After first completing my Kadet i could truly say for a trainer it looked pretty damn good. It had a very smooth coating the decals were on smooth everything was clean. The wood inside was dry colorless. It just looked good.
2 or 3 months later its not the same. The plane is just covered in oil (I need some sort of cleaner to make it shiny again, does windex work?), the covering is loosing its perfect mirror finish, my wood is starting to turn pink with fuel, and everything seems to be dirty.
Ive not only been seeing it with my kadet. At my field ive been seeing some beutiful flawless planes and choppers, but im alos see alot more dirty worn out planes. (they still fly great but dont have the looks). My question is what can i do to make my plane and engine to look new again?

Thanks for any replies,

Papa

1) Don't crash. If you want to take chances, then do it at altitude until you are totally comfortable with the plane and you are absolutely confident in it's reliability.

2) DO NOT clean your planes with paper towels. They scratch the hell out of your finish because they are very abrasive. You won't notice it for a while, but your finish will become dull after a season and keep getting worse. Gently brush sand, dirt and dust off the plane before you start using a rag to clean it. Those things will really tear up your finish. Use a soft, absorbant cotton rag for cleaning. I use baby diapers. Windex is fine, but buy bargain brands.

3) ALWAYS perform maintanance on your planes when you go home. Don't keep flying a plane that has things going wrong with it even if "it's ok for now." That covering will be harder to iron down if you let it stay loose very long.

4) DO NOT perform field repairs. They're ugly, sub-standard and really hard to make right. Mostly they are done because the person doesn't have the discipline to stop flying that plane for the day. If you make repairs in your shop, you can keep your plane in farily new condition. Take two planes to the field so if one is broken you can keep flying.

5) Be nice to your planes.

6) Do a pre-pre-flight inspection at home where you won't be distracted by your buddies at the field. Also this gives you time to thoroughly go over your plane and see if anything needs maintanance. You may have meant to change something and forgot.

7) More, but that's all I can think of off the top of my head.

Clean with windex after every flight , and it should just shine . A plane that is flown alot will start to look like it has been flown alot and that is somthing to be proud of . Some say you can use car wax to bring back the shine .
Ron

PS. There is absolutely no reason to have oiled burned all over your engine. At least it's never been a problem for me. I make cleaning the engine and the engine compartment a regular part of cleaning the plane. I've seen planes that look like they've planted sod in there.

If you have an air compressor, use it to blow dirt from the engine and also blow crud from places that are hard to clean such as clevises, hinge lines, wheels, etc. Does a great job. If you don't have a compressor, then squirt a lot of water or windex in those areas to float out the crud.

I fly gas but when I flew glow, I used baby wipes.

What do you use to wash fuel out of wood?

I'd think its kinda late for that. The most you can do (I think) is to let sit in the sun for a while and hope it dries out. Add a little water too it first.

For the wood with fuel in it, several posts in this forum suggest K2 spot remover. They say rub it in and leave it until it turns to a white powder and brush it off. Supposed to work well, just haven't had to use it yet. One other thing, never, never leave the field before you clean up your plane. Thinking that you will do it home leads to putting it off indefinitely.

You should not be getting much fuel soaking. Was everyhing sealed with epoxy, around the engine area, etc.??

Spray K2r on the fuel area ,after drying brush off,might take a few treatments if the area is really soaked.A paste of corn starch or baking soda with alcohol brushed on then cleaned off after will do the same,also may take a few times,filling the area with cat litter then leaving a week or two also works.

I also would put on a exhaust pipe extension to keep some of the oil off helps me keep mine cleaner!!

Did you seal the wood? Seal it with balsarite or thinned epoxy with alcohol. I also clean the plane and engine with alcohol. Keeps mine looking like new. Clean the engines with a tooth brush. Use Marvel Mystery oil to lube them good after you clean them. Never had one go bad using that.

Ya i used sig fuel proof paint dope which seems to be working but some fuel seems to be getting into the plane i didn't duel proof that part.
You use rubbing alchocal to clean your engine and plane? Is it at any way harmful for the engine? And the marvel oil first where could i buy this second do you run the engine with the fuel or just drop some od the oil in the carb?

Thanks,

Papa

PaPa - Take off the engine, pull the fuel tank, remove anything that's in the way (landing gear?). Then go at it. While the engine is off, give it a good cleaning too (on the outside). Don't open it unless you have a good reason to.

alcohol will not hurt the engine, and it will clean things. I soak it if I need to. Fill a butter dish and drop the engine in, clean it good, blow it with an air compressor, then put marvel mystery oil in the carb, the bearing behind the prop and the exhaust port. I tend to put a ton of oil in after cleaning it and turn it by hand. Be sure not to fill the head so the piston locks and bends the rod. Make sure it is all lubed up when you are done. You can get the oil at any auto shop, maybe even target, kmart or such in the auto section.

For my engines, I have made a habit of disassembling them when new and putting them back together with red silicon (RTV). They don't leak. I also use the RTV as a thread lock on all the bolts so they don't back off. At the first sign of burned oil, I inspect for the cause and reseal as needed. A little care in this area will prevent a massive clean-up in the future. Also, for the first hour or two of flight time on a new engine, check the head and muffler screws after every flight. That's when they love to losen up. They will however settle in and stay tight. If you've flown 5 or six flights and they are still tight they will probably stay tight. I also check them before every flying afternoon. Only takes seconds, and prevents that nasty burned oil.

As for the airplane itself, it's no longer much of a concern, just a wipe off at the end of the afternoon. I'm using HDPE firewalls and plastic or aluminum fuselages and plastic wings, so everything on my planes is already fuel proof. The really cool part is that it never deteriorates, so if I'm lazy and don't feel like cleaning a plane...it's no big deal, I can get to it later because I'm not worried about the fuel soaking into wood or under the corners of the covering. If it's really a muddy day or I dirt nap, I make sure I cover the engine openings, and hit it with the garden hose to get the mud off before I take the wing off. Some of my aluminum rail planes have external radio equipment, so if they get muddy or grose, I'll just cut some zip-ties and take the radio out before I hose em down. Zip-ties don't cost all that much and it only takes a few minutes to re-install the radio.

Carb cleaner and brake cleaner from Wal-Mart is very cheap, and also makes GREAT cleaners, especially at the field after a dirt nap to get the dirt out of hard to reach places.