Questions for those of you who tie-down

[kmacht]

The airport I am planning on doing my flight testing at next month doesn't have any hangers available. I will be tieing down for at least the winter. I already bought a bruce's cover for the canopy but was wondering what everyone uses for gust locks, pitot covers, and cowl plugs? I know aircraft spruce sells pitot covers but there are so many choices I'm not sure which one will fit. I haven't seen cowl plugs for sale anywhere specifically for a Sonex but knowing this group there has to be someone with a cheap and easy solution.

Keith
#554

[MichaelFarley56]

Hey Keith,

As you've said, you'll have tons of options for what you want to do. For a contol lock I normally just wrap my lap belt around the stick and tighten up the belt so it holds the stick still. May not be the best method but it works!

As for cowling plugs, I went to the local upholstery shop and found some thick (maybe 3" thick) foam blocks and simply cut them out to the appropriate shape so that I could stick them into my cowling. In my hangar in the wintertime, I don't need to worry about water and weather but I did want something in the cowling openings so any warm preheat air would stay in the cowling. The simple foam blocks seem to help.

Finally, for pitot covers and fuel vent lines, my main concern is bugs getting in there so I just take pipe cleaners, bend them up so they don't get stuck, and install them into the pitot tube and fuel vent line. Again, not elegant, but it does the job of keeping little bugs out of the lines.

Good luck on your training! Just to ask, there's no one at the airport you can't share a hangar with?

[Sonex825]

I've had mine outside for a year and a half and aside from a desperate need of a buff job it has been fine. I have the Bruce's cover. I can't stress how great it is. I also use hobby shop foam to plug the cowling openings and have a home made prop cover for my wood prop. No issues at all.


Eric M