The Cost(s) Associated With Having a Hangar

The man, whose name I no longer recall, said flying is a wonderful experience, but I would be utterly shocked by the cost of owning an airplane. His advice: I should brace myself and be ready to pay up. I was somewhat suspicious of his guidance after further discussion revealed he had sold his Cessna 172 years earlier and bought a large sailboat—the classic money pit.

The boat had to be more expensive than the airplane, right? Well, I am not so sure.

One of the tricks of airplane ownership is figuring out all of the things you will have to pay for once you fly your new-to-you aircraft home. One particularly gnawing expense is front and center almost as soon as you land. I am talking about the hangar. While a safe place to house your recent acquisition might seem like an obvious part of ownership, it often is not among the first things an aircraft shopper considers.

It should be. Hangar rental fees vary widely from one airport to the next with some of the busier, most desirable fields charging north of $1,000 per month. In my case, the closest airport, New Jersey’s Essex County Airport, known locally as Caldwell (KCDW), charges $835 per month for a small T-hangar, while a wider version, which one would need for certain light twins or long-winged singles like the Diamond DA50 or Piper PA-46, goes for $1,140. A tie-down outside costs $330.

Such fixed costs can make you feel like you are renting an apartment for your airplane, not just a cold, corrugated locker with cobwebs and a bare light bulb hanging from the ceiling. The monthly outlay can wear down one’s mood as well as one’s budget.

There are also periodic and one-time expenses that go with hangars. Most pilots will need a powered tug to move the airplane, especially if the area around the hangar is inclined even slightly. They cost around $2,000 and up. Tools, a rolling chest in which to store them, and a step stool, ladder, and creeper for preflighting, cleaning, and other owner maintenance tasks will add significantly to the tab. Call it the price of entry.

The degree to which hangar lease rates vary can be surprising. About 300 miles from Caldwell’s costly aircraft accommodations is Williamson-Sodus Airport (KSDC), a scenic Upstate New York field just a few miles south of Lake Ontario, where T-hangars start at $120. There are several airports in that region with inexpensive hangars for the taking.

Clearly, hangar rates, like all aspects of real estate, are a function of location. On a day with light traffic, a pilot arriving at Caldwell can reach New York City in 30 minutes by car. Pilots based at the field who live nearby can access their aircraft quickly and be on their way to Boston, Martha’s Vineyard, the Hamptons, Cape Cod, or the Outer Banks on a trip that typically will take less time door to door than an airline flight. People I know who live in and around Williamson tell me its rural agricultural setting and proximity to the Finger Lakes and Great Lakes do not quite match the draw of Manhattan. When pilots land in Williamson, they are not near anything, in particular, they say with a chuckle.

Thousand-dollar-a-month hangars are not typical, and the sweet spot for rental rates among the airports I checked seems to lie between $400 and $500. Still, hangar costs are likely to account for a large cut of aircraft owners’ budgets—large enough to influence where they live, how often they fly, and which destinations they choose to visit.

What can be more demoralizing than the high rents in the Greater New York area is the fact that you simply cannot get a hangar in most cases without traveling 50 miles or more away from the city. Every airport seems to have a waiting list that is years—if not generations—long. I put my name on Caldwell’s list years ago, only to find there were more than 100 people ahead of me. I have not heard of an opening since.

For a long time, I was based at Sussex Airport (KFWN) in New Jersey, about an hour’s drive from home. Last year, we moved the airplane to Blairstown (1N7), still an hour from our residence. New Jersey is peppered with airports, many of them an hour or more from where we live, but none as close as Caldwell. So we rarely fly anywhere that is within a two-hour drive. It is not worth the effort and, as my kids would say, flying often takes longer than driving anyway because Dad kills so much time chatting with other pilots at the airport. For us, it is the four-hour drive to Montauk, five-hour trip to New Hampshire, and the 10-hour slog to northern Maine every summer that turn flying into a practical time-saver that essentially adds days to our vacations.

Sometimes, to keep my family happy while enjoying the thrill of pretending we are based at Caldwell, I will position the airplane there the day before a big trip. That way we can wake up, drive to the airport in 20 minutes, and be airborne shortly thereafter. The kids especially love it when we are early enough to depart before the tower opens at 7 a.m. In that case, we can get to Maine in time for breakfast instead of possibly missing dinner after a long, tiring drive. This is just one of the ways hangars can influence our behavior.

Another is reflected in my latest airplane storage conundrum. My family is moving to Vermont, where my wife recently accepted a job offer. Our search for the right house ran concurrently with my hunt for the right hangar. GA is big in Vermont—bigger than I thought. Indeed, it is big enough to cause a hangar shortage similar to New Jersey’s. I called several airports from Berlin to Burlington looking for space but found none.

The manager at one airport said his hangars were full, but new ones might be built soon—a story I have heard before but have ceased to believe. As I understand the situation, getting permits to build new hangars is one of the most difficult feats in the construction business. Another field in Vermont might be sold to developers soon, I was told. Finally I spoke with a state airport official who suggested I try my luck at the Northeast Kingdom International Airport (KEFK) in Newport, which is just a few miles short of the Canadian border. Local pilots simply call it Newport.

I called Dan Gauvin, manager of the well-appointed airport with crossing runways 5,300 and 4,000 feet long, both 100 feet wide. Gauvin also owns the FBO, Lakeview Aviation.Yes, he had space in one of his communal hangars, which I immediately grabbed, feeling extremely lucky.

Perhaps the most important part of acquiring a hangar is doing so before you acquire an airplane. The hangar has to come first and might require months of advance work, which can include getting to know airport managers, swapping stories, and letting them know that you appreciate their time and consideration. Do not count on an easy online transaction. Be prepared to talk on the phone—and maybe even in person.

A personal approach has worked well for me. So well that I have maintained two hangars since November. This type of overlap sounds strange but is fairly common. I plan to use the new one in Vermont for the first time next month. Once we are down to a single hangar again, my airplane will be in its most economical accommodation thus far, with monthly rent of $300, compared with $675 at Sussex, $450 at Blairstown, and $330 for that Caldwell tie-down. The Newport hangar is also the most opulent we have experienced. It is heated, has beautiful mountain views, and comes with a stout tractor for towing aircraft in and out.

Just like in New Jersey, though, our new hangar is an hour’s drive from our new home.

This feature first appeared in the March Issue 956 of the FLYING print edition.