Band-Aid for hangar rash

[Gone Flyin]

There is not a much space between the doors on my hangar building and the wings of my plane when taxiing in and out. There is another unrelated building on the opposite side, as well.

You have to keep your head out of your butt when moving.

As it so happens, one day my head got stuck and I scratched the side of one of my wings on the steel hangar doors. Ouch!

I ran out and purchased a roll of what we used to use on our car doors to keep the other guy's car door from banging into ours.

Only sticks out around 3/16" from the wing. Hard rubber with 3M sticky tape.

Should prevent any damage in the future... should my head get stuck, again : )

 

[Gary Ward]

There is not a much space between the doors on my hangar building and the wings of my plane when taxiing in and out. There is another unrelated building on the opposite side, as well.

You have to keep your head out of your butt when moving.

As it so happens, one day my head got stuck and I scratched the side of one of my wings on the steel hangar doors. Ouch!

I ran out and purchased a roll of what we used to use on our car doors to keep the other guy's car door from banging into ours.

Only sticks out around 1/4" from the wing. Hard rubber with 3M sticky tape.

Should prevent any damage in the future... should my head get stuck, again : )

I know the feeling, sorry to hear that.

Not sure if that is a good idea?

My plane used to be in a lean to hangar and it took 2 people to put it inside because there was only an inch or so on each side. I have a couple bruises on my wing tips.

Then I moved to different airport and my hangar is 44-45' wide. I can roll it inside with my eyes closed and not hit the sides.

Good luck.

Actually if I have both of these cars in there I have to pay attention when rolling it in.

 

[RonP]

Is it legal to add something like that to the wingtip? Need to log it? Always wondered about strapping cameras to the exterior of the airplane also. What is the ruling on both?

 

[Nathan Miller]

Wish I knew about this magic band aid last week

Eh.. my A&P/IA got it buffed out in a week...

 

[Stingray Don]

I know the feeling, sorry to hear that.

Not sure if that is a good idea?

My plane used to be in a lean to hangar and it took 2 people to put it inside because there was only an inch or so on each side. I have a couple bruises on my wing tips.

Then I moved to different airport and my hangar is 44-45' wide. I can roll it inside with my eyes closed and not hit the sides.

Good luck.

Actually if I have both of these cars in there I have to pay attention when rolling it in.

Even you cars have wings!

 

[Gary Ward]

Even you cars have wings!

Good eye! I can't say I ever looked at it that way. That is true.

lol

 

[Gary Ward]

View attachment 98983

Wish I knew about this magic band aid last week

Eh.. my A&P/IA got it buffed out in a week...

That looks bad, what did it hit?

 

[Nathan Miller]

That looks bad, what did it hit?

There is always an SUV parked at a 45 across from our hangar. I was trying to clear my right wingtip from the SUV and ended up digging the left wingtip into the hangar. Normally it's not hard to clear the SUV, but it was a long day of flying and I might have been down an hour of sleep. Felt "IM SAFE". Plus there may have been some complacency.

I got lucky - spared the strobe box, magnetometer, and ribs. Just took out the faring.

Stay on your toes, folks.

 

[Jim K]

Personally I wouldn't want to explain that during a ramp check. Of course I've also never been ramp checked, so if your ia is good with it, then you'll probably be fine.

 

[Magman]

Folks often focus on visible damage.

Suggest you look for ripples in the skin immediately aft of Fuel Tank.

If so ; it’s likely you have damaged the Rear ( Aft) Spar)

This piece of structure is only about .040 in thick.

Wing Tip Strikes have a lot of leverage and may cause damage even though the

plastic Tip doesn’t look bad.

btw. Common Insurance Claim

 

[Nathan Miller]

Suggest you look for ripples in the skin immediately aft of Fuel Tank…btw. Common Insurance Claim

Also common repair item. The shop had everything I needed on the shelf. Happens to flight school planes often enough on the field.
A&P said I dodged a bullet and structure is intact.

 

[unsafervguy]

Is it legal to add something like that to the wingtip? Need to log it? Always wondered about strapping cameras to the exterior of the airplane also. What is the ruling on both?

simple answer, no. I would have to flag that on an annual. since it it out there in the airflow and has the possibility of changing the flight characteristics of the aircraft I could see the FAA declaring it a major modification.

 

[Jeff Oslick]

Not legal. Would it make a big difference? Certainly not if still attached firmly, but if it started to peel off in flight it could cause a significant yaw. Nothing that couldn't be overcome with rudder, but enough to be noticeable.

The concept by itself is something Cessna has used on the leading edge of the horizontal stabilizer, to prevent rock chips from the main gear (we have it on our 182). The difference there is that airflow is straight against the rubber strip on the horizontal stabilizer, essentially holding it in place even if the adhesive were to weaken.

 

[Gone Flyin]

Is it legal to add something like that to the wingtip? Need to log it? Always wondered about strapping cameras to the exterior of the airplane also. What is the ruling on both?

My understanding is, regarding attaching cameras and tablets to the plane... if you can remove it without using tools... just with your hands.... it is legal.

That's why you will see GoPro's attached with things like hose clamps that have large plastic wing nuts, rather than the standard metal hex nuts.

This is a mount I made using a compression clamp.

It grabs onto the tail cone tie down ring.

No tools to put it on or take it off, so I'm legal.

Suction cups inside the cockpit and yoke clamps for your tablet are all legal.

I also have a Sonalert alarm connected by alligator clips across my flap switch. It beeps loudly when the flaps are retracting. Had too many cases where the flaps came back up by accident on final.

Again, the clips make this legal.

 

[Joe Pilot]

I'd put the protection on the doors of the hanger, not on my wing tips . . . . Hangers don't fly

 

[Timbeck2]

Can’t believe nobody is going to make a comment on “taxiing in and out of a hangar.”


You guys are slipping

 

[Joe Pilot]

Can’t believe nobody is going to make a comment on “taxiing in and out of a hangar.”


You guys are slipping

I just figured it was one heck of a Texas sized hanger . . . .

 

[Gary Ward]

I just figured it was one heck of a Texas sized hanger . . . .

Can’t believe nobody is going to make a comment on “taxiing in and out of a hangar.”


You guys are slipping

"What's wrong with taxing into your hangar motor running"? lol

One night after flying when there was no one around I decided to pull my 172 into the T hangar with a tow bar. It almost fit. I saw some other dude with his experimental pulled in and I thought I would try it and get the photo op at least! lol

5-6" was as close as I wanted to be to the wings to the wall. If I moved it forward I may have been able to close the door?

 

[Gone Flyin]

Can’t believe nobody is going to make a comment on “taxiing in and out of a hangar.”

Actually, the line read like this:

There is not a much space between the doors on my hangar building and the wings of my plane when taxiing in and out. There is another unrelated building on the opposite side, as well.

I do not taxi in and out of my hangar, I taxi past the hangar building and need to be careful not to scrape my wings on the steel doors of said building.

 

[Salty]

I taxi my plane into my hangar just far enough so that the mains are off the slope up to it. I keep it clean of crap, and there's plenty of clearance.

The guy that built my hangar put a 6" deep circle in the middle of the hangar to build a turntable in. He never built the turntable. When I bought it, I filled it with concrete. Starting an engine pointing into a hangar is a pretty bad idea. I have seen the turntable thing done in a hangar with big doors on both sides. That would work, but then the question is why have a turntable if you can taxi through?

 

[SoCal 182 Driver]

There is not a much space between the doors on my hangar building and the wings of my plane when taxiing in and out. There is another unrelated building on the opposite side, as well.

You have to keep your head out of your butt when moving.

As it so happens, one day my head got stuck and I scratched the side of one of my wings on the steel hangar doors. Ouch!

I ran out and purchased a roll of what we used to use on our car doors to keep the other guy's car door from banging into ours.

Only sticks out around 3/16" from the wing. Hard rubber with 3M sticky tape.

Should prevent any damage in the future... should my head get stuck, again : )

STC for that?

Seriously, though, I wouldn't add something like that to my plane. But why not do something like that on the door (or the structure) that caused the damage in the first place? Much safer, IMHO.

 

[Gone Flyin]

Seems some are having trouble grasping what I was at so maybe this picture will help.

When I pull out of my hanger, on the right, I need to navigate between the red steel doors of all the other spaces and keep away from the building on the left.

There is also a drive on the left and vehicles need to be able to get by.

Its a bit of a tight fit.

 

[SoCal 182 Driver]

Seems some are having trouble grasping what I was at so maybe this picture will help.

When I pull out of my hanger, on the right, I need to navigate between the red steel doors of all the other spaces and keep away from the building on the left.

There is also a drive on the left and vehicles need to be able to get by.

Its a bit of a tight fit.

Get a golf cart or lawn tractor and tow the plane to somewhere where you're not "threading the needle." I understand what you're dealing with, but I still don't think it's a good idea to be sticking stuff on your wingtips.

 

[Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe]

People have been farting around with wing tips since the airplane was invented. Round tips, square tips, tapered tips, droop tips, tip plates, magic anti-vortex things, more shapes than you can shake a stick at. None of which make enough difference to be spending hard earned cash on. Out there at the tip, lift is purd near zero - mostly what you get is the tip vortex which wingtip which extends way beyond the end of the wing.
A rub strip down the edge? Whatever.

 

[Dan Thomas]

Not legal. Would it make a big difference? Certainly not if still attached firmly, but if it started to peel off in flight it could cause a significant yaw. Nothing that couldn't be overcome with rudder, but enough to be noticeable.

More of a concern would be the tip vortex peeling the aft end off the fairing and carrying it up and over and getting the end of it real close to the small gap between the outboard end of the aileron and the tip rib. Could jam the ailerons if it found its way in there. With those droop tips the distance might be great enough to prevent that.

 

[Bell206]

Is it legal to add something like that to the wingtip? Need to log it? Always wondered about strapping cameras to the exterior of the airplane also. What is the ruling on both?

FYI: you can add whatever you want to your aircraft provided you follow the applicable rules. However, any alteration requires a write up and AP sign off as alterations do not fall under preventative maintenance. Whether that tape requires more approval than a simple logbook entry falls to the installer. In my opinion it does not and would have no problem signing it off as a minor except I would have used a different product.

As to the camera mounts, Flight Flix lists the applicable guidance which actually applies to installing anything on a aircraft and whether it is a temporary or permanent install. Most camera mounts fall under minor alterations but as noted above mounting one "temporary" to the aircraft on the tie down fitting is also "acceptable" but still holds the owner/operator accountable but via a different FAR than Part 43.