What's the width of your hangar opening?

[kjmeyers1]

Congrats. That is a long time to get a hangar.

[carym]

After nearly 10 years on the waiting list, I finally have a hangar now - it's 42' wide, so I am still working on the best way to get it in there with just barely a foot to spare on each side. It's uphill into the hangar, too...

Be happy you don't have a DA42 - 45' wingspan. this limited the airports where I could hangar my plane

[Tommy]

Be happy you don't have a DA 62.

[kjmeyers1]

That's a problem I'd like to have

[Rick]

Yeah, me too!

Sorry guys, I failed to notice this was in the DA42 forum. You wide-winged guys have a much bigger problem...

[mdieter]

We have less than a foot clearance on each wingtip with our DA40. We use a winch to pull it in by the tail. We use a line painted on the floor to align the wheels. Push the tail down and steer while the winch pulls. The DA40 has almost a 40' span with the lights and we fit into a 41' and a few inches opening.

[CFIDave]

We got really lucky with hangars a few years ago. We were way down the local airport (KJYO) hangar waitlist for our DA40 (about #20 on the list), and then the 2008-2009 recession hit. Due to aircraft foreclosures, people deciding they could no longer afford a hangar, and the town building a few more new hangars, we surprisingly only had to wait one year to pop to the top of the hangar waitlist. We ended up in a brand new 42-foot door T-hangar for our 39.5 foot-wide DA40.

Then in late 2012 we placed an order for a 44.5 foot wingspan DA42-VI which obviously wouldn't fit in our DA40's 42-foot door hangar, and had 6 months (while our DA42 was being built) to find a larger hangar. We put the word out with everyone (including the town airport commission and airport manager) that we needed a bigger hangar, but were resigned that we would have to pay big $$$ to the FBO to park our DA42 in a shared corporate hangar.

Then we got lucky again: One of the tenants renting a larger town-owned hangar sold his Baron and made the mistake of storing cars in his hangar. He claimed he was going to purchase another plane, but when the town found out about this violation of airport policy, they forced him to swap hangars with us or leave the airport entirely. So we got one of only 2 end-unit T-hangars with a huge 53 foot wide door! The door is so big that when we push the plane back into the hangar with a PowerTow we don't even have to aim very precisely. If necessary this hangar could even accommodate a 48-foot wingspan plane (does Diamond make one of those? )

BTW, since this pic was taken 3 years ago our hangar isn't that empty anymore...

[Rick]

Well gosh, Dave - you could easily fit a new DA62 in there - what are you waiting for?

[CFIDave]

Well gosh, Dave - you could easily fit a new DA62 in there - what are you waiting for?

Ahh, if only having a big enough hangar were all it took to get a DA62...(see I'm trying to keep this thread on track talking about hangars.)

It's hard to justify a DA62 when our DA42-VI has identical performance, the same wings/engine hardware/systems, and comes identically equipped with the same features. So unless we absolutely need 5-7 seats and 300 lbs more useful load -- or tire of flying a white airplane --I think we'll stick with our "sportier" less fuel-consuming DA42-VI.

[Charles]

I consider myself lucky to have had the chance to buy a hangar at a class C airport 5 miles from where I live. However the hangar came with a 40' door. Admittedly, the DA40 is a very tight fit in there but after two years of flying on a weekly basis, I have yet to smash my first strobe light against the door frame. I use a dolly for the nose wheel while pulling the tail with a winch and I guide the plane to ensure that the main gear wheels remain aligned with painted lines on the floor. Very easy to do actually.