Nizina, that pic is awesome, but doesn't do your neighborhood justice. Every time I have cruised past your place I've thought how much work it must've been to bring everything in over the ice in the winter. I have noticed a path of sorts from town that heads out toward you, but don't imagine it's passable the whole way by vehicle and certainly not by truck hauling a 42' beam? I'm sure the airport dwellers would love to hear the "Rest of the Story" on how you get a nice hangar built, in what truly is in the boonies!

what's to show... I got my fridge with a good supply of beer and a bottle of 18 year old single malt... a sofa and room for the Maule... the rest is full of storage that my wife and daughter think is important... Mostly their stuff is in there... and I get a lot of shit about my Maule being so damn expensive a hobby.... goes in one ear and out the other though..... I recently refused to make room for a china cabinet. by the way here's a little story all might be interrested in.... just last week folks in my hangar row saw 6 guys wandering up and down the rows stopping and looking in every open hangar and asking lots of questions....two of them wore border patrol uniforms , the other 4 wore suits... they didn't enter but open doors made them stop and look in each one.... questions were along the lines of,,,,"what's in those cans" , ""any new people move into hangars here lately", "You have two hangars?" When asked by our property manager what was going on they replied,,,," a training exercise"....I showed up after they left so I didn't have the pleasure of slamming the door in their face....anyone else have this sort of experience?

That is freaking ridiculous. That border patrol crap is getting out of hand...

Nizina wrote:My Husky's dog house on the Nizina River: Getting the morning started in the Wrangell Mountains.

That's a dream come true right there.

I've been in a few other hangars that also have a RV of some type stored in them. When you think about it, that is pretty ideal in that why duplicate what the RV already has, toilet, fridge full of beer, bed etc.? Also, why store that high dollar RV out in the elements? That is such a simple solution it almost make me want to buy a camper. Even simpler though is just build the hangar 30' from the house, where I have all the above and more already

Those are some great looking hangars. Keep the pictures coming!

Grassstrippilot wrote:I don't have a good pic of the hanger I'm renting ($160/mo) but it's heated and the owner's previous aircraft was a 210 the same vintage as mine. Being an A&P, the hanger is completely equipped with just about every tool/supplies needed, including some that have been specifically made/modded for working on my plane. When I moved in, he said, if you can find it, you can use it. Any consumables we cover by just rounding up the bill to the next half hour or hour. It was essentially a plug and play hanger and I feel lucky to be there! Plus I get to share the hanger with a good friend.

Can't beat that deal. Sounds like a nice place to keep your bird.

Matt 7GCBC wrote:Nizina, that pic is awesome, but doesn't do your neighborhood justice. Every time I have cruised past your place I've thought how much work it must've been to bring everything in over the ice in the winter. I have noticed a path of sorts from town that heads out toward you, but don't imagine it's passable the whole way by vehicle and certainly not by truck hauling a 42' beam? I'm sure the airport dwellers would love to hear the "Rest of the Story" on how you get a nice hangar built, in what truly is in the boonies!

Matt
There is a lot to the story of building that hangar out way out at our airstrip in the boonies. The hangar was transported from the manufacturer in California to Seattle where it was barged up to Anchorage. From Anchorage it was flatbedded to McCarthy, and from McCarthy it was brought out by "cat train" in the winter time. The short story is that it took me three years to build it, primarily because of the foundation conditions. I had to haul 2,000 yds of gravel from fifteen miles away and this could only be done in the middle of winter when everything was frozen solid enough to support heavy equipment. I had discontinuous permafrost in the area that was causing uneven settling of the foundation. The trail that you see to our place is a summer trail that can now be used for ATVs, but all heavy stuff, like the hangar structural members were brought out in the winter time by "cat train". My son and I built the hangar with the aid of a backhoe in the fall time.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I am presently building a second hangar for my wife's airplane. It will be a T-hangar using locally milled rough-cut lumber. The main member of the frame is a 42 foot I-beam for the front of the hangar that weighs about 3,000 lbs. We brought it out over the winter trail and raised it with a fork lift. Following are a few pictures of this new structure. I'll start working on it again in March when the days are longer and its a bit warmer. Temps were getting down to -35F when we put the structure up, and that was just too brutal.

Drop in for a visit the next time you are out in the area.

The best deal I could get on renting an unheated spot in a hangar at the local airport was $3000 per year. It wasn't hard to decide to build a hangar and rent it from myself. And of course my hangar will come with a ton more amenities and privileges than the one at the municipal airport. And if there's any hangar rash I know who to kick in the rear.

Maintenance hanger on the left... The smaller white and large beige hanger on the right and across the runway are our storage hangers. The big one has the 52 foot diameter rotating floor in it.

Brian.

The carousel in Brian's big hangar is awesome. I want one! You should post a vid of it Brian.

whee wrote:The carousel in Brian's big hangar is awesome. I want one! You should post a vid of it Brian.

Ill have to get a good one of it.... Don't have a lot of light in that hanger due to it being used primarily for storage so I really need a good sunny day with the doors wide open to get a decent video of it running.

Brian.

Brian-StevesAircraft wrote:

Maintenance hanger on the left... The smaller white and large beige hanger on the right and across the runway are our storage hangers. The big one has the 52 foot diameter rotating floor in it.

Brian.

?? what is that low wing tail dragger?

Matt
There is a lot to the story of building that hangar out way out at our airstrip in the boonies. The hangar was transported from the manufacturer in California to Seattle where it was barged up to Anchorage. From Anchorage it was flatbedded to McCarthy, and from McCarthy it was brought out by "cat train" in the winter time. The short story is that it took me three years to build it, primarily because of the foundation conditions. I had to haul 2,000 yds of gravel from fifteen miles away and this could only be done in the middle of winter when everything was frozen solid enough to support heavy equipment. I had discontinuous permafrost in the area that was causing uneven settling of the foundation. The trail that you see to our place is a summer trail that can now be used for ATVs, but all heavy stuff, like the hangar structural members were brought out in the winter time by "cat train". My son and I built the hangar with the aid of a backhoe in the fall time.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I am presently building a second hangar for my wife's airplane. It will be a T-hangar using locally milled rough-cut lumber. The main member of the frame is a 42 foot I-beam for the front of the hangar that weighs about 3,000 lbs. We brought it out over the winter trail and raised it with a fork lift. Following are a few pictures of this new structure.



Before some smart ass iron worker calls you out on it, you need to weld some 1/4" flat bar on both sides of the I-beam web (vertical) right in line with the vert posts, between the top and bottom flanges and along the vert web. Yeah I know, it doesn't seem like it's needed, but the next time you see some structural iron, done by pro's, it WILL have that where the load bearing takes place. It makes it stronger when push comes to shove, and what the hell a little flat bar is a small price to pay for some smart ass NOT calling you on it. I don't count. Then again, if it was 35 below, screw, good enough!

My brother in Fairbanks has told me horror stories about what the permafrost is like to build on, and at one point gave me a tour showing places built where it wasn't taken into account, as you know they look like a carnival fun house after a few years, all twisted out of shape. We only go 3' below grade with our footers here, a piece of cake!

M6RV6 wrote:

Brian-StevesAircraft wrote:

Maintenance hanger on the left... The smaller white and large beige hanger on the right and across the runway are our storage hangers. The big one has the 52 foot diameter rotating floor in it.

Brian.

?? what is that low wing tail dragger?

That is our test bed for a tail wheel conversion of Piper PA-28 Cherokees. Still not done with that one.

Brian.

courierguy wrote: Before some smart ass iron worker calls you out on it, you need to weld some 1/4" flat bar on both sides of the I-beam web (vertical) right in line with the vert posts, between the top and bottom flanges and along the vert web. Yeah I know, it doesn't seem like it's needed, but the next time you see some structural iron, done by pro's, it WILL have that where the load bearing takes place. It makes it stronger when push comes to shove, and what the hell a little flat bar is a small price to pay for some smart ass NOT calling you on it. I don't count. Then again, if it was 35 below, screw, good enough!

My brother in Fairbanks has told me horror stories about what the permafrost is like to build on, and at one point gave me a tour showing places built where it wasn't taken into account, as you know they look like a carnival fun house after a few years, all twisted out of shape. We only go 3' below grade with our footers here, a piece of cake!

courierguy

Thanks for the heads up on the need for flange stiffeners in line with the box columns. Although I missed that, there are a lot of details that haven't been added yet. For instance I haven't installed the steel-plate joint connections for the columns and beams yet. And the knee braces were probably an overbuild.

One of the nice things about living out side the boundaries of any municipal governing body is that you can pretty much build anything that you want and any way that you want without having to get someones permission. Nevertheless, without the benefit of a fully engineered structure that complies with every one-size fits all design standard, we generally go with a design that is over engineered -- just to be sure. For instance, while there are no snow load design standards out here, I have designed the roof for this T-hangar to withstand 80 PSF, and this is way more than any snow depth in recorded history out here. Actually there are a lot of things out here that don't comply with the standards, but it is sure nice to be able to do things on our own property without having to get a single permit. There are no government services out here, but that's OK.

Regarding your brother in Fairbanks, permafrost is a real problem up there and it was a problem on my first hangar as well. That's why I needed 2,000 yds of gravel backfill. Life out here is a series of compromises. My Husky hangar actually has a very sturdy ply wood floor with 6" of blue board insulation underlayment. Hand-mixing 30 yds of concrete was just beyond my capabilities. And, my wooden floor hasn't moved an inch.

Drop out to see us if you get up for a visit. Its pretty country.

Mine's more of a museum. It was the fbo for years and a jump school. There's a 40' chute packing table upstairs, an old chart that covers one wall in the office and a paint booth with a three bladed prop for an exhaust fan. It's a great corner to bbq in.

Holy smokes Nizina! That is a ton of work!

Just curious, what do you do for work out in the boonies? Do you commute to work in your Husky?

Where is the closest town?