Hangar parking: nose in or tail in?

Pa28-140

Pa28-140

Pre-takeoff checklist
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Gordon Shumway
This may be a stupid question, but I'm curious why most of us park our airplanes in the hangar tail first. It's not like we are going to scramble the fighters for quick response. When you think about it, it's probably easier to pull it into the hangar nose first. You can get closer without getting a hernia pushing it in. I doubt that there are very many of us who back our car into the garage, why do we back airplanes in?

I admit that I can't come up with one good reason other than "I've always done it that way". However, I can come up with several good reasons why it would be easier to put it in nose first. But, as I look around the airports I frequent, I can't recall one person pulling the airplane into the hangar nose first. Why not? :confused:
 
There are people who don't back their car into their garage?
 
My club hanger the plane doesn't fit nose in. That a good reason?
 
I park nose-in.
I know of one other person at my airport who does the same.
 
denverpilot said:
In most T-hangars, they're not shaped for nose-in.
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Which helps develop the habit of putting them away tail-first, even when you have a hanger into which you could coast.

I also think that in the event of a fire or other situation where you really want to get your airplane out of the hangar, it's easier to do it nose first, unless you have a conventional airplane (taildragger).
 
denverpilot said:
In most T-hangars, they're not shaped for nose-in.
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^^^^^^^^^ This.

Plus with my Tiger's castoring nosewheel, I prefer to push it in backward with the slight decline as opposed to pushing it out on a slight incline.
 
Pa28-140 said:
This may be a stupid question, but I'm curious why most of us park our airplanes in the hangar tail first. It's not like we are going to scramble the fighters for quick response. When you think about it, it's probably easier to pull it into the hangar nose first. You can get closer without getting a hernia pushing it in. I doubt that there are very many of us who back our car into the garage, why do we back airplanes in?

I admit that I can't come up with one good reason other than "I've always done it that way". However, I can come up with several good reasons why it would be easier to put it in nose first. But, as I look around the airports I frequent, I can't recall one person pulling the airplane into the hangar nose first. Why not? :confused:
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If the plane is long enough, there may not be enough room to hook up a tug to the nose.
 
Anthony said:
^^^^^^^^^ This.

Plus with my Tiger's castoring nosewheel, I prefer to push it in backward with the slight decline as opposed to pushing it out on a slight incline.
Click to expand...

I can dig the tail in deeper into the hangar than the nose, which I guess is along the same lines as the T-Hangar logic.

As an aside, it's really hard to hook any type of plane that needs a tow to a tow vehicle and then get the tow vehicle of the hangar :) Kinda like trying to park your boat in the garage by driving the truck in nose first with the boat behind it.
 
I started with a T-hanger, so of course that was a no brainer. Now, in a different hangar, it will fit either way. One reason is that I am used to tail first, and another reason is that the power tow develops more traction when pushing backwards rather than pulling. Last time I flew, there was a half inch of wet snow on the path. I don't think I could have pulled it in with the tow (loss of traction), but was able to do so by pushing tail first.
 
Most planes don't fit into T-hangars nose first.

We had the exact opposite situation. We always flew the plane into the hanger nose first under it's own power. It was the only way to get it in there with the bump up an inch or two from the grass to the hangar floor by yourself. It was also easier to avoid the farm equipment in front of the plane by stopping at the designated point while going in nose first.
 
The hangar at Culpeper is a T but I've not ever tried to put it in nose first. Usually, the truck is in the hangar (and the doors are manual anyhow) so I just spin the plane around slightly off center so I can get the truck out and push the plane back in.

The hangar at the house is designed to let the plane in either way (it's not a T, but there's a corner taken out of it), the door is electric (and the remote is in the plane) but I still don't usually think of nosing it in.
 
Most of us have junk in the hangar (fridge, table, chairs, shelves, workbench). Putting the plane on nose first kills a lot of hangar space.
If space isn't an issue, I don't see any reason for Tail in over nose in.
 
At Teterboro, one of the FBO's had a line on the floor of the hangar to make it easier to back in a GIV. Once the tug driver had the airplane at the right angle, he/she just pushed it back until the nose wheel was on the line. It worked until the first time they backed in a GV. 88 feet 4 inches vs 96 feet 5 inches. :eek:
 
with the small size of the RV-7A, Chirs Jones and I used to pull his in nose first, although one of the airport bums wondered if we didn't just taxi in, which we did not. Although at a club I was in with a Citabria the old fart running the place used to taxi in to the hangar nose first (naturally). I was never really that brave.
 
tonycondon said:
Although at a club I was in with a Citabria the old fart running the place used to taxi in to the hangar nose first (naturally). I was never really that brave.
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This summer I saw an old fart taxi a turbine Bonanza nose first into a large hangar at TEB only to shut down and have line service hook up a tug and move the plane to the ramp. I chuckled. :goofy:
 
Yeah, with the nested T-hangars I guess there wouldn't be enough room for the tail to go in nose first. That's probably true in my hangar with my Cherokee. However, I often fly a C182 that lives in a large box hangar and it's a ***** to try to push it tail first into the hangar. I'm hoping the owner will invest in a power tow before I stroke out pushing it. Thanks for the input.
 
I back in my car into my garage.

I push my 182 into my t-hangar tail first.

The guy across the way from me has a citation that he taxies into the hangar nose first. For his sake, I hope there's no loose stuff laying around to get sucked into the intakes. Hangars are not places for engines to be running, IMHO.
 
There's a guy an a nearby airport that has a pull through "airplane port" on his house.
No sides (except for the side common with the house) but he drives in and drives out.
 
Some do park nose in. Watched this guy pull up to where he was in the pic, shut down used the tug to move in the rest of the way. From shut down to door closed was about 2 minutes. Cocktails in about 5 minutes.

DSCN2777.jpg


Mike in NJ
 
^^^^^^

Must be nice. Rich boy pilots. :D
 
For at least one it's not a concern.
 

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I've seen hangars which have a small door at the back so they can park airplanes nose in then drive the tug out the door.
 
The Velocity thread got me thinking about how you'd hangar one in a T hangar. Since the "tail" part of these hangars is generally narrow (about half of the overall width) so they can "nest" efficiently, a delta wing like the Velocity won't fit tail-in. Probably no one at an airport would laugh if you had one nose-first because it's just a cool AC.

I was interested in the Aerostar but it's got a similar problem with the wing mounted mid-length of the fuse- it's worse than a delta since it won't fit in either direction.
 
Pa28-140 said:
This may be a stupid question, but I'm curious why most of us park our airplanes in the hangar tail first. It's not like we are going to scramble the fighters for quick response. When you think about it, it's probably easier to pull it into the hangar nose first. You can get closer without getting a hernia pushing it in. I doubt that there are very many of us who back our car into the garage, why do we back airplanes in?

I admit that I can't come up with one good reason other than "I've always done it that way". However, I can come up with several good reasons why it would be easier to put it in nose first. But, as I look around the airports I frequent, I can't recall one person pulling the airplane into the hangar nose first. Why not? :confused:
Click to expand...

Because mine is a T-hangar.

The reason for going tail-first into a box hangar (assuming it isn't oversized) is because the tail is far narrower than the wings. So going nose first means your wings must clear almost all the way to the back of your hangar. That means less room for storage cabinets and beer fridges and motorcycles (unless you have a Cessna) and dorm couches. If you have a low-wing that sucks even more because you could hardly put anything in there because the wings must clear nearly all the way back.

Of course with a large enough hangar you can park it however you want and still have room for stuff.

Tradition is just distilled wisdom, not law.
 
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paflyer said:
The Velocity thread got me thinking about how you'd hangar one in a T hangar. Since the "tail" part of these hangars is generally narrow (about half of the overall width) so they can "nest" efficiently, a delta wing like the Velocity won't fit tail-in. Probably no one at an airport would laugh if you had one nose-first because it's just a cool AC.
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There is a Velocity in the T-hangars at Chesapeake (CPK). It seems to fit fine nose-first.
 
Nice thing about Velocity aircraft is you can just drive it in to the T-hangar nose first and then get out. Just watch the wings!
 
Depends on the hangar, some will only fit one way, if it doesn't matter I typically tail in, with my current hangar I could put the plane in sideways and still have space, I still tail in, no reason why.
 
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When you get the scramble call, you can just hop in the plane, fire the engine up, and taxi right out of the hangar.

:D
 
There is only one person that I know of that pulls his plane in nose first at my home airport, it's a P model Baron. I noticed last week it was in his hangar tail first, I drove by as I have never in 6 years seen him do it that way. I noticed his last landing he didn't have the gear down.
 
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