I recently rescued another Avid Flyer from a 20 yr barn sentence. I am in the process of tearing it apart and cleaning it up. Mice have gotten into one wing. This plane has 2 round aluminum spars. There is nesting material at the tips of both on one wing and their associated nastiness the length of the spar. I am looking for suggestions on how to clean them out so I can decide if this wing is garbage due to mouse piss corrosion. A toilet brush on a pole will work on the nastiness but I am open to ideas on how to get the nest material out. The outboard ends of the spars are sealed. I was thinking of tilting the tips up and trying a jet of water but not sure if shooting water inside of a wing is a great idea. Thoughts??

AvidFlyer wrote:I recently rescued another Avid Flyer from a 20 yr barn sentence. I am in the process of tearing it apart and cleaning it up. Mice have gotten into one wing. This plane has 2 round aluminum spars. There is nesting material at the tips of both on one wing and their associated nastiness the length of the spar. I am looking for suggestions on how to clean them out so I can decide if this wing is garbage due to mouse piss corrosion. A toilet brush on a pole will work on the nastiness but I am open to ideas on how to get the nest material out. The outboard ends of the spars are sealed. I was thinking of tilting the tips up and trying a jet of water but not sure if shooting water inside of a wing is a great idea. Thoughts??

I don't see a problem with shooting water inside the spar if you plan on keeping it in a warm environment to dry out well. Pure water is pretty safe-- it's just when it's allowed to provide a path between salts or dissimilar metals that corrosion can be more rapid. It's certainly better than mouse piss.

I once douched the inside of a Cessna wing on a hot day. It dried out in no time, then I fogged it with Boeshield.

Burn them out[emoji1]

Can you put a long suction on a shop vac and suck them out dry?

If you know a sewer cleaner they should have a small water jetter. If run a low pressure I would think it would be safe. I have one that has a 1/4" hose and 1/4" nozzle. If you look up Kleen rite on the internet they sell small nozzels , plumb it to your garden hose and it may have enough pressure. The nice thing about the jet is it has one hole in the center and four facing back to flush out the junk out.
good luck
46tcrft

I once got a bunch of bees out of a hollow box truck frame by cutting a small hole in it with a torch and then snuffing the flame and filling the cavity with oxy/acetylene mix and touching it off. bees all dead but it split the 3/4 inch steel wide open.

Actually I think I would use a roll of soft copper tubing in 3/8 or smaller and hooking it up to shop air. you could feed the tubing clear to the end and when air is applied it should blow the mouse nest apart and back down the spar. Then you can use the same tubing to spray in cleaner and corrosion protection by using a siphon gun.

I'll bring the 12 gauge over tomorrow

Shorton I like your idea. I will have to see what copper tubing at Lowes costs tomorrow. Thanks for the ideas everyone. Right now my goal is just clean this stuff up so I can store it longer until I decide if I can use it, scrap it, or if it's good and safe offer it up for sale.

Rigid pvc would probably work and be much cheaper than copper.

Rod

1/2" PEX, with the NPT fittings to neck down to shop airline?

I agree with the idea of the air hose to blow them varmints out! Also you could find a hungry rat snake and send down there if the varmints have house keeping in there.

Warning! not on topic..
what model avid? it come complete? If/when you decide it needs a new home I might be interested.

cstolaircraft wrote:I agree with the idea of the air hose to blow them varmints out! Also you could find a hungry rat snake and send down there if the varmints have house keeping in there.

Warning! not on topic..
what model avid? it come complete? If/when you decide it needs a new home I might be interested.

It's an Avid B Model built in 1989 ish. I cleaned out one spar pretty good today and it looks like the poo did a number on the aluminum spar. I kind of had a hunch at least one wing was gonna be junk when I bought it. There's no engine with it but there is a mount. I am planning on parting it out and keeping a few things as spares for mine and adding to my my Dad's stash of parts. It is straight but would need a a lot of blasting and repainting along with a total restoration and the wings rebuilt with new spars to ever have a shot at flying again. Pretty sad story really. I have all the original invoices and kit information. They were into to the tune 20K back then. Flew it less than a 100 hrs. Had an engine out and off airport landing that bent up the fuse a little bit. Had it professionally repaired and never got around to putting it back together again. It just sat and rot in a barn for over 20 years and then sold it for less money than probably the cost of the fuel that was burned in it.



Ended up with quite a few good parts.

As the guy I was flying with last week said while flying over huge lake houses... some people dont have their priorities in the right places. I hurts seeing plane sit.

looks like you got a good deal.