Two to three feet? Is that all? I have an approach in front of my
rental hanger that is about 35 feet to the plowed taxiway. The airport
guys do the taxiway. I do the rest. I zip over from my office during
the lunch hour, before work, after work, etc. whenever it snows, in
order to keep it clear. If I miss a storm and it gets too deep, I toss
the snowblower from home into the truck and do it on the weekend. One
secret: I built a "snow-pusher." This is a wide 1x6 board with a long
handle. I can clear that 35x15 foot approach of 2 inches of light snow
in about 5-10 minutes. My goal is to keep the approach clear before
anyone drives or parks a car on it-packing down the snow.

On your other question: I don't think there is anything that changes
the melting teperature of snow that is not corrosive to some metals.

Al
1964 Cessna 172
Spokane, WA



Jay Honeck wrote:
We're facing the snowiest fall ever in Iowa, which has required shoveling
pretty much every other day. (Gosh, I can hardly wait for winter!)

Our airport plows the ramps and runways well, but they always leave a strip
of snow approximately 2 - 3 feet out from the hangar door. This, of course,
needs to be cleared before the plane can be removed.

We keep a snow shovel at the hangar, of course, and occasionally (like,
today) we truck our snow blower in when the snow is really heavy and deep.

I've thought about tipping the snow plow driver to get him to plow as close
to the hangar door as possible (when the airport manager was a friend of
ours, he always took extra care to plow as close as possible), but I never
seem to catch the guy. Our FBO is useless in this regard, only shoveling
right around their office door entry way, and not getting involved with the
hangars in any way at all anymore.

Anyone got any tricks for keeping the hangar ramp clear of snow?

Also, can anyone recommend something they put down on ice that (a) enhances
traction (b) melts snow, (c) doesn't harm aluminum, and (d) doesn't leave a
gritty, prop-eroding residue?