If I have time, I try to after each flight. What do you use to get the bugs off? For waxing? Or do you have someone else do it?
WhiskeyPapa wrote:
If I have time, I try to after each flight.
Same for me.
What do you use to get the bugs off?
Water plus microfibre tissue seems to be good enough.
For waxing?
Nothing.
Or do you have someone else do it?
I usually try to get my passenger do the cleaning. 
I try also after each flight, but only the leading edges and the aircraft nose. Specially in spring/summer you can find there several dozens of dead mosquitoes.
I use just water and microfiber for this daily washing, but sometimes I make use also of a bug remover spray, when the dead mosquitoes quantity is relevant.
And for a complete wash, which usually I do each two or three months, I add a few car shampoo to the water.
And always, and I mean always, I clean the windows after the preflight. I really hate to fly with dirty windows. Microfiber and glass cleaner spray for that purpose.
Glass Cleaner is very bad for plexiglass windows. Better use a special cleaner for aircraft windows. The Ammonia in most glass cleaners will cause crazing, which means very tiny cracks will develop.
So is the classic Rain-X – known cases of destroyed plexi windows.
My plane is almost never cleaned. Maybe once a year. I do keep the inside clean though. And it has the sun cover on it almost 100% of the time when not flying. I also look after the windows religiously (Plexus only and a totally fresh rag) and never let anybody doing cleaning to touch them.
At each 50 hour inspection, and whenever the inevitable accumulation of mud and sheep droppings, or worse, looks likely to affect W&B.
I was warned only to wash my wood/fabric plane before flying it.
kwlf correct, why rub wet mud into the fabric and leave the aircraft damp. Mud comes off fabric much easier when dry.
Jacko wrote:
At each 50 hour inspection, and whenever the inevitable accumulation of mud and sheep droppings, or worse, looks likely to affect W&B.
Can’t you just skim across a loch and wash the aircraft?
Flyer59 wrote:
Glass Cleaner is very bad for plexiglass windows. Better use a special cleaner for aircraft windows. The Ammonia in most glass cleaners will cause crazing
You just need to be careful when selecting the product. There are some glass cleaners in the market than can be used also on plastics. I use one of those, which is ammonia-free, and I’ve had no problem up to date. Additionally it works really well to remove fingerprints from LCD screens e.g. EFIS and GPS
