NPRM

SoCalPlaneDoc

SoCalPlaneDoc

New member
I'm kind of surprised this hasn't come up with this group yet, it's a topic blowing up with several type clubs and with folks at my base...

Policy on the Non-aeronautical Use of Airport Hangars

If you're based at a private airport that's never taken government grants for infrastructure maintenance then it wont apply to you (for the time being anyway). I'm based at a relatively large and very active county airport - N-Numbered ultralights to big-ol bizjets and 4 prop passenger liners. The county has enjoyed access to those grants and as such, is required to comply with all the federal caveats (which has resulted in one of the finest GeNav facilities around.) If your airport is like mine...

In a nutshell:
- Airports that have taken advantage of federal funds and grants must agree to maintain the property for aeronautical use (also called "aviation use").
- There have been complaints from those seeking hanger space that many hangers on such airports are not used for aviation and should be make available. There have also been some localized lawsuits with the same theme, one fall-out being a request from the FAA to further define aeronautical use.
- The NRPM is a proposal doing that. It's now in Public Comment phase. Here's a link: https://www.federalregister.gov/art...n-the-non-aeronautical-use-of-airport-hangars

Many, many people read this once and get emotional thinking the feds are out to get us. If that's the reaction you get, take a break and read it again, and again... It doesn't change the existing policy at all. It's only doing what they said: further defining it.
I like the policy. I can count at least 8 hangers in my complex that are not used for aviation (one is a storage unit for chrome bumpers, another is a second-hanger for a guy with a bird dog that only uses it for storing his motorhome, another guy has THREE hangers, one for his plane, one for his apparent hording issues, and the third setup like a machine shop, etc...) There's many other hange complexes including one that is an ultra high-end development that look like McMansions and all have multi-bedroom luxury suites attached. They must be sweating 50-cals. Generally, hangers are cheap in terms of cost/sq-ft and some people use them instead of a storage unit or industrial strip storage. All the policy is saying is if the airport has used federal funds, all of the property has to be used for aviation purposes.
 
Airplane hangars are cheap storage. The entitled know this and there is absolutely no cost for security. At the field I'm at the Board members store their RVs and boats! As I stated these are the entitled and they will fight like hell to keep the status quo! These are not my people so I keep a good distance from them. Lynn the crate :roll:
 
lwford said:
Airplane hangars are cheap storage. The entitled know this and there is absolutely no cost for security. At the field I'm at the Board members store their RVs and boats! As I stated these are the entitled and they will fight like hell to keep the status quo! These are not my people so I keep a good distance from them. Lynn the crate :roll:
Click to expand...
Sounds like it's a private airport (having a board and all). If they're never acquired AIP funds to support it they're not bound by the fed rules about hangers - yet. Thanks to the whole "terrorists get lying lessons in the US" thing, there's been grumblings at the federal level to start throwing requirements at anything with a runway. I don't think that will go very far beyond grumbling but then again, I never dreamed it would be illegal to not have health insurance.
Here's looking forward to 2016.
 
Yup.. I've been following this.. partly because I get updates directly from the feds, which I sometimes read.

It frosts my cheerios when I see hangers used taken up by commercial purposes not related to flying like sports car and hot rod restorations.

I think we should have reasonable latitude to put personal junk in our hangers Along with our Airplanes.

And as long as there is an airplane in there.. I am NEVER going to pay any attention to what other personal stuff
a pilot has in his hanger. Take away the airplane.. and my point of view changes immediately.

I am lucky. I bought my hanger, and just lease the land at my rural muni airport, where thank god nobody cares.
We have a skydive operation, where 3 of only 16 city owned hangers are being taken up.. one of which is basically a crash pad for underpaid pilots and possee, and a dumping place for junk airplane parts. This is DUMB, since they can easily park a trailer or RV there or have a storage unit, and open up a hanger with electricity ( which I don't have) to an aircraft.

There is no reason an aircraft owner who pays high fees ( in someplaces 400-600 month) should have to pay another 100 or 200 to store household or other items when they can go on racks in the back of a T-hanger and make no difference to anybody.

so, where the rubber meets the road at YOUR airport depends on whether some non-fling clod from the city with a stick inserted where it doesn't belong is playing "Hanger Inspector" , or you have a Pilot airport manager and life is good.

There-in lies the rub. :roll: :oops:
 
My hanger has 3 bicycles, has had a 3 wheel car, two lazy boys and an end table, has a good collection of spare bellanca parts, a Rubbermaid roll around, Roll around tool box, two folding tables, AN parts, Fabric Chemicals and Paint, Oil
both aircraft and auto, floor jacks, drain pans and Jugs, reference materials, and when I can get it, it will have storage batteries an inverter, and solar panels to charge them. I should have a desk and books for flight planning ( at home now)
and if god smiled a computer with broadband for DUATS and Garmin Pilot updates and Weather.

It's not really nice enough to put a bed in... but there is very good reason for pilots to have a cot, heat, and a way to cook something . It's a safety thing.. not just a Man Cave.

Only pilots understand this.

Besides, we like to spend time at the airport and pay a WAD of money to make that happen
 
AOPA called 2000 responses to the NPM " a flood".
They also sent me an invitation to a wings evening seminar it Texas !'
I live in California.

I told them that kind of confusion was just one more reason to not send money . :mrgreen:
 
compared to the usual volume of public responses to NPRMs, 2000 is quite a few.

Remember that a lot of members have planes that could easily make the trip from the bay area to Texas, with owners that would be inclined to go. They send those invites to a lot of folks (don't want to leave out anyone that might whine about not getting invited). They fight for all pilots and owners, even the ones with aged aircraft and jaded souls...
 
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