Airplane washing question

[Citationkid]

What would you charge to wash a C210? Just a normal getting the grease off the belly and bugs off the cowling and leading edges, windows cleaned. And how about if you were to do the above and wax it aswell.

Thank you.

P.S. He's providing the stuff required for the wash.

 

[N49185]

$25.00-$35.00 depending on the customer.

 

[DenverDude2002]

Delta could use a lesson as far as washing planes. Those poor L1011s went probably 20 yrs without a wash.

 

[avbug]

Alex,

You do what you feel is best, but I learned to fly by washing and waxing airplanes. I traded one hour of flying for each airplane detailed. That was a full detail, inside and out, which I thought was a pretty good trade.

The detailing services that travel to owners and clean their aircraft charge a king's ransom...but many owners wouldn't bother if they had to pay that kind of money. If you do well and get a recommendation, and have decent prices, you may find that you can get a small circle of clients to work for.

Every wash job should include a full wax. Clean the interior, too. You'll want to be familiar with what chemicals you can use, and how to clean an airplane. Also get familiar with what can hurt you, and what you can hurt. By example, those little white deposits that gather behind exhaust stacks and augmenter tubes clean off with a little elbow grease...but they're extremely toxic. That's lead, from the fuel, and it can cause some serious harm to you. You should never clean it without adequate protection.

Conversely, be sure you don't contaminate static ports, pitot tubes, etc. Be careful about thoroughly rinsing the surface, to avoid cleansing agents settling into faying surfaces (overlapping surfaces), which could be a riveted seam, inspection plate, etc.

Some owners may want the engine cleaned, which requires certain precautions and care. Get some instruction from a mechanic before you attempt that.

One aircraft for one hour of flying. Pretty fair trade.

 

[Citationkid]

Thanks for the advice Avbug. As far as the cleaning for flying, he does both for me. He doesn't want me to work for free and he'll take me flying whenever we can, he truely is a great guy.

 

[Jmmccutc]

i wash alot of planes and i just try to set up an agreement or bargin for flight time...for me i'd try to get 2.0 or 2.5 hours for a full wash and wax...but just a degrease and bugging...hmm...about 1.0 to 2.0 hours should do..