Paul New’s May 2022 webinar included a section on lubrication, where he spoke about various types of lubrication for Cessna parts. One ques­tion was raised about powdered graphite, which the service manual lists as the preferred lubricant for piano hinges on control surfaces. However, powdered graph­ite can cause galvanic corrosion, and when New was asked if he uses it, he replied, “I have not started any corrosion on any of my airplanes because I don’t use it.”

So what lubricant should be used instead? New said, “I would use Corrosion X. I know it’s not de­signed as a lubricant, but it actually does a pretty in­teresting thing. Those piano hinges probably haven’t been lubricated in a while, and there’s likely all sorts of debris in there from the wear and tear. When you put Corrosion X on there, you will find these really dark streamers. That’s all the debris being flushed out by the Corrosion X.”

New continued, “So my sugges­tion is if your aileron hinges and your trim tab hinges haven’t been lu­bricated in a while, I would lubricate them with Corrosion X. Work them through their full travel a bunch of times, and then after all that nasty debris stops coming out after a year or so, switch to something like Tri- Flow or LPS 2. Tri-Flow is one of my favorites because it’s a Teflon lubricant. It does better in the elements outdoors. It hangs on a lot better than silicone lubricants. So I will use Tri-Flow in a lot of places.”