Cessna057 From United States of America, joined Sep 2006, 439 posts, RR: 2 Reply 1, posted (6 years 7 months 3 weeks 3 days 18 hours ago) and read 2418 times:
I don't know what kind of planes your talking about, but I know Cessnas are washed basicaly just like a car. As for jets, I'm not quite sure....
Hold it . . . Hold it . . . HOLD THE FREAKIN NOSE UP!!
Nkops From United States of America, joined Jun 2005, 2544 posts, RR: 6 Reply 2, posted (6 years 7 months 3 weeks 3 days 18 hours ago) and read 2409 times:
There are companies that are FAA approved to do power-washes on aircraft. Never seen it done though, but I'm from a small non-hub station too
Qantas767 From Australia, joined Jul 2000, 101 posts, RR: 1 Reply 3, posted (6 years 7 months 3 weeks 3 days 17 hours ago) and read 2390 times:
The RAAF has a plane wash, they just taxi through it. Consists of high power jets of water from below the A/C. I think it is primarily used to remove the sea salt from the AP-3C Orions. I'll see if I can find a picture.
TacSupport1 From United States of America, joined Jul 2005, 39 posts, RR: 0 Reply 4, posted (6 years 7 months 3 weeks 3 days 17 hours ago) and read 2366 times:
I'm curious who washes the commercial airliners, like jetBlue's A320's or Virgin Atlantics 747's, etc. Sorry for not specifying.
1011 From United States of America, joined Feb 2001, 315 posts, RR: 0 Reply 7, posted (6 years 7 months 3 weeks 3 days 17 hours ago) and read 2287 times:
In San Diego AA actually has a wash area near the fuel loading islands. AA planes are washed at night with a solution then powerwashed. It is a very interesting process. They swear that clean planes burn less fuel. I am not sure about other airports or airlines.
At the local small plane airports light aircraft are washed by a mobil truck. Kinda like a auto detailer
Chachu201 From New Zealand, joined Apr 2006, 857 posts, RR: 19 Reply 8, posted (6 years 7 months 3 weeks 3 days 17 hours ago) and read 2287 times:
I would be inclined to think that some airlines (AF) wash their planes less frequently than others, so it depends on carrier, and also it might depend on location, as regards sea salt. So American Eagle would probably wash less than Aloha, if you see where I'm coming from..........
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Qantas767 From Australia, joined Jul 2000, 101 posts, RR: 1 Reply 9, posted (6 years 7 months 3 weeks 3 days 17 hours ago) and read 2246 times:
Quoting Qantas767 (Reply 3): The RAAF has a plane wash, they just taxi through it. Consists of high power jets of water from below the A/C. I think it is primarily used to remove the sea salt from the AP-3C Orions. I'll see if I can find a picture.
BatonOps From United States of America, joined Jun 2006, 724 posts, RR: 4 Reply 10, posted (6 years 7 months 3 weeks 3 days 16 hours ago) and read 2231 times:
Quoting Qantas767 (Reply 3): The RAAF has a plane wash, they just taxi through it. Consists of high power jets of water from below the A/C. I think it is primarily used to remove the sea salt from the AP-3C Orions. I'll see if I can find a picture.
When I was stationed at MacDill AFB in the late 90's we use to run the KC135's through a 'bird bath' The water would shoot up from the ground just like Qantas mentioned. It was pretty cool to watch.
American777 From United States of America, joined Nov 2009, 0 posts, RR: 0 Reply 11, posted (6 years 7 months 3 weeks 3 days 16 hours ago) and read 2187 times:
It seems that AF doesn't like to wash their airplanes!!! They are lazy!
Even some of their new Boeing 777-300ER's are already looking kind of dirty and they aren't that old yet.
LouA340 From Canada, joined Oct 2005, 376 posts, RR: 0 Reply 12, posted (6 years 7 months 3 weeks 3 days 16 hours ago) and read 2125 times:
You're very welcome Qantas767
As for Air France, everyone knows their reputation about washing their birds. I guess they dont put it into the schedules. Most airlines do their washing during downtime or long layovers.
AC and BA somtimes somtimes wash their aircrafts while on the ground in HKG and I'm presuming others do the same too.
Jben From Australia, joined Aug 2006, 74 posts, RR: 4 Reply 13, posted (6 years 7 months 3 weeks 3 days 16 hours ago) and read 2094 times:
I don't understand why AF doesn't wash their planes... surely all that dirt and muck must weigh quite a bit when you consider it across the fleet? Wouldn't it be cheaper (and better looking) to wash them regularly rather than hauling all that dirt around?
JetBlueAtJFK From United States of America, joined Jan 2005, 1687 posts, RR: 4 Reply 15, posted (6 years 7 months 3 weeks 3 days 14 hours ago) and read 1978 times:
I have seen it doen many times with simple power washers with a guy up spraying down on it like he is de-icing the plane. They do the simple cleans a lot on planes.
AA777223 From United States of America, joined Feb 2006, 1112 posts, RR: 7 Reply 16, posted (6 years 7 months 3 weeks 3 days 14 hours ago) and read 1922 times:
Quoting American777 (Reply 11): It seems that AF doesn't like to wash their airplanes!!! They are lazy!
Even some of their new Boeing 777-300ER's are already looking kind of dirty and they aren't that old yet.
Dirty as she may be, my goodness that is a beautiful aircraft! Just looks graceful, powerful, long, and lean. I love the 773ER!
Bringiton From United States of America, joined Sep 2006, 866 posts, RR: 0 Reply 17, posted (6 years 7 months 3 weeks 3 days 13 hours ago) and read 1905 times:
why does AF seem not to do so? I have noticed dirty AF aircrafts aswell , i guess they arent bothered about people accociating their names with dirty airframes ( no pun intended) !!
FutureUALpilot From United States of America, joined May 2000, 2561 posts, RR: 8 Reply 18, posted (6 years 7 months 3 weeks 3 days 13 hours ago) and read 1861 times:
I worked for a company called JetWash at SAN over the past 2 summers. We did Alaska Airlines, Aloha Airlines and Northwest Airlines RONs.
We had a van with a trailer that held a large (500gal) tank of water and cleaning solution that we would pump into out buckets. We then set up pressure washers that had 2 nozzles, one to spray deionized water(prevents spotting/streaking) and one that mixed the soap with the water and essentially created a foam that we sprayed directly onto the aircraft fuselage. We then took what is basically a big sponge at the end of an extendable pole, and scrubbed the airplane down. We let them air dry, and had various sponges/rags depending on the type of wash and how dirty the a/c was. The aircraft we did were 734/737/738/738, 752, A320 and MD80s. As far as larger a/c, we had a NW rep come and watch us to ensure we were maintaining their standards, and he had a binder detailing thew wash of every a/c in their fleet. The heavies were done in more or less the same fashion, albeit with more people and more equipment.
Aloha was meticulous,w anting their 737s washed once every 30 days, top to bottom, tip to tip, nose to tail. We cleaned them so they were more or less spotless. Alaska, and NW were a little less stringent, but nevertheless, we put in a lot of work on their airplanes too.
Sammyk From United States of America, joined Oct 1999, 1686 posts, RR: 0 Reply 20, posted (6 years 7 months 3 weeks 3 days 12 hours ago) and read 1813 times:
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