Club Homepage Forums Classified Ads Buy & Sell - Everything But Airplanes Fuel steps

I had the same thought! But I thought they might have been polished when I first looked. Either way they sure are pretty!

Jim uses a ladder religiously and has never set foot on the steps.

As polished as they are and without any wing-walk compound on them for traction and safety, I'd bet they could be awfully slippery if your shoes are wet??

I don't know why anybody would want to climb on their airplane

Why not? Cessna designed and installed the fuel steps/handles for a practical purpose. They're not just for Jim to polish.

I use a five gallon bucket from home depot, it stores misc. items during flight and turn it upside down for a step to check the fuel and caps. Not elegant, but serviceable and inexpensive.

I like serviceable and inexpensive, Brett!

I ended up settling on this 18" Folding Step [amazon.com] from Amazon. Actually ordered a 2 pack for like $45. One stays in the plane and the other in the hangar. Weighs about 3.5#, but the 18" height is good for vertically challenged people like me.

How sturdy is this thing? Do you feel reasonably safe and stable while perched up on it, eg while futzing with the fuel tank caps?

The description (clearly not written by a native English speaker) is interesting:

That "safe weight of 75 pounds" figure con't be right, but I'm trying to imagine what the real number is. I note that 75 kilos (likely the weight system used where this is made) equals 165 pounds.

Michael, does the step-ladder have a weight rating (in pounds) that you've seen (either printed on the thing or in the docs that came with it)?

David - No doubt, it's definitely from overseas. I'll check to see if there's a weight rating on the steps, but I don't know the answer to that off the top of my head. I'm just a little guy (maybe 175 soaking wet) so I was more worried about the height and cost than the weight rating on it. It gave an extra 2 inches over almost every other step stool I looked at (18" vs 16"), and that's enough to allow me to comfortably work the gas caps and stick the tanks. Since I'm only about 5'8", I still need a full step ladder to actually see inside the tanks and would only use this in the absence of a ladder to dispense fuel. It feels solid under me, and the extra 2" gave me what I was hoping for, but take that for what it's worth understanding my size. Hope this helps!

I'm not sure that would be tall enough for me. I'm only 5'4". I did check a comparable product, and the weight limit was 230 lbs, so I think this one would be good from that standpoint.

For reference only, here is what we have at the HNB fuel farm. It weighs 19 lbs, otherwise I'd buy one and stick it in 420's cargo area. (This is my step ladder. I never knew my real ladder) [louisvilleladder.com]

There's a larger, full-size ladder available that I don't use simply because it's overkill and unwieldy for a guy my size, plus a recently-acquired set of rolling high-wing fuel steps that Ron Twente was actually the first to use.