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Hangar Talk - how to equip a private hangar, presently in construction?

What about some video security?

Some years ago I was looking at a potential hangar, and one of the things we were going to do was automatically triggered video recording from inside the hangar, streamed over wifi, with a 3G fallback (it was a remotely located site).

That would also take care of cases of "hangar rash" to which nobody owned up That happens fairly often, especially if there is a syndicated aircraft in there, with say 10 members, each of whom has a key.

Nowadays, these systems are not at all expensive.

And you need internet (with wifi ideally) for preflight activities.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

By "light" I mean electric light and lots of it. I recently installed new lighting in my business workshop and it made a huge difference. I used warhehouse lighting, the kind where each light has it's own transformer and takes a few minutes to get going. Strip lights are simply not bright enough.

Forever learning
EGTB

That's impressive - a 1C difference reduces RH by some 10 percentage points!

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Table like this? Also handy to look for the cloud tops in the skew-t diagrams.

Bushpilot C208/C182
FMMI/EHRD, Madagascar

The hangar I am in has folding doors and they work really well.

From an "engineer" perspective, they seem to be a good solution and fairly simple. There are steel cables (ropes) which pull up the bottom edge, and the whole thing sticks out only about 3ft maximum and you get that protrusion only at the very top of the hangar anyway, where it doesn't get in the way. There is zero protrusion into the hangar.

They are also substantially unaffected by wind while operating, which is obviously desirable.

I wish I had my own hangar but if I did I would never go for an open one. Apart from security, the big thing is that the internal temperature will always be higher than the external one, which means that the RH inside will never reach 100%. If say outside you have RH of 100% (likely when e.g. raining, or anytime in the UK ) and the OAT is +10C, and the inside is +15C (very likely even if not heated) then the internal RH will be way below 100%. (There are tables for looking it up - where are you Bookworm? ) This is obviously better for the plane and avionics.

I keep 0.5kg silica gel bags in my plane, to keep it dry when it gets left outdoors, and I found, by measurement with an RH meter, that one of these bags drops the RH by about 10 percentage points which is not much but is easily enough to totally stop all condensation. Before that, the panel would be covered in condensation in the mornings.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

We had these folding doors at one of our hangers and they are nice and easy to operate.

But they are probably expensive.

Bushpilot C208/C182
FMMI/EHRD, Madagascar

Okay,

so I googled the concrete hardener a bit, but I will have to physically check the shops to see what we`ve got here......early days still! A nicely colored and practical hangar floor sounds just about right.

Now with regards to the doors, what would be the best solution? I imagine I could keep them rails clean, yet well greased.....I know the grease attracts dirt etc, but that could become a little job on a regular interval. Greasing and cleaning......

What ticks me off at the moment are these massive folding doors that are just highly impractical, I mean opening is okay I guess but before you have all the metal bars lined up with the holes below and above to close them....... We rent these hangars so I wont spend any money on improvements but Im looking forward to a decent door that I can just push or pull instead of maneuvering it back and forth till I go bonkers! Not a nice way to end the flight.....

A friend lent me his hangar once, at the beach......that worked okay apart from the fact that the door had seen very little use so while pushing it you`d get snowed under by old excessive grease!

G109B: My hangar has no door

Nice, like the professional airfields have it here. Alas, security is a concern in this case.

Ultra Long Hauler

Agreed, doors are the main problem with aircraft hangars. I elected to have three roller shutter doors separated by two hinged guide posts. The doors are raised electrically and the guide posts are winched up by electric winches. It took some messing around to get it set up but it has been very reliable in operation since.

EGNS/Garey Airstrip, Isle of Man

The hangar/house in your photo either has an up-and-over door, or no door at all.

Sliding doors have many drawbacks, the lower rail either stands proud and has to be bridged, or consists of a channel which fills up with dirt. The upper rail is carrying a load which over time causes the distance between rails to change, requiring frequent adjustments. They also take up wall space.

My hangar has no door, which substantially improves ventilation and condensation problems, but this requires a secure environment and lack of extreme weather conditions. Having said that, a 50kt head wind produces very little air movement inside the hangar unless you open the rear door.

The product I used was Sikafloor - 2 SynTop

Norman
United Kingdom
21 Posts
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