So she's now an outdoor girl.

Rykymus

Line Up and Wait
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Allen, TX
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Rykymus
So I moved my plane from a hangar at KSCK in Stockton CA, to a tiedown spot at KTKI in McKinney TX. For the first time since I bought her, my 98 Archer III is an outdoor girl. I have cowl plugs (with the little flags) and an old but still usable canopy cover. (Tiedowns are chains here, BTW.) She's probably going to be living outside for awhile, as hangars seem to be hard to come by in the DFW area, and I won't even be able to start really searching the area for at least a month. (I am willing to drive up to an hour in order to park her inside.)

I'd like to avoid buying a complete airframe cover, as I'm hoping to upgrade to a twin in a year or so, but am willing to do so if the general consensus is in favor of this. I'm not so much worried about dirt or rain, as I am about hail. (I've heard stories...not that a cover would do much to protect against hail though.)

What I'm looking for are any tips/tricks y'all may have for storing your bird outside in Texas. (Notice how I slipped some local color in with the "y'all"?)

Thanks in advance
 
Do they get hail in Texas?! Might want to find out if they have a community hangar for occasional bad weather.
 
It's not so much the hail but the little black bugs that are almost impossible easily to clean off. Even driving between McAllen and AggieLand, I stopped twice just to clean the bugs off the car. Another reason I'm glad I moved to Colorado. And the big water bugs and fleas in the Houston area.
 
Do they get hail in Texas?

80% of all the houses that I fly for hail damage are in McKinney/Little Elm/Frisco.
Exhibit A:
fdB5SCg.png
 
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And you're right in season...

I would offer this for consideration. Don't use the chains. Use ratchet straps to the same anchor point. Your hands will stay cleaner and your plane more secure.

Look at Greenville and Sherman to get inside sooner. Both straight shots less than an hour drive.
 
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I'd get a good coat of wax on it. Helps with UV and helps with the bug spatters. Beyond that, a full airframe cover will help with the hail.
 
Besides hail, if the airplane is sitting outside for lengthy periods, which it sounds like it will be, than protecting it from UV is a must. I’d get a good cover for the spring and summer months.
 
As a minimum, you must cover the windshield. Sun just cooks avionics.
 
Best money spent will be on good padded covers.
 
And you're right in season...

I would offer this for consideration. Don't use the chains. Use ratchet straps to the same anchor point. Your hands will stay cleaner and your plane more secure.

Look at Greenville and Sherman to get inside sooner. Both straight shots less than an hour drive.

If you go down the ratchet strap path, cut the crappy hooks off and use nice ptzl or similar carabiners.

If it were me, I'd get some nice three strand, eyes splice to a SS marine carabiner, attach that low on the chain and tie the other end to the plane.
 
The hangar next to mine at KLNC is open. Believe there’s a short wait list, but might want to check it out. It’s probably right at your 1 hour drive limit, though.
 
I thought this technique looked interesting for chains:
Anybody use it?
 
Been using that technique for over 20 years, yup. Link through is stronger than the S-hook.
I found an airport that had chains but the links weren’t long enough to allow another link to pass through. I was glad I carried tiedowns.

The other thing about chains is that ya wanna git all the slack out of the tie downs. An aircraft “bouncing” on the chains in strong winds can break things like tiedowns rings or entire aircraft.
 
As I recall you moved to Plano, or do you live in McKinney as well as hangar there. Going to Lancaster from either place is tough, but if it were me, I would gladly fight the traffic to Lancaster rather than tie down a cherry aircraft, or almost any aircraft outside. I have experience with this after several years in hail sheds and hangars that were minimum 45 minutes from home.

Insurance is a wonderful thing and will take care of hail damage, but there are many negative effects of tying down in brutal Texas heat that can not be cured with insurance. You have moved here at a nice time of the year. Even the Winter won’t be real bad and you will get lots of good flying days, but next July, the heat will start slowly cooking that beautiful plane into the ground. There is no insurance claim that you can make that will bring back your paint, upholstery, avionics, glass, etc. if at all possible find a hail shed at the very least.

I would highly recommend a hail shed over tying down outside. I fully expect that there are a few hail shed spaces available at Bonham which is an easy drive from McKinney. The airport manager is a Texas “good ol’ Boy.” If you would like to pursue this tell him that Larry Bible sent you.

Best of luck and welcome to Texas. Take a flight to Mount Pleasant for a trip through the flight museum and let me know your coming.
 
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I re-positioned my Mooney to Texas this past Saturday. I kept it in its old hangar until I was able to secure a place. I am now based in Austin and I noticed some grousing at PoA, by Austin area pilots, how Dallas/FTW area is much better developed, and a number of FBOs and cities are building extra hangars, whereas in Austin area we never see anyone building a hangar. Now I am under a roof and you're not? Maybe it was just the grass greener talk.
 
KTKI in McKinney TX. ... (Tiedowns are chains here, BTW.)

I didn’t know that chains were common at airports located as far East as the DFW area.

There is a chain/rope continental divide, and I thought it was farther West, around Midland or Lubbock TX.
 
I got an inside space at T31 which is also in McKinney for about $150 less than I could have at ADS. But I had to drive the airport and ask around. There were not signs. Lots closer than TKI.
 
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