A corporate pilot has launched Hangar Direct, a website similar to Airbnb that helps pilots find temporary hangar space.
Like most things in life, Hangar Direct grew out of Trenton Ray’s frustration trying to find a hangar during one of his trips.
“I flew a Citation to Minnesota,” he recalls. “It was one of those early spring thunderstorms with hail and tornadoes, and here I am with the fiduciary responsibility of parking this guy’s plane.”
Realizing he needed a hangar, he began a frantic search.
“What do you do? You pick up the phone and you start dialing because there was no resource to find temporary hangar space.”
After a frustrating number of calls, he finally reached a “lovely lady” at an FBO who said yes, they had a hangar he could use — for $1,000 a night.
Shocked at the price, he decided to “roll the dice” and took the hangar.
“Well, it ended up hailing that night. I saved the day,” he says.
But when he submitted the bill to the aircraft owner, he refused to pay it.
And that was the moment Hangar Direct was created.
Ray consulted with his wife, a realtor, and they began looking into possible sources for temporary hangar space.
What he discovered was that the only resource is Facebook Marketplace. While he uses that for his contract pilot jobs, he realized there had to be a better way.
After about a year and half of market research, he was convinced that pilots and hangar owners would both benefit from a way to match.
How It Works
A quick look at HangarDirect.com shows that it is very similar to Airbnb.
There’s about 30 hangars on the site right now, with more in the works, according to Ray.
A pilot who needs a temporary hangar can look through the available listings, choose the days they need it, and reserve the hangar.
For owners, it’s as simple as taking a few photos of your hangar and posting the listing on HangarDirect.com.
Prices start as low as $50 a night, with some owners offering their hangars for up to a month.
“We’re trying to make this affordable for the aviation community,” Ray says.
When a pilot arrives at the airport, they’ll get access to the hangar through instructions from the owner. Sometimes there will be a door code, other times there may be staff on site to grant access.
While Hangar Direct helps out traveling pilots, it’s also a big help to hangar owners.
Ray tells the story of one owner who only uses his hangar six months out of the year. Using Hangar Direct he can rent out the hangar for a few days or a few months, helping cover his aviation-related costs.
The community aspect of general aviation also plays a part.
Ray knows one hangar owner — actually the first to put his hangar on the site — who just wants to help out fellow pilots.
“He told me he remembered when he was in a motorcycle club and they would stay at each other’s houses,” Ray recalls. “It’s helping out the whole community.”
But there’s also a fail safe: Hangar owners have the right to refuse a reservation, he notes.
“The idea is that technically anybody can rent anybody’s hangar, but it still comes down to the hangar owner to approve or reject the reservation,” he explains.
So far about 200 pilots have signed on to the platform.
“We’ve got a great fan base — people who believe in it,” he says.
In fact it was the fans who suggested adding month to month leasing, he notes.
Hangar Direct makes 15% on each transient rental.
“So if you charge $100 a night for a hangar, the pilot pays $115,” he explains.
And because community is important to Ray, he’s pledging 5% to Airplanes and Coffee, a Texas-based non-profit that has monthly fly-ins throughout the state, as well as offers Discovery flights and flight scholarships.
Ray, who has been a professional pilot for 11 years, says that the frantic search for a hangar is something that most pilots will inevitably encounter during their flying days.
“I feel like anybody who owns an aircraft has — or if they haven’t already, they will — endure some kind of hangar altercation in their life. It’s happened to me well over 10 times. To me, it’s going back to the 180 phone calls I’ve had to make to find a hangar for one night.”
Find out more and see the hangars that are available now at HangarDirect.com.
Despite the first comment being negative on the prospects, it clearly works for several already on the site. And even though there will be places where it won’t be possible, there will be many, many other airports large and small where it will be possible, so this is a viable idea and not limited to “corporate aircraft”. My own similar experience has been just trying to find a hangar for a day, not for weather, but for a place to perform some basic owner maintenance (e.g. oil change, tire change, etc.) on my high performance piston single. Having a place where I can unload my supplies and tools and do a little work can be a huge convenience. With a clear rental agreement and good communication between both parties it can be a significant benefit for everyone involved.
Nice idea but unfortunately it won’t be able to work at many airports.
Many of the airports owned by local cities and municipalities forbid the tenants to
sub lease their hangars to anyone— ever.
This means that airports where hangars are owned could succeed, but in general, these airports will not be able to accommodate corporate aircraft due to runway length, security and lack of instrument approaches.