How long are hangar waiting lists?

N918KT

N918KT

Line Up and Wait
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Philadelphia, PA
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KT
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KOQN
I know I am getting way ahead of myself, but was wondering how long did it take for you all to secure a hangar for your airplane?

I just plan on renting immediately after I get my sport license but what if I want to own or partner with someone for an LSA years later down the road?

Does it take some as long as 5 years or even more to secure a hangar for rent? Or is that an exaggeration?

Would like to hear a couple stories on how, if anyone, got a spot for a hangar.
 
I’d expect 2-5 years. But this is highly airport dependent.

One way to skip the list would be to purchase a hangar for sale (if offered at your airport).
 
Very much dependent on where you are. In a rural area, I was able to get a shade hangar immediately and a t-hangar in about a year or so.

In the DC region, waits are 3-5 years on average, ranging all the way up to a guy laughing at me on the phone when I inquired.
 
RyanB said:
If you got on my waiting list today, you can expect a hangar in 3 to 5 years. We are over 60 people deep.
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Oh wow!

In general, do I need to own an aircraft to rent a hangar? Or can I get on the list before having an airplane?
 
At my airport, the older smaller hangars are available immediately. Most of the nearby airports have "normal" size T-hangars available as well. If you need something bigger or want something nicer, you'll be waiting. Definitely a rural area though.
 
Depends on location:
- No hangar waiting list when I got mine 5 years ago (suburbs of Chicago) [KDPA]. My newer neighbors also did not have to wait for a hangar.
- I've been on waiting list at a nearby airport for 6 months (KDKB), no guidance on when I can expect a call
- I was on the waiting list at Kalamazoo Michigan for just over a year before my number got called

I've heard of other people waiting multiple years.
 
And to add to the fun: some airports make you pay to be on the waiting list EACH YEAR. Real incentive for the airport to add hangars, eh?

Of course, at KBED it did trim some of the 90+ people off the list (and raising the hangar rents sky high didn't increase interest much)
 
N918KT said:
Oh wow!

In general, do I need to own an aircraft to rent a hangar? Or can I get on the list before having an airplane?
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You can get on the list, but must have one within 30 days of signing the lease. Other airports may be different, however.
 
Today.

Where are you located? That will narrow down the variability in the answers. (Philly?)
 
Anywhere from 0 days to decades depending on location. And then how much are you willing to pay.
This is like asking how much a two bedroom house costs. Where? In the UP where we snagged one for a song, or in San Francisco?

I had to wait like a week with the Comanche here in Michigan. But where we plan on moving in a few years, there is no hangar space available according to an airport manager. So, we just gonna build our own.
 
RyanB- How often do you find people using long held hangars for all things except housing aircraft? I’ve seen multiple campers, motorcycles, collector cars, and such in hangars without a plane in sight.
 
GoFly said:
RyanB- How often do you find people using long held hangars for all things except housing aircraft? I’ve seen multiple campers, motorcycles, collector cars, and such in hangars without a plane in sight.
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There were several when I took over my position, but I terminated their leases and now require yearly copies of annual inspections for their stored aircraft. It is no longer a problem at my airport.
 
If you’re young and going to move around, it will be variable, but follow the rural<small<metro model roughly.

If you’re staying put in Philly, call the nearest GA airport and ask, or wait for a Philly POA member to chime in. The person you talk to at the GA airport will likely be able to comment roughly on the other surrounding airport hangar situations as well.
 
RyanB said:
There were several when I took over my position, but I terminated their leases and now require yearly copies of annual inspections for their stored aircraft. It is no longer a problem at my airport.
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I love this idea. How do you handle an airplane that's down for an extended period, maybe extensive maintenance or on a waiting list for overhaul, etc. (asking for a friend ;) )

I've been *extremely* lucky when it comes to finding hangars. Hangared continuously since 2012 in SoCal, NorCal, and a handful of places in the midwest; longest I've had to wait is around 30 days at Torrance CA. Sometimes it's expensive AF but it's been available.

This is not normal. I wish you every bit of luck I've had.

Nauga,
baffled by success
 
Depends where you are. It could be anywhere from immediate availability to a 10 year wait. Find out now, and if there is a wait list, get on it. It might cost you fifty or a hundred bucks a year to hold your spot on the list, but when the time comes, you’ll be much closer to having a hangar.
 
Jim K said:
At my airport, the older smaller hangars are available immediately. Most of the nearby airports have "normal" size T-hangars available as well. If you need something bigger or want something nicer, you'll be waiting. Definitely a rural area though.
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When I first moved into Quincy they had the only hangars available in the area- some very old and small T-hangars with cracked pavement/weeds in front of the doors and no power. The Archer I had then just barely fit... width, height, and length were all tight as could be. The Lance would never work in one... anyway I only put the Archer in there once and then upon coming back to permanently keep it there the FBO informed me they had a spot in their community hangar and I jumped on it. Been there ever since. I'm pretty sure those tiny hangars are still available but nobody wants them(for good reason).

I've been looking into being able to relocate to Hannibal or Pittsfield for a while now so I could have a hangar to myself and not deal with some of Quincy's rules. Nothing ever seems to come available.
 
For many years, the airport I used to be based at had a five to 10 year hangar wait list. The manager didn’t seem to watch it closely, nor to have consistent procedures. Many hangars were sublet with no oversight from airport management, so they were officially rented to guys who hadn’t owned a plane in years, or in some cases to people who hadn’t existed in years. On top of that, a bunch of hangars were not used for aircraft - one even had a commercial bakery using it for storage and as a delivery facility.

The manager finally retired. His replacement certainly had faults, but a good thing he did was to fix the hangar situation. Being that they used federal funds, he invoked the clause requiring aviation use, and evicted tenants who didn’t have aircraft. Next, they established a clear wait list policy, published the current list, and wrote sublease rules. He reduced the wait to five years or less.
 
RyanB said:
There were several when I took over my position, but I terminated their leases and now require yearly copies of annual inspections for their stored aircraft. It is no longer a problem at my airport.
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This is genius. I wish our local airports were more aggressive about people using hangars for non-aviation stuff.
 
nauga said:
How do you handle an airplane that's down for an extended period, maybe extensive maintenance or on a waiting list for overhaul, etc. (asking for a friend ;) )
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I make them give me progress reports every 30 days, so I can see if they’re actually working on becoming airworthy or just trying to buy themselves time.
 
N918KT said:
but was wondering how long did it take for you all to secure a hangar for your airplane?
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I was on the list for about a year and a half at KGIF, but as others have said it varies with location. You might inquire about turnover rate when you talk to the airport. I know that on my row, a half dozen hangars have changed occupants over the last couple of years. One of the new tenants only had to wait about 6 months, so things change.

N918KT said:
In general, do I need to own an aircraft to rent a hangar? Or can I get on the list before having an airplane?
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At our place, you can get on the list but you can't sign the lease without having a plane.

When my name first came to the top of the list, I didn't yet have a plane so I wasn't eligible for the hangar. The nice lady left me in my place on the list, and just started calling down the list until she reached someone with a plane ready to move in. From then on, I continued to get calls every few months about an available hangar until I finally had a plane.

When I got "THE" call, my plane was under contract but not closed yet. She held the hangar for me for a couple of weeks, and by that time I owned it and had a bill of sale and a temporary registration. I had to show those, since the plane was still in annual inspection at the seller's location, and they let me sign the lease. It was a few months before I was able to bring my bird home.

RyanB said:
There were several when I took over my position, but I terminated their leases and now require yearly copies of annual inspections for their stored aircraft. It is no longer a problem at my airport.
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Similar here. They started doing annual inspections and have cleaned up a bunch of the "storage unit" problem. There are still hangars with cars or boats, but the ones I've seen also have some flavor of aircraft, like a trike or small LSA, tucked into a corner. One hangar had a couple of powered parachutes for a while, and I don't know whether the airport decided that wasn't sufficient or whether the tenant just moved.
 
Our waiting list has about 15 people on it, but we only see vacancies about once or twice a year so it takes a while to move up.

All of our hangars do have airworthy and active aircraft in them. We don't allow subletting, but some tenants have played games, having ownership in the LLC of the aircraft, but rarely or never actually fly it. Hard to police that kind of thing when the Is are dotted.
 
RyanB said:
I make them give me progress reports every 30 days, so I can see if they’re actually working on becoming airworthy or just trying to buy themselves time.
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That seems reasonable. My plane has been grounded since Nov while we OH the engine and the airport has had no complaints, but then I've had guys from the FBO give me a hand with packing up some of the heavier parts so they know I'm actually working on it! :biggrin:

There are a few planes in hangars that haven't been flown in years and are in various stages of disassembly or decay, and I think the airport is looking for a way to deal with that. There are two planes across from me that haven't flown in the four years I've been there, but the owner is often in the hangar wrenching on them and can say he's trying to get them airworthy, so I think it may come down to a judgment call.
 
I'm actually surprised to see the number of t-hangar construction projects either in the design phase, out for bid, or construction is underway. There is a real shortage today but I think there is some relief coming with additional capacity. Great to see this.
 
GLMS_NC said:
I'm actually surprised to see the number of t-hangar construction projects either in the design phase, out for bid, or construction is underway. There is a real shortage today but I think there is some relief coming with additional capacity. Great to see this.
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Our airport has been talking about adding hangars for a long time, and there's plenty of land, but so far no construction. Personally, I think we're too crowded as it is, and I really hope we get a tower before adding more planes.
 
AvNavCom said:
In the DC region, waits are 3-5 years on average, ranging all the way up to a guy laughing at me on the phone when I inquired.
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Only 3-5? Make that two guys laughing ;) The current list at FME is 145 deep...
 
In 2018 when I came to my airport there was 2-3 extra awaiting renters out of about 45 hangars. When my buddies prepaid year ran out I informed the manager I was going to take over the hangar. He offered 2 other hangars that were a little nicer and facing toward the east so ice and snow would melt better in the mornings since he knew I flew a lot. I took the one facing east which makes it cooler in the late afternoon.
The last couple years the waiting list has grown to about 20 names waiting. Real glad to have the hangar as I spend a lot time there even when not flying, love the place.
 
AvNavCom said:
What's the turn-over? The guy who laughed at me said "Maybe a decade. If you're lucky."
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One or two hangars become available per year. I imagine there's a fair amount of attrition within the list.
 
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