starting the engine while in the hangar

You are good. I used to hover taxi R-22s down regular taxiways past parked planes all the time. No issues. Lower the hover the better, at least that was my excuse. That said you really should ratchet up your d'bag level jealous airplane pilots are going to hate us anyway might as well give them a reason.:lol:
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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Common sense rules the day; nearly every time I have seen excessive rotor wash an issue, it was unintentional and in circumstances when the helo pilot might reasonably have expected differently.

But, there is a semi-rural field at which I spend a lot of time where a local fellow has started up an aerial tour company in a Bell JetRanger; they tow it out of the hangar on a wheeled platform, operate from right in front of the "terminal" building which, in turn, puts them right by many parked aircraft. Not too cool. What's worse is, they leave the platform there, right in the way of access to the SS fuel pumps; it can be avoided, but is not all that easy to see! Hope no one ever taxies into it by accident.

Problem may have been ameliorated, though, as a dedicated helicopter landing circle has been constructed, in an appropriate place.

--

Saw a hangar once, located at a ranch, open front. Hangared a Citation there. Back wall, behind the jet, was all steel plate. Apparently, the rancher pilot, right after having bought the aircraft, hopped in, powered-up and taxied out, amid a cyclone of insulation material coming off of the wall. He directed the ranch hands to put the steel up "rat now."
 
Well one example where it can't be avoided is when landing next to a fuel farm. I never understand why people park their planes next to a fuel farm when they have an entire ramp empty. They are just asking for trouble. There is this one airport that the Jet A fuel hose to insanely short and I have to get closer then normal to the tank with the rotor tip path. Makes for a fun landing.
 
Nomad110 said:
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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These were the same DHS guys who hovered overhead for a week during Spring Break, using night vision to break up parties on the beach. An almost unbelievable abuse of taxpayers funds, but I'm sure they had fun. :rolleyes:
 
Saw a Cherokee 180 damn near takeoff as a Cessna 560 Ultra throttled up to pull away from it's parking space. The cherokee wasn't chalked, and I saw all 3 struts go to full extension and that lil sucker scared the crap outs me while sitting in a C172 right next to it.
 
At KRUE, we've had no issues with small helicopters but have with a military Blackhawk. He lifted off from the parallel taxiway but immediately behind a Malibu parked on the ramp. We saw daylight under the landing gear of the Malibu. All he had to do was taxi a little farther and he would have bothered no one or he could have taxied 300 feet on out the connecting taxiway and been on the runway (at about midfield) instead of turning onto the parallel.

The ramp is normally pretty clean so sand blasting doesn't seem to be an issue.
 
My wife's issue with blackhawks is the knock the heads off the sunflowers she planted next to the runway when they make their midfield landings. Not that we complain too much about it. It's kind of cool having them around.
 
Have never had issues with helicopters flying over airplanes but one local helicopter guy has his 407 in an FBO hangar and will without notice drive the RC landing pad out of the hangar and just leave it front of the hangar, often for days at a time.

What irks me even more though is right behind a line of tie downs (10-12 of them) is a parking lot and it seems like there are 3-4 pilots who will consistently run their planes up with cars 50 feet behind them. Oh, and the area between the parking lot and tie downs is gravel. There's almost always several acres of empty ramp space too...
 
Nomad110 said:
Well one example where it can't be avoided is when landing next to a fuel farm. I never understand why people park their planes next to a fuel farm when they have an entire ramp empty. They are just asking for trouble. There is this one airport that the Jet A fuel hose to insanely short and I have to get closer then normal to the tank with the rotor tip path. Makes for a fun landing.
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Yeah, that reminds me of a complete douche nozzle at KDLO that decided to leave his Cub parked right in the middle of the normal path of travel one would take leaving the fuel station. I almost got my rental 172 stuck between a fence and a light fixture trying to figure out how to navigate past this ass munch.

I haven't had any bad experiences personally with helicopters, other than one time in the field in Germany someone decided that the open space next to a row of porta potties would be a perfect spot to land a Blackhawk. Yes they went flying, and yes they were occupied. One of the platoon leaders, a Lieutenant, was the subject of a "caption this" photo as he lay in a field covered in green slime and excrement, with his pants down around his ankles.
 
Just for clarification sake, Sac. Is a "douche nozzle" worse than a "douchebag"?

Just checking. Inquiring minds want to know.
 
denverpilot said:
Just for clarification sake, Sac. Is a "douche nozzle" worse than a "douchebag"?

Just checking. Inquiring minds want to know.
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Let's just say that a douche nozzle isn't your everyday douchebag (e.g. deserves special mention.)

I find this term to be very effective at raising the level of attention during Powerpoint presentations.
 
Sac Arrow said:
Let's just say that a douche nozzle isn't your everyday douchebag (e.g. deserves special mention.)

I find this term to be very effective at raising the level of attention during Powerpoint presentations.
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Personally.......... I don't want to be involved in any of the process.. EEWWWWWW.:redface:
 
timwinters said:
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:
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Almost all of them say no MX is to be performed in city rental hangars. We can't charge bateries while they are installed in the airplanes either. :incazzato:
 
bnt83 said:
Almost all of them say no MX is to be performed in city rental hangars. We can't charge bateries while they are installed in the airplanes either. :incazzato:
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That's pathetic.

In Iowa City, we used to flip a little red flag up on the door when we needed fuel.

The FBO guys would drive around looking for flags. When they found one, they would raise the big door and fuel you, in your hangar.

When they were done, they would button up the hangar and send you a bill at the end of the month. They did it that way for AT LEAST fifty years. Without incident.

*sigh* Things were so much more...civilized. :D
 
Sac Arrow said:
At least he wasn't flying a helicopter.
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In my experience, helicopters are even more of a hazard. When my home-drome has a fly-in/open house, most of the local pilots bring their planes out onto the ramp so the townsfolk can look and maybe get a ride for the kids. But then the AirMed chopper lands/hovers/taxies and blows half the state into everyone's hangar. If that flight nurse wasn't so hot ........:mad2:
 
Tom-D said:
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.
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I witnessed that at Eielson on many occasions but in truth the BlackBird was never really there.
 
flyingron said:
I don't even like starting my plane in front of the hangars with the door open.

The photo shows my plane when parallel to the door of my hangar. That may be a spot to preflight. More commonly, I or three others who fly the bird will pull it to the right, which will be at the end of the hangars' building. The tail is then pointing at the woods. If I'm flying with another pilot, he may refuel while I walk to the hangar to open the door; and the latter only happens after he's taxied around the building, pointed nose out, and shut down. Why blow back into the hangar all that dust and/or pine needles crap if the door were open?

From photo #2, when plane is turned/moved to its right it's a straight shot to the run-up area and RW #25.

HR
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Lawreston said:
flyingron said:
I don't even like starting my plane in front of the hangars with the door open.

The photo shows my plane when parallel to the door or my hangar. That may be a spot to preflight. More commonly, I or three others who fly the bird will pull it to the right, which will be at the end of the hangars' building. The tail is then pointing at the woods. If I'm flying with another pilot, he may refuel while I walk to the hangar to open the door; and the latter only happens after he's taxied around the building, pointed nose out, and shut down. Why blow back into the hangar all that dust and/or pine needles crap if the door were open?

From photo #2, when plane is turned/moved to its right it's a straight shot to the run-up area and RW #25.

HR
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Sounds like you all are trying to be considerate of others. My dad set a good example of trying to be considerate of others on the golf course, at the boat ramp, and everywhere he went. Unfortunately not all are as considerate of others as my dad.
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denverpilot said:
I read somewhere that they had to put down a 4x4 on the floor to bounce the airplane up and off the ground as it came out the door for that shot, but can't find the reference now.

Even if they didn't, cool shot.
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The story in the Maule community is that he (B.D. Maule) did that stunt several times and that photo is of the last one. He apparently had to use a lot of forward pressure to keep the thing from rising into the rafters during the take-off roll and when he got to the door released the pressure, causing the aggressive angle in the photo. His wife prohibited him from ever doing it again.

Though not visible in the photo, that hanger is quite deep and getting enough speed to take off using a bushplane like a maule is no problem. No 4x4's required.
 
I guess I'm one of the few pilots that cranks the engine in the hangar nearly every time - but my situation is a bit different. I'm the only tenant on my private strip, and the "hangar" is a 100x150 barn full of farm equipment, not much chance of doing any damage to anything in there from minor propblast. I usually pull the 172 to the threshold and crank there, so I can roll more easily off the threshold and onto the gravel outside with lower RPM and don't suck up a rock in the prop.

As for a standard hangar arrangement and normal airport etiquette - no way. :nono:
 
I am working on a helicopter rating. We tow the helicopter out about 200 to 300 feet to the H pad and return the tow to the hangar. Our taxi is from the pad to the runway along the taxiways. We do not overfly fixed wing. And we use the fuel truck for refueling.
It is hard to believe that we cannot look out for each other like we want others to look out for us.
Anyone who dusts off another aircraft is just an inconsiderate boob and really needs to be parked inside his plane when someone does it to him.
 
With a pusher I taxi into my hangar every chance I get (not often it's open). Hard to fire up and taxi out.....

Does anyone really care? Sometimes I wonder about these threads where the conversations just veer off into the ridiculous after a huge bunch of replies.....:yikes:
 
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