I recently got a crash course in aircraft storage options when the airport where we keep our partnered Rockwell Commander closed. With roughly 300 aircraft, three maintenance shops, one flight school, airborne law enforcement ops and seven airports within a one-hour drive, there was a substantial amount of chaos and a feeding frenzy for aircraft parking options.
Whether you are considering a hangar for a potential new-to-you aircraft or moving your existing machine out of the elements, here’s a primer on things to consider before making a move. Poor planning is a setup for remorse.
New rental options
There are three types of financial models: You own the land and build (or buy) the hangar, you lease the land from the airport authority and build (or buy) the hangar or you can rent. Renting does not require a large capital outlay, but from an operating cost perspective, it can be the most expensive. Many airport operators price their hangarage by the square foot per year, just like commercial real estate.
Renting might be the easiest option. However, given the lively aircraft sales market, hangar space is at a premium. Plus, like with houses, over time the monthly cost of owning a hangar is often significantly lower than renting. Finding a rental hangar can be an effort. In comes Hangar Direct (hangardirect.com), founded in 2024 by Trenton Ray and Tanner Embry. Hangar Direct is a web-based platform where hangar owners can list their hangars for short-term or long-term rent. You can think of the platform like an Airbnb or VRBO for hangar rental.
Currently there are 60 hangars and 350 renters on the growing system. The goal is to have 100 hangars and 1000 members by early 2025. The system uses Stripe to facilitate credit card payments and renters pay credit card fees of 2.9 percent, while short-term renters will pay an additional 15 percent per rental period. For itinerant pilots who need a hangar to get out of the weather for a few days or aircraft owners looking for hangarage, the platform could address the serious challenge of finding temporary hangar space when an FBO can’t accommodate it. As more hangar owners and aircraft owners join the platform and Hangar Direct’s revenue increases, expect Ray and Embry to add new features and capabilities to the platform. It’s definitely a service to watch and it could solve a big problem for many.
Your first hangar
When you buy or build your first hangar, like a home, consider how you will be operating your aircraft and storing your aircraft in the hangar. Where do you need electrical outlets and will you be doing aircraft maintenance in this hangar? How much storage do you need and will you be turning the hangar into a home away from home? If you have the luxury of building a hangar from scratch, consider future-proofing it by considering how long you will own it. This will help with financing decisions. Wayne Barrett of Toronto, Canada, designed his own hangar that included a second-floor office.
Utilities like heat and electricity are other factors to consider. Begin your process by creating a build budget, much like building a house. Consider adding a fudge factor of 10 percent of the total cost for unexpected costs or inevitable over-budget activities. Budgeting should include the capital and monthly recurring costs. AOPA (and COPA in Canada) have valuable hangar development guides, providing detailed step-by-step guides.
Considerations should include choosing the right airport in the first place, the right location on the airport (like north- or south-facing in cold climates, which could drastically effect snow and ice melting), the size of the building, the type of door/lifting mechanism on the hangar, utilities like internet connection, budget and the right contractor to do the construction.
Selecting the airport begins with considering and balancing time, costs and resources. Other airport selection criteria include: control tower, landing fees, snow removal capabilities, ongoing airport improvements, FBO facilities, fuel availability and friends and flying clubs at the airport. In many cases this will be a long-term investment, so selecting the airport is critical to your aviation experience.
Building it
Building a hangar, just like a house, begins with endless decision points, which will dictate the end cost: Again, like the type of door (no door, a garage style door, bifold door, single door, etc), a concrete floor or dirt floor, insulation and to what specification, plus heated or unheated. If it is heated, will it be via in-floor radiant or ceiling-mounted electric or propane? There’s also plumbing and water. Do you want the convenience of a toilet and sink?
As for the electrical capability, it might depend on the hangar door’s amperage requirements. These days, some might even future-proof for an electric aircraft or a charging station for an electric vehicle. When building, consider whether the lot is serviced by water, sewer, septic tanks and electrical. How “smart” is the hangar and how is internet provided—for example, do the telecommunication providers have cabling onto the property? Many do not and that might mean planning a 5G source to a broadband router or Starlink. We looked at smart tips for the modern connected hangar in the June 2024 issue of Aviation Consumer.
Is it approved?
Once you have determined your budget and have found land to lease or buy, the first step is to obtain FAA approval for the new hangar. Stephen Shore, who flies a Rockwell, began building his hangar in late 2022 and moved his airplane to the new hangar in June 2024. Shore told me that the FAA process was simple and took roughly two months to complete with a few follow-up calls. The FAA wants to know the GPS coordinates of the four corners and the height of the proposed hangar. Shore’s hangar in Texas is at an airport within Class D airspace and with scheduled airline flights, the airport is pretty secure. Access to land from the airport authority was not a big deal. The airport authority leases the land at $0.15 per square foot per year, with a 25-year land lease—a pretty common thing—and the lease includes an option for the airport to take back the land. Shore has the option to move his hangar or hire an independent appraiser to create a value with the county government buying his hangar. The airport was built in 1941 and to date has yet to pull the trigger on their option.
While not required, Shore designed and built his hangar to code. Essentially, the hangar is a metal pre-engineered warehouse with a large door. From a build perspective, the door is unique to a typical warehouse. Since he owns several commercial real estate companies with experience in building warehouses, he learned that getting a tight fit from bifold hangar door seals was a problem. His new hangar has a single-panel, hydraulically raised door, which provides a much better seal against the weather.
The 60 by 18 foot door was provided by LiftMaster, who delivered and installed a turnkey solution. Shore’s hangar is an engineered metal building that’s 80 feet wide, 60 feet long and 20 feet high with a 6-inch-deep concrete floor. The floor does not have radiant heating; however, it was designed to support twins or small jets weighing much more than his Commander. The hangar is well-insulated and heated with natural gas forced air with a heating capacity of 150,000 BTUs. Installed in the ceiling is a Big Ass fan (bigassfans.com, common in Texas) to help move the air around. Shore’s hangar is more than a home for his Commander; it also includes a break room, bathroom and a second floor equipped with a small apartment with its own three-piece bathroom. The airport has fiber optic internet ($120 per month), but Shore is thinking of Verizon’s 5G cellular internet service ($49 per month). His internet needs are quite light: browsing the web, flight planning and remotely accessing the heating system and door locks. “I decided to build a large hangar not only to store my Commander, but also to build a kit plane. When sizing the hangar, the cost per square foot drops as the size gets bigger, and with 4800 square feet, I can fit a few aircraft while having lots of room to build,” he told me.
Heating and cooling
Depending upon your geography, you may need an HVAC system to stabilize the temperature of the hangar. Up here in the Great White North, a heated hangar is a definite must. Ideally, when your hangar was first built, a natural gas line was installed to service the hangar. If your hangar property borders on a road, it may not be arduous (and costly) to bring services to your lot. If your hangar is part of a bigger building, it might be impossible to bring a natural gas line into the hangar without tearing up the apron.
Propane is a natural solution to this issue, where two or more large propane tanks may be situated at the end of the hangar row. A heat pump is another alternative to propane and natural gas. Depending upon the cost of propane, natural gas and electricity, a heat pump might operate at the annual cost of roughly 60 percent of fossil fuels.
In my hangar the HVAC system, like in the house, is controlled by a thermostat. I prefer a smart thermostat (Nest, EchoBee or Honeywell to name a few), to remotely control the indoor temperature. Setting the indoor temperature to around 15 degrees C not only keeps the engine warm (without the need for the engine heater) but it also keeps the avionics, instruments and the cabin at a comfortable temperature for storage.
Land problems
Who owns the land is a critical consideration. Most airports will not sell you the land, but will provide a multiyear lease, some short term, and some 25 years, for example. The issue is what happens at the end of the lease. Are multi-term automatic renewals included or are you required to renegotiate both the term and the lease cost at the end of each term? In some cases, especially if the airport is municipally owned with anti-aviation councilors, renewal may become an issue. Charles “Chuck” Wright purchased a hangar in Taunton, Massachusetts, which included a land lease with a few years remaining in the lease. When renegotiating the lease with the municipality, he found that the lease might not be renewed and that he could lose his investment as the lease had a reversionary clause (at the end of the lease, ownership of the hangar reverts to the municipality).
Wright got help from AOPA and began lobbying the municipality officials, airport committee and the mayor. When this approach was not yielding success, and in an election year, Wright decided to run for mayor with a platform of airport reform. While he was not successful in winning the election, his platform got the attention of the mayor, who initiated reforms at the airport. Wright was successful in getting a new lease with two 20-year terms. Wright also owns hangars in Florida where he was successful in renegotiating his leases adding in three 30-year terms. For more, check out the PlaneTalk Podcast with Chuck Wright.
Owning the land is preferable to a land lease and some airports offer land ownership. Costs and other requirements might be simpler and cheaper than a land lease. Some municipalities or airport authorities will have other mandatory requirements when leasing (hangar insurance, snow removal costs and property taxes, as examples). Before purchasing a hangar, get the details (and the contracts) regarding the land lease. As Wright found, knowing the details in the lease (rates, termination dates, renewal process, etc.) is critical in safeguarding your investment.
Rough numbers
Annual and monthly operating costs will vary from state to state and province to province. From an ownership perspective, monthly and annual price escalations are limited by property taxes, airport fees, utilities (electrical and natural gas) and internet costs. If you own the land, you will have annual property taxes to pay. However, some airports that provide a land lease will not only pass through the property taxes, but also charge a land lease fee, typically per square foot.
Chris Riley, of Columbia Aircraft Sales, owns a Maule and a hangar at the Groton-New London Airport in Connecticut. He purchased his T- hangar for $100,000 with an operating cost of $140 per month (condo fees and electricity). The market rental rates is around $645, but Riley rents his for $605 per month. Riley feels that he could increase his rental income to $750 per month based upon supply and demand issues. As well, the resale value of the hangar has increased.
Building or buying a hangar will require either capital or financing, of course. Depending upon your financial situation, if you can execute a cash deal for the purchase, you will be able to avoid mortgage costs of roughly 8 percent. Using a 5-year fixed interest term, roughly $104,000 and a 20-year amortization period for the hangar, this yields a monthly payment of around $685 (capital and interest). In the case of this rough example, the total cost of ownership is around $1000 per month. If you’re able to qualify for a mortgage, the cost of ownership increases some per month; however, the equity in the hangar is likely far more valuable than renting.
Don’t forget about insurance for your hangar, especially if you are renting or sharing it. There are several “Hangar Keepers” insurance policies, which provide personal liability insurance (think about slip and falls or damage to a renter’s aircraft). Contact your insurance broker for more information, liability limits and premium costs before making any decisions.
If you’re going to be building, create a team with aviation experience including an architect, general contractor, lawyer and accountant. Local knowledge goes a long way. Other pilots who have built hangars at your destination airport are an excellent resource to understand the local political environment, costs and what is feasible.
We’ll look at perhaps the ultimate place to keep your airplane—in a house at a fly-in community—in an upcoming report in Aviation Consumer.