I have to be honest. I’m a little giddy right now. Tired, too. A little hoarse. But definitely enthused.
I’ve just returned from talking to high school students about aviation.
On the white board of the classroom three questions were listed. Each was intended to elicit a conversation with the students to be explored over the course of the semester. So, I co-opted those three questions and ran with them.
“Have we taken aviation for granted?” I asked the class. I pointed to a student sitting in the front of the class. “What do you think? Do we appreciate what aviation has done for us as a society, for our economy, for our lifestyles?”
The answer came in a quiet voice. The student was tentative. Being first can be hard.
“What do you think?” I asked a student in the back. A slightly more confident answer came back. The tide was turning. Within the first five minutes the majority of the class was engaged. I walked the room as I spoke, wandering between desks, stepping into their bubble, engaging students with questions as I went.
We talked about the first scheduled airline service in the world, which came into being not far from where the students sat. We talked about the iPhones in their pockets and how they came from the manufacturing facility to their possession by air. We talked about fear, and goals, and perceived limitations, and lifestyle. Aviation in all its glory was on display, being bandied about, with typical high school kid questions coming back at me.
“What about hijackings?”
“What if there’s an earthquake and you can’t land?”
“What if the engine quits?”
“What if you hit a flock of birds and crash?”
There’s an answer for everything. And most of those answers are far more practical, well thought out, and surprising than expected to kids raised on movies based on comic book characters and the wreckage that lies in their wake.
I’ve told this story a thousand times. I’ll tell it a thousand more before I’m done. I’ll be talking to more high school students later today and tomorrow. I wouldn’t miss it for the world. They’re so impressionable, excited, filled with trepidation, and misinformed about the world that awaits them on the other side of the school’s main entryway. It’s a great treat to be able to share the news that they really can live out their dreams, if they’re willing to do some potentially uncomfortable work between now and retirement.
Later this week I’ll be sharing a remarkably similar perspective with the Endeavor Group, a collection of young professionals who are associated with the Chamber of Commerce. Of course, the slant of my comments to them will be slightly modified. I’ll share with them the value of aviation as a professional tool. I’ll make it clear their local airport is an underappreciated asset that could be a great economic engine for their town, if they would only make customer service a priority. They might also wish to see it for what it is, a real estate leasing operation.
If you’re not sure what business you’re in, the odds of being successful at it is slim.
So why do I spend my time talking to audiences that are less than enthralled or knowledgeable about aviation? It’s because I have hope. Against all odds, I still have hope.
Consider this example: I’m in the process of purchasing an airplane that has been in a specific hangar for nearly 20 years. The airport has an unwritten policy that doesn’t allow for the adoption of an existing lease. Yet, there is a glimmer of hope.
In order for the airport administration to issue me a new lease, they have chosen to engage a consulting firm. That firm will craft a policy to allow for such a thing, which they will forward, at considerable expense, to the airport manager. The airport manager will introduce the proposed policy to the Airport Advisory Committee for discussion. If they approve it, the plan will go to the City Commission for consideration. If they approve it the policy will be recommended to the City Manager, who will pass it on to the Economic Development Director, who will move it into the Airport Director’s in-box, and then I will be contacted and potentially offered a lease.
All this for what is admittedly an unwritten policy. Put another way: It’s an idea. A state of mind. A manner of doing business.
The alternative is, of course, for the airport director to simply say, “Sure, c’mon in and we’ll write up a new lease. Same hangar, same price, same terms.”
Instead, the city will spend thousands of dollars, engaging nearly two dozen people in a process that will take months, to ultimately earn the exact same rent on the hangar, whether they rent it to me or someone else. Minus the month’s rent they will lose if it goes to someone else, of course.
Maybe one of those high school kids will grow up to be an airport manager who sees their customers as valuable. Maybe an Endeavor member will be elected to the City Commission only to recommend the airport manager should have the authority to rent a T-hangar without spending a few thousand dollars on unnecessary processes.
And maybe a few of them will realize thoroughly embedded C.Y.A. policies designed to guarantee nobody in a position of authority has to take personal responsibility for their area of endeavor are incredibly counter-productive.
Yep, I’m up on my soapbox again. Whenever and wherever I can. Because there is at least the sliver of a chance that somebody, somewhere needs to hear the words coming out of my mouth.
As I said, I have hope. And I’m a bit giddy. Because I truly believe from the bottom of my soul that something good might come from all this blabbering.
Of course, I could be wrong.
As stated before, the financial analysis usually doesn’t work out for building new, looked into myself.
As stated before, equity in appropriating who’s next depends on which side of the fence you’re on.
As to junk in hangars, at least for airports using federal funds, I believe the FAA rendered a ruling on allowable hangar usage….I presume for municipal units.
I’m in northern California, and I’ve not had any problems moving to a new hangar.
I’ve been in 3 hangars in the last 11 years. The 2nd was a lease from a group that built hangars for the city owned airport.The lease was emailed to me and 2 days later I was in a different hangar on the airport.
I recently moved to another airport 20 miles away. I was on the wait list for 3 months and was #4 for the group of hangars that I preferred, when I got a call on how soon I could move.
I told the county manager that it would take me 15 minutes to fly there. The other 3 ahead of me couldn’t move for a few months, so I got the hangar.
It took about 25 minutes at the airport office to pay the rent and security, fill in my info, tail number and insurance info, and got the key to the hangar.
The lease paperwork will take a few weeks, since it has to go to the county attorney, and board of supervisors. But I’m in the hangar now..
As far a building new hangars, both airports did a recent review on the costs vs the rents that they could get, and it didn’t ‘pencil out’ . T-hangars here rent for $300-$450 / mo ,. and the cost of the construction loan over 10 years is greater than what the hangars could be rented for.
So, no new hangars here for a long time.
Some of the hangars at the region airports were built during WW2 when the airports were built in the 1940’s to support the war…old wooding hangars; but they rent for about $190 a mo.
Maybe they should take the long term view on the financial aspects of the new construction. Yes the income will not match the loan payments but as soon as that does balance out (probably not too long) then they become almost pure profit from that point on. There might be some maintenance cost to deduct but they become a cash cow then, either funding new hanger construction or lowering airport operational expense.
Whats really hard is when you are on the waiting list and someone behind you comes right on in a gets the next available hanger. Why? Because they are in the good ole boys club and you are not. Rather you are an independent person and dont play politics, you wait your turn just to lose your place because you arent throwing your money around. Pride comes before the fall. I just fell off of mysoap box.
If I were Jamie I would buy into a partnership with the owner. and if required, sign onto the lease and life goes on as normal.
Then at some later date I would buy out the partner.
I can play any game if I know the rules.
This is a call for the airport manager to make not involve the United Nations for a consult.
You know what a camel is? It’s a horse designed by a committee.
I can appreciate Jamie’s issue with the hangar and Fastmph’s suggestion for a common sense approach to it. Unfortunately, that common sense approach is based upon who’s perspective it is coming from. I would be interested in Jamie’s perspective if he were the next person on the hangar waiting list and had been for a year or more (while his aircraft sits outside in the Florida sun and humidity on a tiedown). How upset would he be that someone got into the the hangar ahead of him just because they worked out a deal with the owner who already had a hangar (the other scenario is the owner sells the plane to someone else then allows Jamie to move his aircraft into the hangar as a sublease). I suspect we’d be reading an article about how unfair that is, agreed? Or put yourself in the position of the airport manager who has a responsibility to treat tenants equitably and is at the receiving end of threats and complaints from those on the hangar waiting list because the manager “played favorites”, even though they did not. I know because I’ve been on both sides of that position (as a waiting tenant and an airport manager). The process described, while cumbersome and potentially costly for the outcome, is intended to promote fairness and order. The real issue however, is that the governing body has inadequately managed the supply/demand issue. The lack of hangar space is a nationwide issue, as is local funding for such development. That’s where educating young kids can help in the future, as they recognize the importance of supporting local investment, whether it’s schools, roads, public parks or airport hangars, to name a few.
You’re not wrong…
Yep, sclerotic government at its best. Everything takes forever. Our city (small city, reasonably responsive government) has been hassling with DOT about putting a “Welcome” sign on the main highway into town for almost TWO YEARS. Gotta have engineering drawings, stress analysis, traffic study, probably a note from the mayor’s mother, six forms of government ID, copies of your power bill, passport, fingerprints, FBI background check, financial statements and lord knows what else – and this is a SIMPLE deal. Breakaway pole stuck in the ground, sign that says “Welcome to (city)”. It will probably also need to pass OSHA and EPA inspections as well.
Excellent article.
My takeaway was, only partially tic, your airport
needs fewer local politicos involved in airport decisions.
Everyone wants to have a say…..and once it’s theirs, it’s hard get it back.
When a young person (or older person for that matter), looks UP at the sound of an airplane going over, instead of DOWN at that device in their hand, that rules their every moment, that is so vital that it can no longer be in a pocket or hanging on your belt…..that it MUST BE at the ready in your hand, ………sorry, I lost my train of thought…….an airplane just flew overhead.
Jamie,
Thanks for another enlightening article. Your current situation with trying to get a hangar is the same at my local airport and all over the country. Pilots everywhere should put pressure on airport managers and boards to use some common sense in allocating available hangar space. Airports need viable and active aircraft/pilots to maintain an active environment. Those that store derelict aircraft in their hangars or use them as “mini-storage” units need to be evicted.
Where I live there is a hangar shortage all along the Gulf Coast. One problem is the cost of materials is so high it is almost impossible to build hangars without losing money. We were going to build 20 t hangars, when a price was determined (break even) everyone started to complain about how high the rate would be.
In my collage days I worked for an FBO and saw how the hanger space they rented could either be a good income source if it was for an actively flown aircraft. We had several aircraft that had not flown in years, long out of annual, owned by pilots who no longer passed their medicals. They had lots of money and were fond of their aircraft so it just sat there collecting dust and only generating the hanger fee for the FBO. There was no way to really get rid of them legally or ethically so that space that coveted space remained unavailable. Your thought that derelict aircraft need to be evicted fits into the same situation. Just how do you judge them to be derelict and legally and ethically force them out? Remember you are setting a precedent and you do not want it to maybe be used to force someone out because someone else with the right connections wants their space.