Keys & Strut cuffs

[nicow]

G'day all.

A couple of questions for the more experienced owners. I have one key that does both pilot side door & ignition but trying to get it copied locally is proving difficult. I have the letters PK507 embossed on it- does this mean I can use this code to reorder from Cessna or is there an alternative source?

Secondly, has anyone installed the C172 style wing strut cuffs at the top & bottom. For those that have, is it an easy job & is there any noticeable speed increase?

Thanks in advance for any response,

Harry Wightman
1950 C170A

[Bruce Fenstermacher]

Depending on the manufacturer of the cuff and/or whether you modify the cuff with a slit you may have to revoe the strut at one end to get the cuffs on. Then they need to be attached to the wing and fuselage skin some how. The easiest but least desirable in my opinion is PK screws throught the skin.

Someone put these on my plane with PK screws. There was of course NO paper trail to make them legal on a 170. They are a pain to remove for inspection. After a while they crack. And so even though my aircraft wasn't painted under them, I removed them. I saw no speed difference but I'm sure if I had a wind tunnel and calibrated instrumentation there is some.

Bottom line is I wouldn't put them on.

[170C]

I put strut cuffs on my '56 172 TD (tail wheel conversion). I did not use the plastic ones. I purchased the fiberglass ones as I was told they could easily be repaired if necessary. They require a hole (round) to be drilled in the lower side to allow the ring tie down to go up through. I elected not to have the nut show on the upper side and fashioned a wrench to slip under the cuff to hold the nut while tightening or loosening. They look better (IMHO) as they streamline the joints where the struts meet the wing and fuslage, but if they have any effect on speed it must be in the mind of the purchaser.

[GAHorn]

Cessna key blanks occasionally are sold for gasoline-type prices (highway robbery) at some website auctions. Local locksmiths (not WallyMart, etc., but a genuine LOCKSMITH) can usually identify the yale key blank that will correspond....OR...even better, can usually obtain genuine Cessna key blanks.
A couple years ago I thought I'd done a great thing by purchasing a dozen genuine Cessna key blanks for only $2 a piece. (I'd seen them online auction off for up to $10.) I used a couple for my own 170, and sold/gave away the rest. It took about a month to hunt down, and special order them.
Only a couple months later, while driving through the little Po-Dunk town nearby (Marble Falls) I stopped at the local Locksmith who had a peg-board full of blank keys. He sold me 10 Genuine Cessna blanks at 25-cents apiece. (I made gifts of them as stocking stuffers at Christmas.) Last month, I stopped by again and see a new owner of the business wants $1.50 each for them, either blank or cut makes no difference.
Anyway, I guess the bottom line is, to check with local locksmiths. Don't let them know what some people will pay for them.

[cessna170bdriver]

I've always been under the impression that blanks that would work are fairly common hardware store items. (not necessarily with Cessna Logo). I've had several copies made over the years as I lost keys. I once even had a key to a desk at work that would interchange with my airplane key.

Miles

[GAHorn]

You always were an impressionable young lad.
(Yeah, there's both a Yale, and a Taylor blank that will work. They may not be exact, but it works.)

[lowNslow]

In my cargo days I was issued a key to the DC3 cargo door. One day after the coffee machine stole my money I tried the key on it and it worked. Out of curiousity, I tried it on some other locks and low and behold it worked on display cases, lock boxes, other airplanes, etc. The old DC3 key has been a great skeleton key. Unfortunately, it does not work on my 170.

[N2865C]

If you try your key on many early Cessnas you are likley to find that it will fit. So much for homeland security.

[CraigH]

If you try your key on many early Cessnas you are likley to find that it will fit. So much for homeland security.

That's alright. Everyone knows that terrorists can't fly taildraggers.

[nicow]

Thanks for the responses everyone. I'll skip the cuffs & persevere with the locksmiths, Cheers.

[HA]

airplane keys only keep out honest people. my NAPA locking gas cap key from my '82 Camaro works on most of our fleet, which is just one reason I put better locks on all our stuff that goes overseas.

same with my plane, I found that when I was in a community hangar somebody was borrowing my headsets etc from my supposedly locked plane. so I went to the local locksmith and bought a lock that uses a circular key like a pop machine. of course, THAT key also works on one of our Cheyennes

[thammer]

airplane keys only keep out honest people. my NAPA locking gas cap key from my '82 Camaro works on most of our fleet, which is just one reason I put better locks on all our stuff that goes overseas.

same with my plane, I found that when I was in a community hangar somebody was borrowing my headsets etc from my supposedly locked plane. so I went to the local locksmith and bought a lock that uses a circular key like a pop machine. of course, THAT key also works on one of our Cheyennes

Some of those circular locks can be opened with a Bic pen. A major lock company found this out recently, I think it was the Kryptonite lock maker, and replaced all the locks that needed the design change. The problem is not specific to a brand, rather to the general design of the type of lock.

tye

[AR Dave]

When I bought my plane and had it annualed (early 90's), the mechanic lost my key. So he went to his key rack and gave me 2 keys. One works the door and the other works the mags. How do I get back to just one key, for door & mags?

[Bruce Fenstermacher]

Dave, I'd compare the keys. They are probably nearly the same. You probably have one tumbler in the door lock that doesn't quite open with the mag key. Remove the door lock barrel and look at it with the key inserted. You can either remove that tumbler and leave it out or go to a locksmith store and get the right tumbler. Of course you could match the door key to the mag switch as well.

[GAHorn]

Dave, you go back to the mechanic and tell him to find your key, or you tell him to hire the locksmith that can cut you a new one/or change your tumbler. (Sorry for the rant. That'd P--- me off.)

HA is correct. The door lock mechanisms on airplanes are cheap, plentiful, and used on all sorts of things like office-file drawers and pickup truck tool boxes. Even the best of them merely interfere with the door latch. The C170 door latch is merely a "catch" made of phenolic bar cut in a pie-shaped wedge (some later ones are made of metal), any of which can be jiggled, manipulated, or downright defeated by vigorously rocking the airplane's wingtips and popping the door open.
The later 150/172 latch is more durable and consists of a grooved sliding bar engaging a rotary ratchet. It's a much more durable latch. Many 170s have been converted to the 150/172 doorlocks, but it's not a simple or cheap mod. (Thank you Bill Goebel for doing mine before I bought it.) When a persistent burglar defeats IT,...you have a much larger repair bill than the earlier type. (But the later door is less likely to pop open in flight, especially if it's in-flight position is used by rotating the interior handle to the aft position, which plunges the sliding bar deeper into the door-post.)

It's an entirely seperate discussion as to whether you should be flying with the doors locked. (Do you want rescuers to be able to easily extract you?)

Locks either encourage honesty, ... or they make thievery more troublesome or obvious by slowing the thief down,...encouraging him to seek an easier target. Anyone wishing to make their airplane more difficult to enter should consider one of the aftermarket cabin locks such as: http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/p ... nelock.php
also known as The Plane Lock (tm). I've seen those also in homemade versions, for those of you handy with metal. It will prevent the thief from opening your door in the normal manner, because you close your door, reach in the window and rotate your interior handle to the locked position, then close the window on The Plane Lock (tm), and use a common padlock. It'll make your airplane look more troublesome and the thief will more likely move onto someone else's airplane.
Or, he'll simply bash in your window or... even easier,... simply pull the door-hinge pins, remove your door, and steal your radios/headsets/GPS anyway. (The last set of 172 doors I saw sold at ebarf were obtained in such a manner. They should change the name to epawn, perhaps?)

(Keep your goodies hidden from view, or at home, and keep your airplane on a secure ramp, or in a locked hanger. Consider a "prop-lock" or hardened chain or cable and padlock, if your plane is on a public airport ramp.)