Hangers and snow

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UngaWunga

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UngaWunga
People who rent hangers... do they generally plow the snow from in front of your hanger? Do they leave 3'-4' feet of snow that you have to shovel in order to open your hanger door? If you have a packed dirt taxiway in front of your hanger, does it turn into a mudpit you don't want to bother trying to get your plane through? Are they jacking up your hanger fees to cover the cost of paving other taxiways on the airfield, but not in front of your hanger?

Yeah, its a beautiful day out. No flying for at least a week. Getting tired of digging out the hanger all the time. Not grumpy at all about it. Nope.
 
Never been a problem, but then it's alabama. I've had a lot more trouble with the one airport I fly to frequently. If KCGI get snow, seems like it takes a while before the taxiway and ramp notams disappear.
 
UngaWunga said:
People who rent hangers... do they generally plow the snow from in front of your hanger? Do they leave 3'-4' feet of snow that you have to shovel in order to open your hanger door? If you have a packed dirt taxiway in front of your hanger, does it turn into a mudpit you don't want to bother trying to get your plane through? Are they jacking up your hanger fees to cover the cost of paving other taxiways on the airfield, but not in front of your hanger?

Yeah, its a beautiful day out. No flying for at least a week. Getting tired of digging out the hanger all the time. Not grumpy at all about it. Nope.
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Yup, 2-3 feet is left for me to shovel. The snow plow can't get any closer to the doors without possibility of damage to plow, door or both. But I only shovel out the track where the wheels go, and the people door. Mynhangar faces east, so by day 2 after the snow, everything is melted.
 
UngaWunga said:
People who rent hangers... do they generally plow the snow from in front of your hanger? Do they leave 3'-4' feet of snow that you have to shovel in order to open your hanger door? If you have a packed dirt taxiway in front of your hanger, does it turn into a mudpit you don't want to bother trying to get your plane through? Are they jacking up your hanger fees to cover the cost of paving other taxiways on the airfield, but not in front of your hanger?

Yeah, its a beautiful day out. No flying for at least a week. Getting tired of digging out the hanger all the time. Not grumpy at all about it. Nope.
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Yep, mine is north facing which means it never melts until the temp is way above freezing for several days, then it re-freezes into ice. Taxiway is paved. The lease agreement expressly says they won't plow closer to the door than what you said. major PITA if I can;t get out there to remove the snow before it goes into the thaw-freeze cycle.
 
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Yeah, I realize first world problems... Been a while since I've had time to get out and fly, and they didn't plow anything. I think they're hoping it all melts tomorrow in the rain.
 
murphey said:
Yup, 2-3 feet is left for me to shovel. The snow plow can't get any closer to the doors without possibility of damage to plow, door or both. But I only shovel out the track where the wheels go, and the people door. Mynhangar faces east, so by day 2 after the snow, everything is melted.
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They can, many places just won't get closer. It is probably a good thing though for maintaining the condition of the buildings though. When I plowed snow at the airport I generally got within 6" of the doors. 12" at the most. But it took time and you had to pay attention to successfully plow that close.

Read the hangar rental agreement, they usually state how close to the door that snow will be removed.

The bigger problem than having snow by the door is what to do with it as you shovel it away. If you're in the middle of a row of t-hangars you may have to carry the snow a significant distance to get rid of it. I ended up buying a small garden tractor and plow to do mine.
 
When I lived in Michigan... yep, the county snowplow would get up to within 3 feet or so of my hangar door, and leave a pile of snow from the side of his scoop at least twice the actual snow depth. I used to typically drive out to the airport to beat him to my ramp just to prevent that from happening.

It's not an issue now since I'm renting a community hangar. One of the few advantages of my current arrangement...
 
UngaWunga said:
Yeah, I realize first world problems... Been a while since I've had time to get out and fly, and they didn't plow anything. I think they're hoping it all melts tomorrow in the rain.
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How is your airport operated? Some small unattended airports rely on the city workers to come out and plow the airport so it usually sits for a day or two after a snowstorm.

As a side note, this is one of the reasons it is important to call ahead when traveling in the winter! You might show up to an unplowed and effectively closed airport. Unless you have skis on the plane...
 
My county airport doesn't plow snow from the runway or the ramp. The airport manager gets the same pay if there is air traffic/fuel sales, or not, so there is no incentive to clear snow. I brought my four-wheeler with plow blade to the hangar and did my own (and my hangar neighbors), and was told that I wasn't allowed to do that. Go figure.
 
mondtster said:
The bigger problem than having snow by the door is what to do with it as you shovel it away. If you're in the middle of a row of t-hangars you may have to carry the snow a significant distance to get rid of it
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I shovel it into two piles - one at each end of the door. Plenty of room to get in and out in between.

Assuming that it hasn't frozen in to a mound of ice that is next to impossible to move.
 
The lease at our airport says 5 feet, but my crew can usually get within 1-2 feet. The equipment we use is quite large, and can slide on snow and ice into a building easily so we don't get much closer. We do work with our tenants though and will gladly come down and help get the door open and back drag the snow out of the doorway on request and as available. We view helping open the doors as a benefit to the airport, otherwise tenants have a habit of breaking doors that we then have to fix.
 
Same where I used to live in Alaska, and where I am now in the lower 48. Plows typically leave a buffer in front of hangar doors so as to not damage anything. Really, the only way to effectively clear in front of a garage or hangar door is with the door open, so you can get all of the snow without damaging anything. It is irritating when the snow in front of your hangar is deeper because of the plow work. I definitely would complain about that.
 
Yep. About 3ft wide. North facing so won't melt fast either. Complicating matters, if there is a thaw/re-freeze the rubber seal on the bottom of the hangar door freezes. The door motor isn't strong enough to crack it free so that means running a ice chopper under the door as well (that part sucks) Last year we found a old $300 lawn tractor for our tug. I added a snow blade on the front and just blade it all away now - takes 3 minutes to start/warm up the tractor and about 7 minutes to move all the snow.
 
Timbeck2 said:
What is this...snow of which you speak? :sosp:
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Imagine a slushy. Now, imagine a BIG slushy. Now, imagine pouring that slushy out.... everywhere. Only you forgot the flavor syrup. I mean, you can make portions of it yellow, but to no real purpose.
 
JohnAJohnson said:
My county airport doesn't plow snow from the runway or the ramp. The airport manager gets the same pay if there is air traffic/fuel sales, or not, so there is no incentive to clear snow. I brought my four-wheeler with plow blade to the hangar and did my own (and my hangar neighbors), and was told that I wasn't allowed to do that. Go figure.
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No good deed goes unpunished and all that. Geesh! :rolleyes:
 
Mistake Not... said:
Imagine a slushy. Now, imagine a BIG slushy. Now, imagine pouring that slushy out.... everywhere. Only you forgot the flavor syrup. I mean, you can make portions of it yellow, but to no real purpose.
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Would the yellow slushy taste like lemon? Frank said that's where the Huskys go.

My mom used to make snow cream for us when I was a kid. Beaten egg, sugar, cream, vanilla and snow. Good stuff.
 
Be careful when those piles of snow that are left by the plow freeze. They can become very hard and if you taxi over them it can break a tailwheel, or maybe a nosewheel. Don't just smash through them if they are frozen. Take it easy. Sometimes its nigh impossible to get through big frozen ones without shutting down and getting out and breaking them up with a scraper or shovel. Not good, but better than breaking the plane.
 
My hometown airport is maintained by MAC, Metropolitan Airports Commission that owns and maintains all the Twin City metro airports. They do a great job plowing, although it may be the day after a big snowstorm before my area is done down in the ghetto. That's not important since I'm not flying anyway.
They can only get within 2'-3' of the door, and the rest is left up to me to shovel. I understand that, because they don't want to risk damaging hangars.
Since I have a north facing door, I always try and shovel before they plow, if not, then I just throw it out away from the door and they'll get it next time they plow.
If I don't keep it scraped clean, by the end of winter it will have thawed and frozen into solid ice along the door, freezing the door to the ramp.
That creates major problems when it thaws in March creating ice and water inside the hangar and high humidly.

 
Yup, about a foot in front of our door. I usually try to go out there before it gets warm enough to thaw and refreeze and shovel a path through it, if we're planning to fly.

Also learned the hard way a couple of winters ago that with a lot of snow, the thaw and refreeze cycles run a little water through our hangar. No big deal until you try to get the airplane out for a night flight with @jesse because he says he's in town, and the chocks are frozen to the floor. LOL.

Hot water from a coffee pot that the FBO guy drove over in the fuel truck, took care of it. Nice of them. Ha.
 
At FTG the snow gets plowed to a windrow between long lines of facing t-hangars. Usually the windrow will mostly melt between storms. if the windrows get too big the snow will be hauled out. Hauling snow tends to leave a bit of a mess if they aren't careful. I returned to FTG late one winter night to find the windrow in front of my hangar gone but all the pavement was covered in black ice. I could not push the plane up the slight slope into the hangar. I ended up tieing a strap to the tail tie down then standing inside the hangar and pulling the plane in. Major pain in the butt with no one around to guide the nose wheel.
 
UngaWunga said:
People who rent hangers... do they generally plow the snow from in front of your hanger? Do they leave 3'-4' feet of snow that you have to shovel in order to open your hanger door?
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3-4'... I wished.

When I was outside of Chicago, the airport I was at had ramps leading from the taxiway to the hangar. Maybe about 15' long. The airport would plow the taxiway. So in addition to shoveling that 15', we also had to break through the plowed snow. I always felt sorry for the low wing guys. Because after a big snow, they were either stuck inside until it melted enough or they could try and shovel the piles of snow so their wings wouldn't hit.
 

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At CJR they plow the taxiways and depending on the availability of someone to do it (depending on where they are in the rest of the clearing), they'll do the space in front of your hangar. You still need to clear the last foot with a shovel in any event.
 
HotRock said:
Snow??? What's that?
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Well, down here it's white stuff that falls from the sky every few winters or so that disappears in the afternoon.

Here's a picture of taken from the middle of our runway in the snow of my house. This was inauguration day 2009. I think we've had one other measurable snow since (earlier this winter we got 8").

House-Snow.JPG
 
Yeah, but you have to live in Texas.
 
Clark1961 said:
At FTG the snow gets plowed to a windrow between long lines of facing t-hangars. Usually the windrow will mostly melt between storms. if the windrows get too big the snow will be hauled out. Hauling snow tends to leave a bit of a mess if they aren't careful. I returned to FTG late one winter night to find the windrow in front of my hangar gone but all the pavement was covered in black ice. I could not push the plane up the slight slope into the hangar. I ended up tieing a strap to the tail tie down then standing inside the hangar and pulling the plane in. Major pain in the butt with no one around to guide the nose wheel.
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Dude. You know my cell number. I'm not that far from FTG and I'm a night owl. :)
 
UngaWunga said:
Yeah, but you have to live in Texas.
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Yes, and it's horrible ... stay where you're at;) (saying that from west Texas with no tornadoes, hurricanes and snow very other year for an inch or two that melts by 10am in my area - I'll have to suck it up subjecting myself to low taxes and hangar rent for $130 a month with power:p)
 
3-4 feet!?

I live in snow country and I maybe end up with one pass of the shovel, less than 120 seconds of work, and that's after after a major snow, aside from that the airport handles it, never had mud or anything crazy infront ether.

Sounds like 3-4 feet away is probably a place with little experience with snow, or somehwere that just doesn't care.
 
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