Tim just curious , did they run into any visibility issues with the smoke from the Canadian wild fires ? I talked to my brother in Binghamton NY this morning and he said it is very hazy from the smoke .

Great accomplishment for sure , congrats to them . What's their next adventure/challenge ?

Not sure about the smoke deal. Wife and I are flying over to the local airport this evening for a welcome home event for them. Will surely hear some stories then.

He posted a pic this morning and mentioned how tough it was getting 44+ hours of bugs off. ;):D

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1686154893.jpg

That is one major advantage of a low wing aircraft, easier to clean the bugs off!

Our Cessna 182 requires a step ladder and a lot of up and down the ladder to clean the top of the wings. Bottom side is easier.

To me it sounds like a real challege. If it was a jet then no problem, but in a single engine prop plane, I don't think it sounds easy to hit every one of the contiguous states in 48 hours. I was impressed by their route. A route that maximized coverage for minimum distance/time is impressively shorter than I would have expected.

Where's the fun in that? Hell, I don't think I manage that running to the hardware store. Trying to do it without speeding would likely kill me of boredom.

I'm picturing a pressure washer, at least for the worst of it.

The quick and easy way requires just the right weather. A light rain cloud and fly through that, and it is pressure washed with clean pure rain water. No thunderstorms however. :eek:

I use a bug scrubber sponge with the net mesh. When just doing the obligatory summer bug removal, I just wipe all the leading edges quickly with soapy water to start softening them then work my way around with the bug sponge removing the little bastids. Then I come back with a dry towel and wipe it all dry.

I can reach my leading edges of the wings on my Pacer, but to do a good job, I am on step ladder to get the upper portions of the leading edges. I positively HATE doing the bottom of the wing on the pilot side when giving it a real bath. Working over head with a scrub brush and having to clean basically the whole underside back to the trailing edge is a *****... Makes my arms sore just thinking about it. :D Due to the airflow from the prop, that pilot side underside of wing gets a healthy dose of bugs.

My Pacer is mostly fabric covered and powerwashing airplanes in general is not a wise idea.

Interesting. That makes sense, but clearly not something a non-pilot is likely to think about.

Just flew to the welcome home party. Pretty cool they had local fire dept spray across the taxi way on both sides as they taxied in. A couple hundred people were there to greet them local radio was there and a band played the national anthem when they got out of the plane. Glad I went.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1686188500.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1686188500.jpg

awesome...lots of work involved.

Excellent
Thanx for posting this

Nice to see a record broken. Hats off to all involved getting those two pilots and that airplane across the finish line.

It's also nice that the airplane isn't festooned in corporate logos. I'm sure the owner would disagree, and would welcome the sponsorship.

Thank you, Tim!