The tail rudder that looked like a barnacle farm

Got a Cessna 172 in the shop last month that had been sitting outside at some small field in Oklahoma for about 18 months. The before picture was crusted with dirt, bird droppings, and what looked like a family of spiders living in the right aileron gap. After I spent a whole Saturday with degreaser, a pressure washer, and about 4 cans of Corrosion-X, the thing came out looking almost brand new. The owner walked in, looked at it, and said "wait, is that my plane?" Funny how a little elbow grease can turn something from a junk pile into something flyable. Has anyone else pulled a bird nest out of a control surface only to find it was still active?

4 comments

4 Comments

aliceharris23h ago

Wow, that's some serious dedication to bring her back from the dead!

nancyramirez23h ago

My cousin tried to bring our grandma's old rotary phone back to life last summer. Took it apart, cleaned every piece with rubbing alcohol, even ordered some vintage parts off eBay. Spent maybe 60 hours total on it. Grandma didn't even want it back, she just wanted a new cordless from Walmart. All that work and now it sits on my cousin's shelf collecting dust. Your mileage may vary on whether that counts as dedication or just stubbornness.

lucashenderson22h ago

I read somewhere that barn owls will nest in just about any dark cavity they can find, including plane control surfaces. That "family of spiders" story reminds me of a guy on another forum who found a whole nest of baby mice in his wing flap after not flying for a few months. Wild how nature just takes over if you leave a plane sitting too long.

taylor.brooke22h ago

OH MY GOD yes! A buddy of mine has a Cessna 172 he keeps at a tiny rural strip and he didn't fly it for like four months last summer. When he finally opened the hangar, there was a whole family of raccoons living inside the cowling. They'd chewed through some wiring and left a MASSIVE mess of shredded insulation and old food wrappers everywhere. Took him a week and a lot of swearing to get it all cleaned out and rewired.