My Airport Operations

If you would like, email me a copy of your lease (what you have and we may be able to review it for you) and or give you a good go-by that addresses these issues.

This is why we relied heavily on the fire and building code. The hanagrs were probably permitted as aircraft storage hangars, with no mention of human habitation, bulk storage,etc., so the Building Offical has the hammer on the use. Fire speaks for itself, and these inspectors see this kind of junk all the time and can deal with it. Better for tenants to be mad than to be dead, or  like one T hanagr renter, to have to pay for a new paint job on his neighbor's aircraft becasue he overprayed it while illegally painting his plane.  

I guess the way that I look at it, our hangars are City owned.  We have a set of rules about what you can and can't do in our hangars.  When they signed the lease, it stated specifically what they can and cannot do.  I hate to lose based aircraft, as I matter of fact I try to make it as easy and as cheap as I can to keep you aircraft based at my airport.  That being said, I have a full set of FAA grant assurance requirements that anyone is more than welcome to ask to take a look at in my office.  In 2008, we had a "land/lease FAA compliance audit".  It spelled out very specifically what we are allows to do and what we are not allows to do in terms of leasings arrangements.  Now, like I said, it did not have list of what pilots can and cannot do in the hangars, (which we addressed with our mininum standards), but when questions arise, I whip out the paperwork and state that in no uncertain terms, I am obligated to follow these rules.

Your right though...."A mans hangar is his castle".....as long as he out right owns it or he built it and is paying me something to have it sitting on City owned property...

FAA is oddly non-committal on this subject.  I’ve never been able to get an FAA person to state specifically what is allowed and what is not.  Therefor each airport sponsor enforces hangar storage differently.  But they will come down like a ton of bricks if somebody files a Part 16 on you.

I was on a pilot’s forum recently where they were talking about this.  The gist of it was pilots could find no reference to hangar storage rules in the FAR/AIM so airports had no right to regulate what was in hangars.  “A man’s hangar is his castle” sort of thing.  I got on there and directed folks to the Airport Compliance Manual and talked about Grant Assurances at federally obligated airports.  They basically told me I didn’t know what I was talking about and was just a meddlesome government bureaucrat.  I quit posting there.

Same problems here.  In re-writting our lease agreements, we make sure to include the FAA clauses indicating that if you have any federal money at your airport, you are required to abide by the grant assurances which include assurances against "non-aviation" related items.  Unfortunantly, it does not specifically spell out what those types of things are.  An argument could me made that you NEED a 4 wheeler to pull your plane out of the hangar, that being said I don't think you need a bass boat in your hangar for any reason.  Parking a car in a t-hangar is okay if you are just parking it there while you have your aircraft out.  We also address a lot of these items in our Mininum Aeronautical Standards that is also included in the lease agreements.  They know when they sign what they can and cannot do.

When we started out, we presented the "new" standards to the board, then did a first round of inspections. Fire Dept. issued notices and follow up 45 days. If violations still existed, then there was enforcement. Most who didn't want to comply left after the initial inspection. As the manager, the more I could rely on fire and building life safety standards/inspectors, I did. The fire inspector was ready to call the cops on one irate tenant, but I interceeded and he was happy to hate at me and left the inspector alone to do his job.

I don’t expect to make new friends in this process and if we lose a few tenants, so be it.  We have a long waiting list and will fill them immediately.  That being said we don’t want to drop the hammer overnight.  I’m thinking of an “amnesty” period where we lay out the guidelines and what is expected and allow a period of time, a couple of months maybe, for people to get their act together.  As someone posted earlier there is a small percentage of tenants that are habitual offenders and troublemakers, many tenants actually want stricter enforcement, it makes for a more vibrant airport overall.    

We also have similar problems here at our airport, mostly with non aviation storage. To eliminate the problem we conduct twice daily inspections of the area and promptly notify hangar tenants of any discrepancies. Usually our tenants are very cooperative, but an occasional flex of muscle doesn't hurt. In re-writing your hangar storage agreement consider entering a clause about fines for non compliance and towing. A lease is a lease they must abide by the terms or face the consequences. I wish you much success in dealing with your tenants.

W.Robare

-PHF

We have a T-hangar "User's Guide" that equally applies to any storage hangar. It was written in conjunction with our City's fire and building inspectors a few years ago, and we did a couple of rounds of joint inspections after the guide came out. They now  do regular inspections in thier own right in performance of thier duties. This helps to keep airport management out of the line of fire. There was alot of yelling, screaming, etc. at airport advisory board meetings, but the fire inspector took it upon himself to do a presentation to show where he was coming from as far as fire science, for example keeping electical equipment two feet off the floor because that is where fuel vapors will accumulate. Email me at tlloyd@kissimmee.org if you would like a copy of the guide.