azure
Final Approach
During my ongoing annual the shop found, and photographed, clear evidence of recent mouse presence in my Cardinal RG. I'm not going to upload the photo - I think it's pretty obvious what they found.
This is the second time a mouse problem has been discovered while annualing The Branded Bird. The first time was during my first annual after purchase. The result was a $10,000 wing spar carrythrough replacement. The earlier infestation was old, dating most likely from the previous owner's tenure, and simply hadn't been discovered during the last annual (nor during pre-buy). Until last year I had been keeping my plane in a private T-hangar at a suburban MI airport. I never found any evidence of mice in that hangar nor in the plane since then.
Fast forward to this past winter, when I've relocated to VT. Now my only option for hangaring the plane is in a large communal hangar. The hangar is dirty, not kept very dry, and is in many ways just one step up from a tiedown. I've found evidence of mouse droppings around my plane before and brought it to the FBO owner's attention. He acknowledges that there are mice but denies that the crap around my plane was mouse poop, and bottom line he hasn't done anything about the problem (e.g. traps, poison, etc.)
I would rather not put traps inside the plane as it would mean checking them every day to prevent the odor from a dead mouse from making the plane uninhabitable. Is there any other way to keep mice out of an airplane? Should the FBO be taking a more proactive stance on the problem?
Of course the best solution for me would be to move my plane out of that hangar, but at this point that would mean tying it down outside as there are no private hangars available on field, and the next closest airport is over an hour away in good weather.
This is the second time a mouse problem has been discovered while annualing The Branded Bird. The first time was during my first annual after purchase. The result was a $10,000 wing spar carrythrough replacement. The earlier infestation was old, dating most likely from the previous owner's tenure, and simply hadn't been discovered during the last annual (nor during pre-buy). Until last year I had been keeping my plane in a private T-hangar at a suburban MI airport. I never found any evidence of mice in that hangar nor in the plane since then.
Fast forward to this past winter, when I've relocated to VT. Now my only option for hangaring the plane is in a large communal hangar. The hangar is dirty, not kept very dry, and is in many ways just one step up from a tiedown. I've found evidence of mouse droppings around my plane before and brought it to the FBO owner's attention. He acknowledges that there are mice but denies that the crap around my plane was mouse poop, and bottom line he hasn't done anything about the problem (e.g. traps, poison, etc.)
I would rather not put traps inside the plane as it would mean checking them every day to prevent the odor from a dead mouse from making the plane uninhabitable. Is there any other way to keep mice out of an airplane? Should the FBO be taking a more proactive stance on the problem?
Of course the best solution for me would be to move my plane out of that hangar, but at this point that would mean tying it down outside as there are no private hangars available on field, and the next closest airport is over an hour away in good weather.
