Flying with a unwanted passenger?

Since the purchase of the race car 3 years ago, my flying has gone from 3 times a week to once a month. The biggest problem of using the plane only once a month are birds like to make nest in areas like the wings and tail. Mice are also looking for a place to make a nest for the winter. If you're flying all the time, this isn't a big problem. Less time invites more trouble.

The other day I planned a short trip and arrived at the airport expecting a uneventful day.
After starting the engine and beginning to taxi to the runway for a engine run up, I noticed a little less power than I'm use to. This small decrease in power continued during the engine run- up and mag check. Also was picking up a faint vibration. A passenger would not notice the problem, but having over 1000 hrs flight time in this plane, you just know something is not right.
So back it went to it's tie down spot, no flying today.

The next day I removed the cowling to look for the problem. The first place to look was the carburetor air box which is underneath the engine.


Ah ha!, a nest inside the carburetor air cleaner box.

The culprit is caught on camera. A non-paying passenger. This mouse was getting ready for winter. He had build a complete nest inside the air cleaner box.

This was the problem, blocking the carburetor and sucking in some nest material. Once this was all cleaned out the plane again purred like a kitten(which I could of used).