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J. Nieuwenhuize
July 7th 15, 08:30 PM
Interesting thinking, never seen something like it before. Might make a lot of sense for soaring centers and clubs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pz6o0LYcroc

Bill T
July 7th 15, 09:32 PM
Article I SSA magazine many years ago I believe. It's at Moriarity NM if you want to see it in person.

Dan Marotta
July 8th 15, 03:18 AM
Right next door to Sundance Aviation. I kept my glider there for about
3 years and was very happy that it never got any hangar rash. In its
current location, it's within easy pushing distance to the staging area.

On 7/7/2015 2:32 PM, Bill T wrote:
> Article I SSA magazine many years ago I believe. It's at Moriarity NM if you want to see it in person.

--
Dan Marotta

July 8th 15, 02:55 PM
On Tuesday, July 7, 2015 at 2:30:40 PM UTC-5, J. Nieuwenhuize wrote:
> Interesting thinking, never seen something like it before. Might make a lot of sense for soaring centers and clubs:
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pz6o0LYcroc

Ed Byars designed and built one for his 5 GA planes at his house in SC, about 20 years ago. The carousel is motorized with his own design for a control panel labeled "Dial a Plane".

July 8th 15, 03:54 PM
On Wednesday, July 8, 2015 at 2:56:03 PM UTC+1, wrote:
> On Tuesday, July 7, 2015 at 2:30:40 PM UTC-5, J. Nieuwenhuize wrote:
> > Interesting thinking, never seen something like it before. Might make a lot of sense for soaring centers and clubs:
> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pz6o0LYcroc
>
> Ed Byars designed and built one for his 5 GA planes at his house in SC, about 20 years ago. The carousel is motorized with his own design for a control panel labeled "Dial a Plane".

The carousel design is elegant but if you look at hangar concepts objectively it turns out to be less space efficient than long hangars with doors all down the sides, the gliders entering from either side in staggered positions and interlocking tails, and the high wing of each glider overlapping the low wing of its neighbours. (Like the two private owner hangers we have built for a total of 40 gliders at Portmoak and the ones at Omaroma and other places - albeit with different structures).

The more conventional concept also has the huge advantage of being able to work on your glider, or attach charging cables etc, or leave equipment next to it, without impeding the entry or exit of other gliders - all things I would hate to be unable to do.

John Galloway

Mark628CA
July 9th 15, 02:19 AM
John-

Every situation is different, and while I agree that long fully doored hangars with full taxiway access on both sides are simple and offer their own advantages for glider storage, I still recommend a carousel as an equally viable option in some cases. What if you cannot access both sides of the hangar due to other hangars backing up to yours? If you only have one access point, a long skinny hangar with two sets of full length doors is not feasible. If your hangar lot will only support a square hangar with one-sided access, I maintain that the carousel will maximize storage and convenience.

I have measured and compared the carousel concept against a number of other designs, including the Portmoak and Omarama hangars (as well as our own Albuquerque Soaring Club hangar at Moriarty) and have roughly concluded that the space required for eight fully assembled sailplanes is slightly less in a square hangar with a carousel than in a "T-hangar" tail-to-tail, wings overlapping format like Omarama. Remember that the nose out positioning means that the T-tails are relatively close together at the center of the "pizza" and the wingtips do, in fact overlap.

While I was contemplating building commercially available (rental) sailplane hangars at a number of popular soaring sites, I did some exhaustive analyses of the build costs vs. potential income and concluded that, unless every spot was occupied fully and year-round, you were probably going to lose money.

However, the carousel concept was better on a dollar to square foot build, due to the more efficient footprint (square vs. rectangle) and the requirement for only one door and one taxiway access point, which could be extremely narrow as all gliders would exit on the same axis path. In addition, the costs of providing full length doors and full length access on two sides raised the build cost to well above the cost of the carousel and its installation. To be sure, I had planned on doing the carousel fabrication and installation myself, but the point is still valid.

I agree that every hangar could probably fit more aircraft with "efficient" stacking, but the primary reason people like keeping a glider in a hangar is ease of access. If it takes longer and requires more people to unstack a hangar to get your glider out than it takes to assemble it from the trailer, assembly and disassembly is probably the way to go.

PS, I also manufacture the "WingrRigger (tm), so I am an advocate of other alternatives as well.

July 9th 15, 02:53 AM
I am excited to hear your thoughts on a carousel hanger.
I have seen two of them.
I loved them because one person could safely move a glider in and out withouth doing the "hanger ballet."
I was going to build one at Minden but the soaring situation has never settled into stable situation.
Keep us updated!

Dan Marotta
July 9th 15, 03:42 AM
While I was in the carousel hangar I found it quite easy to work on my
glider regardless of its position. Each beam of the carousel also has
dedicated AC power with two outlets mounted next to the main wheel.
There was always power to charge batteries, run soldering irons, etc.
No extension cords to drag around.

On 7/8/2015 8:54 AM, wrote:
> On Wednesday, July 8, 2015 at 2:56:03 PM UTC+1, wrote:
>> On Tuesday, July 7, 2015 at 2:30:40 PM UTC-5, J. Nieuwenhuize wrote:
>>> Interesting thinking, never seen something like it before. Might make a lot of sense for soaring centers and clubs:
>>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pz6o0LYcroc
>> Ed Byars designed and built one for his 5 GA planes at his house in SC, about 20 years ago. The carousel is motorized with his own design for a control panel labeled "Dial a Plane".
> The carousel design is elegant but if you look at hangar concepts objectively it turns out to be less space efficient than long hangars with doors all down the sides, the gliders entering from either side in staggered positions and interlocking tails, and the high wing of each glider overlapping the low wing of its neighbours. (Like the two private owner hangers we have built for a total of 40 gliders at Portmoak and the ones at Omaroma and other places - albeit with different structures).
>
> The more conventional concept also has the huge advantage of being able to work on your glider, or attach charging cables etc, or leave equipment next to it, without impeding the entry or exit of other gliders - all things I would hate to be unable to do.
>
> John Galloway

--
Dan Marotta

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