Exterior Dry Wash at Turin Caselle (LIMF)

What changes at Turin Caselle for a dry-wash turnaround?

Turin Caselle sits at 989 feet elevation, sixteen kilometres north of the city centre. The single runway—18/36, 3,300 metres—runs preferential to 36, and the tower operates around the clock. Four handling agents work out of the General Aviation Terminal: SAGAT Handling, Aviapartner, Argos VIP Private Handling and Esair Handling. SAGAT provides central apron coordination, follow-me and refuelling services, while the handlers manage terminal access, ground power and airside escort.

Because LIMF is slot-coordinated, every movement is pre-planned. A dry wash must fit inside your existing slot window; we coordinate start time with your handler forty-eight hours before arrival so that the crew and equipment are airside when you block in. The General Aviation Terminal was built for the 2006 Winter Olympics and spans 4,700 square metres across three levels, which means apron space is finite and aircraft often park close together. We work on your assigned stand without repositioning the jet, and the handler provides the airside escort for our technicians.

Winter in the Po valley brings frequent fog and damp air, which accelerates hydraulic weeping and leaves a persistent film on belly panels and gear doors. Spring pollen from the surrounding plains bonds to leading edges. A dry wash removes both without introducing water into seams or static ports, and because the products are hydrophobic, the next rain or decon spray beads off more cleanly.

How do the handlers at LIMF expect a third-party detailing crew to operate?

Every handler at Turin Caselle requires forty-eight hours' notice for a third-party service provider. We submit our company insurance certificate, airside-pass details and a list of technicians to your nominated handler, who then arranges the escort and confirms apron access. On the day, our crew meets the handler representative at the GA terminal airside gate; the handler walks us to the stand, verifies that GPU and chocks are in place, and confirms the aircraft tech log has been signed for external work.

Handlers expect us to stay within the wing-tip safety zone, avoid walking under the nose or tail without permission, and never open a door or panel. If we find a fluid leak or paint damage that was not visible in the pre-flight photos, we photograph it and report it immediately to the handler and to your crew or maintenance contact. At the end of the job, the handler inspects the stand for FOD, signs our completion sheet, and escorts us back through the gate. The whole airside protocol takes about fifteen minutes at arrival and ten at departure, so we add that to the published service duration when we quote a finish time.

What does the documentation and photo report include after a dry wash?

We shoot time-stamped photographs before we touch the aircraft: full fuselage profile from both sides, close-ups of the nose, tail, nacelles, belly and any pre-existing blemishes. Those images go into a shared folder that your handler and your maintenance tracker can access, so there is no ambiguity about the condition at block-in. During the wash we note any paint chips, leading-edge erosion, hydraulic stains or loose fasteners; those observations appear in a typed report with corresponding photographs.

When the work is finished, we take the same profile shots and close-ups so you can compare before and after. The handler signs the completion sheet, which lists start time, finish time, products used, areas cleaned and any defects observed. A PDF of the full report—photos, notes, handler signature—reaches your ops desk within two hours of our leaving the apron. If you run a fleet programme, we keep a history file so that each successive wash can be scheduled based on actual contamination rate rather than a fixed calendar interval.

Why does a dry wash make sense on a slot-coordinated airport?

Slot coordination at LIMF means your departure time is fixed weeks in advance, and any delay ripples through the European network. A traditional wet wash requires a dedicated wash pad, a tow, a wait for the pad to become available, and then a second tow back to the stand—all of which can add ninety minutes to two hours to the turnaround. A dry wash happens on your assigned stand while the aircraft is on GPU, so the only clock that matters is the service duration itself.

We schedule the start time to finish one hour before your filed departure, leaving a buffer for final walkaround, pitot-cover removal and the handler's FOD sweep. If your slot moves, we move with it; if you go AOG, we stand down and reschedule at no charge. Because there is no water and no tow, there is also no risk of frozen brakes in winter or of missing a departure slot because the wash bay was occupied longer than expected. The process is predictable, the timeline is tight, and the handler's workload stays inside normal ramp operations.

What happens to the belly and gear bays during a waterless exterior clean?

The belly collects the densest layer of contamination: engine oil mist, hydraulic fluid, de-icing residue and runway rubber. In a dry wash we apply a degreasing emulsion that breaks down those films without saturating the area or forcing liquid into gear-bay seams. The product sits for two to three minutes, then we wipe it away with lint-free microfibre cloths, turning the cloth frequently so we are always lifting soil rather than spreading it.

Gear doors, nacelle interiors and the aft pressure bulkhead all receive the same treatment. We do not spray directly into hinge lines, static ports or drain holes; instead we fold the cloth around a finger and work the contaminated edges by hand. Leading edges and wing roots—where bug strikes bake onto the paint—get a separate bug-remover formula that softens the protein without abrading the clear coat. The result is not showroom polish, but it is clean enough that the next pre-flight inspection is faster and any new leak or crack stands out immediately.

How does Turin's climate affect the wash interval and the products we use?

Turin sits in the western Po valley, where winter fog and spring humidity keep the airframe damp for days at a time. That moisture accelerates corrosion on exposed fasteners and holds exhaust soot against the fuselage long after the engines have cooled. Aircraft that overnight at LIMF regularly pick up a grey film on the lower fuselage and a brown stain aft of the APU exhaust. A dry wash every two to four weeks removes that film before it etches the clear coat.

In spring, pollen from the valley's agricultural plains bonds to any surface that carries a static charge—radomes, wing leading edges, windscreens. The waterless polymer we use encapsulates the pollen grain and lifts it away, then leaves a hydrophobic layer that makes the next rain or decon spray more effective. Summer heat bakes bug strikes onto the nose and wing roots within hours of a flight; we carry a pH-neutral bug remover that softens the protein so it wipes off without scratching. All products are cold-tolerant to minus ten Celsius, which matters in January and February when the apron temperature at 989 feet can sit just above freezing for days.