or abrasive pads on the airframe. They’ll cause thousands of tiny micro-scratches in the paint surface, which in the short term will look pretty bad, and in the long-turn, promote moisture incursion into and under the paint.
That’s an especially important point if your paint is older and is already under sun-induced distress. And an- other warning (no matter how old the paint) is to be extremely careful when washing around antennas, static ports, hinges, doors, corrugated metal sur- faces, brightwork and most of all, the windows (more on how to clean those later on).
In fact, it’s just a good idea to cover or tape off things like engine cowl inlets, cowl flaps, static ports, pitot tubes, etc., any time you are doing anything but a cursory wipe-down. AND please don’t forget to remove them all when you are finished!
Keeping that “See Yourself Shine”
Now that your pride and joy is look- ing its best, you’re going to want to keep it that way for as long as pos- sible. The best way to do that is to apply some kind of top coating, which had always been some type of wax – until now.
Waxing an airplane is hard work, and unfortunately, even the best of them only last a couple of months at best. That’s a lot of effort for little return in my book. Today, modern chemistry is offering up some new products that look great and last a lot longer than wax.
20 • TWIN & TURBINE / July 2021
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