Aircraft Hangar Maintenance at DFW Airports

Aircraft Hangar Maintenance at DFW Airports

A hangar is a warehouse with a very expensive floor. The ceiling is thirty to forty feet up, the lights and door tracks live there, and directly below sits an airframe that nobody wants a ladder leaning against.

Hangar Ceilings Are Warehouse Ceilings

The structure is pre-engineered steel with purlins at twenty to thirty feet and a sprinkler grid to match. Access is a rolling tower, not a ladder, because everything that needs fixing is out in the middle of the floor rather than against a wall.

Our rolling steel scaffold tower at $1,199 for the 15 foot 10 inch frame is the size most FBOs keep for high-bay lighting and sprinkler head work, with $999 for the 10 foot 9 inch frame covering the lower bays.

Guard rails on all four sides are not optional when the platform is above a wing or a fuselage.

Nothing Leans on the Airframe

Aluminum skin and composite panels dent and crush, and a ladder foot is a point load. Anything that has to be reached over an aircraft gets worked from a tower or from a platform placed beside it, never from a ladder braced against it.

When the work is above a wing, set the tower beside the aircraft and plank across the gap rather than reaching.

Door Tracks, Lighting and Bird Netting

Hangar doors are the other recurring job: tracks, rollers, bottom bars and the drive. The work is at ten to twenty feet and often in a corner where a tower will not fit.

Our Pinnacle platform ladder in the 8 foot platform size is $423.10, rated Type IAA, and puts a mechanic at door track height with a guarded platform and a tray for tools.

Anything above the door header goes back on the tower. A stepladder against a door jamb is how people fall into a hangar floor.

Working Alone in a Hangar

Night shifts and weekend call-outs mean mechanics often work alone. A fall from a tower with no one on the floor is a serious event, so a harness becomes part of the kit even for jobs that feel routine.

Our UpGear fall protection kit at $89.38 covers ladder and platform work with a 50 foot lifeline, and it lives on the tower frame rather than in a cabinet.

The Rest of a Hangar Punch List

Beyond the ceiling and the doors, a hangar runs a list of wall and roof work: bird netting over the door header, roof leaks at panel seams, exhaust extraction rails and compressed air drops. The wall work runs fifteen to twenty five feet and belongs on an extension ladder with a standoff, which is why most FBOs keep a fiberglass extension ladder on the wall rack.

Hangar floors are sealed and slick with jet exhaust and hydraulic fluid, so ladder feet need to be clean and the tower casters need to be locked every time somebody climbs. A tower that rolls an inch with a mechanic at the top is the start of the worst story in this article.

Keep the tower on the same side of the aircraft all day. Moving it around the tail with the platform up is how a wingtip gets clipped by a guard rail.

Outfitting a Hangar Crew

The usual kit is one tall rolling tower with guard rails, one Type IAA platform ladder for door tracks, one extension ladder for the walls, and a fall protection kit that stays with the tower.

Tell us the clear height and the door type and we will size the tower.

Everything ships from 5030 Dexham Rd. Ste. 103 in Rowlett, TX, and local crews can pick up the same day. Call 972-331-1090 and we will tell you what is on the floor right now.