I just got a line on some prime real estate in a big Private hangar up on a lift. I'd only have to pull a Grumman straight out, lower my plane and go. Anyone here been on a lift before? Huge PIA?? Any downfalls? This would get my plane 20 miles closer to my house and I'd be sharing with a bunch of rich guys that never fly in a big fancy hangar with unlimited tools instead of with a guy building a composite that covers my plane with fiberglass dust daily and thinks it's okay to use rattle can to fix a scratch where he dropped something on my elevator, wrecking my $4K paint job.

Let me get this strait. Drive to hangar, move plane from under your plane, lower lift, pull plane out, raise lift, push other guys plane into place then pre flight.

Is driving the other 20 miles less work. The figerglass dust would piss me off.

I am taking the grandkids flying in about 15 minuts. Here is my routine for wintertime. Drive four wheeler to hobby shop (46 seconds), plug in pre heater, drive back to house to sit by fire, 60 minuts later drive back to hobby shop, pull plane out with four wheeler, pre flight, taxi to 16R and off I go. I am so stoked.

Tim

qmdv wrote:Let me get this strait. Drive to hangar, move plane from under your plane, lower lift, pull plane out, raise lift, push other guys plane into place then pre flight.

That's correct Tim. Right now all I have to do is open the hangar door pull my plane out and go...but...the guy I'm sharing with is moving on 01 Feb and I can't afford the entire hangar myself. I told the guy with the lift I'd take the spot today. The hangar is one of only a handful cooroporate hangars on the field. Yes it's a bit of work but it's a lot less work than having to fold my wings up, put my plane on the trailer and bring it home after every flight! The county hangars here are ridiculous in price and have a min 3 year waiting period. My options are pretty limited if I want to continue to fly. This thing is all tube fabric and only weights 533lbs so leaving it tied down outside is out of the question.

Seems like there's other considerations too, which you've probably weighed in making your decision. Thinking of ease of fueling, cost of fuel, community of airport bums, FBOs on the field, heated hangar, airspace, grass to land on, etc, etc... Add all those things together and they could quickly outweigh the logistics of how you access your plane.

Let us know how the lift works out, eh?

-DP