starting the engine while in the hangar

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Pre-takeoff checklist
Joined
Jul 4, 2012
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496
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Ames, IA
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Display name:
david
While chatting with another pilot at the airport, we noticed that two people who had been pre-flighting a plane in the hanger down the row were now sitting in the plane with headsets on. The plane was still in the hangar. I started walking over there to see if they needed help pulling the plane out. Was about 40 feet away when the lights come on and the guy yells "clear". So i started backing away. Sure enough... the engine starts cranking, then roars to life. After giving it a little while to warm up, they taxi out of the hangar and head off towards the runway.

Was this as dumb as I think it was? The hangar is part of a large row of connected hangars with no walls between the planes in there. It also has a bunch of little rocks and pebbles in the center where the ground isn't fully finished. Seems like that can't lead to anything good.
 
\__[Ô]__/;1213532 said:
While chatting with another pilot at the airport, we noticed that two people who had been pre-flighting a plane in the hanger down the row were now sitting in the plane with headsets on. The plane was still in the hangar. I started walking over there to see if they needed help pulling the plane out. Was about 40 feet away when the lights come on and the guy yells "clear". So i started backing away. Sure enough... the engine starts cranking, then roars to life. After giving it a little while to warm up, they taxi out of the hangar and head off towards the runway.

Was this as dumb as I think it was? The hangar is part of a large row of connected hangars with no walls between the planes in there. It also has a bunch of little rocks and pebbles in the center where the ground isn't fully finished. Seems like that can't lead to anything good.
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That stunt will get you kicked off the airport here... :yes::mad:
 
G_d that guy's a moron. He sandblasted all the other tenants. Hope you got cellphone video.....he'll deny, deny, deny. These guys always do.
 
Nope, sorry no video. I don't take cell phone videos, though i see how it might have been helpful. I'm wondering if he had any idea it wasn't a good idea. I know the guy is a fairly inexperienced pilot and doesn't always have the best judgement when it comes to thinking through consequences of actions.
 
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Not cool.

You want to do that in your own enclosed hangar and be a moron, OK

You fling rocks at my plane, we're having a come to jesus meeting.
 
Yeah, what was that fascist moron thinking? :D

I've never seen this, so I wouldn't know how to react. But the phone video thing sounds good.

I too would be chasing the guy with a surface to air missile if he blasted my plane.
 
PilotAlan said:
That would got him kicked..... somewhere other than off the airport.
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:rofl:

Prop blast is a major problem at flyins also. Be very careful when starting up and taxing to avoid damage to the planes behind you. :yes:
 
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Many pilots do not know they are responsible for the prop wash damage. just like a boat and wake damage.

Last week I had pulled every thing out of my hangar and swept the floor. The dirt was all in a neat pile near the door, I pushed all the stuff back in, and was after a dust pan when my neighbor started up with his tail pointed directly at my hangar, you guessed it, I got to sweep the floor again.

yes he heard about it.
 
Boy, how dumb (although he really may not know any better). I would talk to Airport Management on the QT and let them say something to the errant owner. No need to embarrass them unduly. What do you think, Graueradler? Would you want it handled this way?
 
I don't even like starting my plane in front of the hangars with the door open.

We had one moron who used to come out once a month, hop into his plane while it was still tied down (with aircraft behind him the tie downs are alternating T's) and run the thing up for 30 minutes at high power.

I suggested to him on more than one occasion:

1. If he wanted to do that he should move to some area where there was nobody behind him (like the run up block which at IAD is big enough to park several AN-124's and only about 100 feet from where he was).

2. That what he was doing was stupid and worse for his engine then just letting it sit. Why didn't he just go fly for 30 minutes. We offered to fly his plane for him if he really wanted it run periodically.
 
This definitely requires a conference with airport management. There is no excuse for this level of abuse.
 
Check your airport regs, with the management of the field or the hangars. All the agreements that I have seen have a clause about not doing any engine starts, fueling the aircraft, and other dangerous things inside the hangars or getting fined and your contract terminated.

I think it's called the CSC (Common Sense Clause)
 
Archammer said:
Check your airport regs, with the management of the field or the hangars. All the agreements that I have seen have a clause about not doing any engine starts, fueling the aircraft, and other dangerous things inside the hangars or getting fined and your contract terminated.

I think it's called the CSC (Common Sense Clause)
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My lease at KSGF even prohibited storing fuel in the hangar. I scratched though that prohibition, initialed it and sent it back to them. I got a call and was told that this modification to the lease agreement wasn't acceptable.

I told them that there was no way I was draining all the fuel out of my airplane before pushing it into the hangar.

:rolleyes2:

They let the modification stand.

:rolleyes:
 
At least he wasn't flying a helicopter.
 
somorris said:
Boy, how dumb (although he really may not know any better). I would talk to Airport Management on the QT and let them say something to the errant owner. No need to embarrass them unduly. What do you think, Graueradler? Would you want it handled this way?
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Airport management should be notified and expected to do something about it. How airport management handles it will probably depend on their past history with and knowledge of the individual. When it was a student, I talked to his CFI about including airport manners in his training. In another case, I handled it discreetly without embarrassment as you said - but it didn't happen again. I have also been known to get directly in someones face.

If I was an individual whose plane had been sand blasted, I would also think it appropriate to confront the individual directly.
 
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There were two gentlemen at my airport doing it. After dirt and trash were blown over the 10' sheetmetal wall onto my brand new plane, I had a talk with the airport manager and all has been well since. Even if I had my own grass strip and hangar, I would want to start up outside.

Of course this is pretty dumb too. Try parking parallel to hangar and hold brakes next time or better yet, taxi to an open run-up area...

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2cKKxqP415o
 
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I wasn't planning on saying anything to anyone but after reading the replies here, maybe I will.
I tend to think they just didn't realize it was a bad idea. If so, a short talk with the pilot ought to be enough to prevent it from happening again. I think he'd be more receptive to that conversation coming from me than from the airport management.
 
That is nearly as dumb as fueling the plane in a hangar, which will also get you kicked out...
 
The latched on most hangar doors are pretty weak. Besides the sandblasting, the pilot is itching for a door to come strike the aircraft. Utterly stupid.
 
We've seen the same issue with open shade "hangars". People start up and taxi from the chocks with aircraft tied down behind them. Beats up their ailerons, etc.

At least pull it out and turn 90 degrees before starting.

Right now the local flight school where I rent will dispatch and then tow you to the fuel island if you need a top off. Saves 30cents/gallon over having the fuel serviced from the trucks. The country airport management runs the FBO fuel service.

Starting up at the fuel island is not an issue for prop blast.
 
So let me ask you fixed wing guys a question. I'm a helicopter pilot who considers himself a conscious airport neighbor. At my home airport I own an executive hangar next to two other very large hangars both with large jets in them. The hangars are large enough that if I land in front my hangar I never have an issue with down wash blast when hovering due to the distance from the others. Of course I never over fly any aircraft anywhere. At a smaller airport near a winter vacation home I have a T hangar right in the middle of a line of hangars with shared walls. I have a chopper spotter (pictured below) which we use to pick up the helicopter and drive it out of the hangar. My airport, which is not used to helicopters (I'm the only one) never told me what I can and can't do. However common sense tells me that I probably shouldn't land right in front of my T hangar...so I haven't and never will. Instead I land way out on the end of the taxi way and bring the helicopter with the Chopper Spotter. I have never met or seen any of my neighbors to get any feedback but I assume I'm doing the right thing. Reading this forum confirms my suspicion that fixed wing guys also love their aircraft and don't want pebbles thrown at them at 100 mph. Anyone here have a bad experience with a helicopter landing near them?

chopperspotter.jpg
 
Chopper Spotter... Nice design.
 
Funny thing about starting aircraft in the hangar, the AF did it with every one of their Black Birds and many of the alert birds during the cold war.

With the black birds the fuel was pouring out of them during start.
 
Nomad110 said:
So let me ask you fixed wing guys a question. I'm a helicopter pilot who considers himself a conscious airport neighbor. At my home airport I own an executive hangar next to two other very large hangars both with large jets in them. The hangars are large enough that if I land in front my hangar I never have an issue with down wash blast when hovering due to the distance from the others. Of course I never over fly any aircraft anywhere. At a smaller airport near a winter vacation home I have a T hangar right in the middle of a line of hangars with shared walls. I have a chopper spotter (pictured below) which we use to pick up the helicopter and drive it out of the hangar. My airport, which is not used to helicopters (I'm the only one) never told me what I can and can't do. However common sense tells me that I probably shouldn't land right in front of my T hangar...so I haven't and never will. Instead I land way out on the end of the taxi way and bring the helicopter with the Chopper Spotter. I have never met or seen any of my neighbors to get any feedback but I assume I'm doing the right thing. Reading this forum confirms my suspicion that fixed wing guys also love their aircraft and don't want pebbles thrown at them at 100 mph. Anyone here have a bad experience with a helicopter landing near them?
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Yeah. At LDJ out on the ramp. Now they've painted the box out 100 feet and the pistons are to stay out of the box. So now they land anywhere in the box- which might still be right next to the piston twin.

I have not been back.

"Chopper Spotter" ....nice design.
 
Nomad110 said:
So let me ask you fixed wing guys a question. I'm a helicopter pilot who considers himself a conscious airport neighbor. At my home airport I own an executive hangar next to two other very large hangars both with large jets in them. The hangars are large enough that if I land in front my hangar I never have an issue with down wash blast when hovering due to the distance from the others. Of course I never over fly any aircraft anywhere. At a smaller airport near a winter vacation home I have a T hangar right in the middle of a line of hangars with shared walls. I have a chopper spotter (pictured below) which we use to pick up the helicopter and drive it out of the hangar. My airport, which is not used to helicopters (I'm the only one) never told me what I can and can't do. However common sense tells me that I probably shouldn't land right in front of my T hangar...so I haven't and never will. Instead I land way out on the end of the taxi way and bring the helicopter with the Chopper Spotter. I have never met or seen any of my neighbors to get any feedback but I assume I'm doing the right thing. Reading this forum confirms my suspicion that fixed wing guys also love their aircraft and don't want pebbles thrown at them at 100 mph. Anyone here have a bad experience with a helicopter landing near them?

chopperspotter.jpg
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Starcare flew over my STOL 172 at about 15 feet right after I started up and damn near flipped me over. I was so shaken up I had to cancel the lesson - but I waited at the airport for him to come back.

I'm not sure what the pilot was more appalled at - the fact there was some punk kid who was threatening him, or the fact that there was some punk kid questioning his piloting ability. That was the first (and only) time I've ever gotten really mad at someone who wasn't flying a CAP airplane.
 
BillTIZ said:
We've seen the same issue with open shade "hangars". People start up and taxi from the chocks with aircraft tied down behind them. Beats up their ailerons, etc.

At least pull it out and turn 90 degrees before starting.
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This is as good a time as any to bring up Oshkosh. We see this sort of thing every year or two in the North 40, and it is unacceptable. There are always ten guys willing to help pull you out into the row -- don't just start up and power out.
 
Nomad110 said:
Anyone here have a bad experience with a helicopter landing near them?
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A few weeks ago we had an absolute douchebag in a Texas DHS helicopter hover taxi past our open hangar.

It was dark, and I pray that his crew was wearing night vision goggle, so they could see Mary and me flipping them the bird-times-four.
 
DavidWhite said:
Starcare flew over my STOL 172 at about 15 feet right after I started up and damn near flipped me over. I was so shaken up I had to cancel the lesson - but I waited at the airport for him to come back.

I'm not sure what the pilot was more appalled at - the fact there was some punk kid who was threatening him, or the fact that there was some punk kid questioning his piloting ability. That was the first (and only) time I've ever gotten really mad at someone who wasn't flying a CAP airplane.
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Where you on the ground when this happened? Man that is so wrong. We easily produce Cat 3-4 hurricane force winds...that can easily damage any aircraft. I'm really sorry that happend to you. Most helo pilots are very conscious of other aircraft.
 
Jay Honeck said:
A few weeks ago we had an absolute douchebag in a Texas DHS helicopter hover taxi past our open hangar.

It was dark, and I pray that his crew was wearing night vision goggle, so they could see Mary and me flipping them the bird-times-four.
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That's just wrong. See this kind of stuff makes making friends in GA an uphill battle for us helo pilots. You should send them a broom and a dust pan.
 
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