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Hangar Security

bkc3921

Well Known Member
Situation: I have 2 Tee hangars at a small unmanned airport, 5 miles from the nearest town. Little/no security, virtually no neighbors, on a state highway with lots of traffic (but not at night) , and marginal law enforcement patrol at best.

I would like to install some type of security at my hangar. The airport has crappy internet, which gets no signal at my hangar. Also, I don't only want to record the burglars, but get real time alerts if possible, scare them away, and preferably, prevent any entry. Cost is not too much of a factor.

Can someone provide advice on cameras, beefed up locks/entry denial, lighting, etc..? What are you guys doing..? I know this is not specific to RV's...but would like to do what I can to protect the 2 I have...far too much equipment and tools to leave it to the wolves. Best place to start.....??
 
In most of the T-hangars I see, you're only gonna be as secure as your least secure neighbor. Climb-overs and break-throughs are a thing. They can find one guy with a hide-a-key, or a slider hangar door that only looks secure but isn't, and they have access to the whole building.

And, security cameras will always alert you, at best, as the damage is happening. Good luck doing anything about it.

My solution is to make sure my doors and covers are secured. Take my iPad, expensive headsets and handhelds with me. And, discourage my neighbors when I see them doing the hide-a-key or fake-locking their hangar doors.

I do like having exterior lighting though. And, there are cellular based security systems if your landlord will let you install the hardware on the roof.
 
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Great topic. I'm going to be moving to the airport within a couple months and may be in your exact same situation. I'm wondering the same thing.
 
Similar situation

I have a rural airport hangar, and have fought poor internet connection for security cams for years. I recently got a Starlink, and now have real time alerts on my cameras, with ability to set off an alarm. I have an array of inside and exterior cameras, TPlink Kasa cams that give me everything on a phone app.
 
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Security solutions….

Pretty much no way to solve this without internet access in my opinion….. I added a cellular hotspot to my hangar, which adds $10/mo to my cell bill. I can live with that.

I use Blink cameras. They immediately alert me, and send a video snippet. The newer versions allow you to respond back - which I think would likely cause an offender to exit quickly…. I also have a sign on the door to let the uninvited know they are being recorded. I suspect they would likely prefer another target for that reason.

If these is a better solution I am not aware of it. Would love to hear how others have managed the risk.
 
Pretty much no way to solve this without internet access in my opinion….. I added a cellular hotspot to my hangar, which adds $10/mo to my cell bill. I can live with that.

I use Blink cameras. They immediately alert me, and send a video snippet. The newer versions allow you to respond back - which I think would likely cause an offender to exit quickly…. I also have a sign on the door to let the uninvited know they are being recorded. I suspect they would likely prefer another target for that reason.

If these is a better solution I am not aware of it. Would love to hear how others have managed the risk.

I did something very similar. A Verizon MiFi and some Ring Cameras. The Ring camera has a motion warning option where it announces “Warning, you are being recorded”. I’ve also caught airport personnel trying to move my RV-10 to perform hangar maintenance without prior communication. They were quite surprised when they heard my voice talking with them.

The MiFi also provides other benefits. For example, smart outlets to control a Reiff heater, ability to download data and application updates in the hangar, and being able to stream video. One has to have your favorite college football game on while working in the hangar.😀

I’ve have automation running at home that is able to turn on and off all these devices remotely.
 
Motion activated remote cameras are great, and most now let you "talk" to the person on the other end. I'm pretty sure that will scare away most unsophisticated burglars. They also let you catch various types of wildlife snooping around. I had mine triggered by what looked like little snowflakes coming off of my engine dryer under very specific weather conditions.

I only use mine in winter to keep the old iphone 6's wifi from timing out and cutting me off the remote engine heater.

If you know the others with t-hangars you guys can get together and build a small network - you'll get much better visibility on what's happening.
 
My hangar is probably more secure than many rural hangars, but virtually every mechanic, maintenance person, instructor, and employee of the FBO has a master key. I keep finding cigarette butts in there, and I don’t smoke. Never seen any damage, nothing ever missing, but I’d still like some form of video surveillance, out of curiosity if nothing else. Unfortunately, no good internet available so extending my Nest service is off the table. Cell coverage is OK for the low-bandwidth IoT switches that I use for the pre-heater and cockpit heater, but I usually have to step outside to make a call reliably. Starlink is a great service…I have a buddy that has it at his office…but it was $500 for the equipment and is $100/month. If I wanted to spend that extra money on my leased hangar, I’d spend it on upgrading to an insulated or heated hangar.

My experience with my real-time Nest service at home has shown me that it’s not very useful for me to prevent a break-in, so I’ve opted for a couple of cheap-ish motion activated infra-red trail cams from Amazon at the hangar so I can at least know what’s happened after the fact. I can’t really see myself rushing to the hangar in the middle of the night as a practical thing for me anyway. So I’ve opted to just make sure that I have good insurance for the contents of the hangar, and a means to help find someone to pin any break-ins on.
 
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Internet

Once there is internet access, the rest is easy.
I use Wyze cams at home. Pretty awesome gear for the price. They record as much as the optional memory card. I run 32g and get about a week. Cheapest plan is $2/mo and stores 10 sec clips. If an alert is triggered, I log into the camera and review the full footage. Very easy to set up and configure all sorts of security functions.
 
Given the remote location and little activity after dark, there's not much you can do to prevent break-ins or theft. At best, you can get pictures/video of the acts in progress. Some motion-sensing game cameras would do that for you. Better if you can set up a local wireless network and have the images live-streamed/stored to a location away from the cameras... Thieves steal those too. A well-hidden PC with a wireless card (so they can't follow the cable from the camera to the PC) would do that. No need for internet, just local.

Otherwise, your best solution is having a reasonable amount of security (good locks, motion-sensitive lighting to *maybe* startle/scare off looky-loos, and adequate insurance to cover damage/replacement of anything that might happen.
 
I have an Annke camera system. 8 cameras and a 1TB hard drive was like $300 on Amazon. I have a phone app that can alert me and I can view live real time, or alert events on my phone. You would need to set up a cellular hot spot. I cant help with a that part, but if cost is not an issue then that should be a easy solution.

In addition - I have seen several people run chicke wire over the tops of their hanger, or you could extent the wall to the ceiling with ply-wood to make access from neighboring hangers more difficult.
 
I did something very similar. A Verizon MiFi and some Ring Cameras. The Ring camera has a motion warning option where it announces “Warning, you are being recorded”. I’ve also caught airport personnel trying to move my RV-10 to perform hangar maintenance without prior communication. They were quite surprised when they heard my voice talking with them.

The MiFi also provides other benefits. For example, smart outlets to control a Reiff heater, ability to download data and application updates in the hangar, and being able to stream video. One has to have your favorite college football game on while working in the hangar.😀

I’ve have automation running at home that is able to turn on and off all these devices remotely.


I've studied up on MiFi units. They seem to be battery driven and are intended for people to carry around with them in their backpacks. The battery life is around 24 hours.

Three questions:

1) Do you keep it plugged in to wall power all the time?

2) If so, have you noticed any problem with heat buildup or battery destruction with keeping it plugged in all the time?

3) Most of the units I see these days allow you to see the password on the screen - do you have yours in a locked box? If so, does that exacerbate a heat issue?

There's an entire universe of people out there who have a problem similar to ours - they live in an RV, a remote cabin, or on a boat - where there is no hope for cable internet yet they need serious internet capability. They have researched several solutions and go into the pros and cons of each. Lots of YT videos. Lots of good information.

That's where I heard about battery damage and heat buildup with keeping it plugged in all the time.
 
So when I was young, single and worked a remote job. I bought my first house and was worried about break-ins when I was away. I went to the local police station and talked to a burglary detective and asked him what to do.

His advice was:

  1. Good Insurance
  2. Barking dogs
  3. Nosy neighbors

Heres the solution for barking dogs.
 
1. Yes

2. It’s been two years and no issues yet. It sits on top a parts bin on the bench. It’s at the back of the hangar. I’m not concerned about the location. By the time somebody gets back to the hangar, there are several minutes of video that has already been set to the cloud.

3. Passwords on mine has to be reset from a browser from another device.

Verizon has a new home Internet device that would be a better choice. It also supports higher bandwidths. Preliminary information is that it appears to have to been enabled on a per tower location. I can get it the house, but not at my hangar,

I've studied up on MiFi units. They seem to be battery driven and are intended for people to carry around with them in their backpacks. The battery life is around 24 hours.

Three questions:

1) Do you keep it plugged in to wall power all the time?

2) If so, have you noticed any problem with heat buildup or battery destruction with keeping it plugged in all the time?

3) Most of the units I see these days allow you to see the password on the screen - do you have yours in a locked box? If so, does that exacerbate a heat issue?

There's an entire universe of people out there who have a problem similar to ours - they live in an RV, a remote cabin, or on a boat - where there is no hope for cable internet yet they need serious internet capability. They have researched several solutions and go into the pros and cons of each. Lots of YT videos. Lots of good information.

That's where I heard about battery damage and heat buildup with keeping it plugged in all the time.
 
Having had my hanger broken into and all my tools stolen (thankfully my aircraft was left untouched) my best recommendation is to carry good aircraft insurance to protect your aircraft investment and good away from home coverage on your homeowners policy to cover tools and other non-aircraft specific losses.

By the time you respond to an alarm notification the thieves will be gone. Even with pictures it’ll be hard to get the police or a DA to go after the thieves and prosecute them because there’s just too many more serious crimes they have to deal with. Unless your tools (every one of them) are marked with your name and phone number you’ll never get them back because you can’t prove they’re yours.

It’s a tough world out there which is why insurance is so expensive.
 
By the time you respond to an alarm notification the thieves will be gone. Even with pictures it’ll be hard to get the police or a DA to go after the thieves and prosecute them because there’s just too many more serious crimes they have to deal with. Unless your tools (every one of them) are marked with your name and phone number you’ll never get them back because you can’t prove they’re yours.

It’s a tough world out there which is why insurance is so expensive.

I don’t think anyone is expecting to apprehend thrives real time. My primary goal for for the video camera and motion detector is to inform me when anyone enters my hangar, specifically airport staff.

I caught airport maintenance trying to pull my aircraft out the hanger by the prop without my permission so that they could do routine maintenance on the door. I was able to speak to them over the camera to stop them. This allowed me to share excerpts out of the Hartzell to the airport manager that explained why not to move the aircraft from the prop.

I have also notified motion detector notification. The camera states very loudly, You are being recorded. My hopes if that it may persuade the would be thief to immediately exit.

Lastly, my cameras are at the rear of the hangar so that plenty plenty of images are uploaded to the cloud before they can get to my network connection or camera. This may not stop the thief, but would give authorities the chance of apprehending the thief.
 
As for physical security most metal hangar I have seen are 10 metal screws away from taking a panel out. Takes 5 minutes. Easier then even breaking a cheap lock.

Oliver
 
I'm not looking to catch thieves with evidence - I need a camera in the hangar looking at the hangar and beyond to see things such as:

Are there airplanes parked in front of me in the hangar?

Are people touching my airplane?
 
About 6 months ago I hung an Arlo wireless camera above my door with a very narrow field of view to only cover my own area, at 1245am this morning it caught an individual walking from W-E along our hangar rows talking on a cell phone, it appears they tested my door handle before heading down the rest of the row, where they went out of view. Because of the recording the police and the airport are taking it very seriously.

I had been operating in stealth mode, just to see if anyone was around, now I'm switching to deterrence mode so the spotlight will come on, get a better recording and let them know they're being observed. I've also talked with my hangar neighbors and they've asked me to expand the field of coverage as wide as possible, they'll accept any loss of privacy. As others have said, you're just trying to get them to go somewhere else, and get a recording for the police and insurance.


For anyone who wants to copy me, I'm running a T-mobile 5G home internet thingy https://www.t-mobile.com/home-internet from my t-mobile cell phone plan, $30/month with pretty good speed, fast enough that even with the doors closed I can stream old movies/tech videos/music, plus a spare Arlo wireless camera from my home security system with a month of storage of past videos. If anyone wants advice let me know, or if you have a better way I'm interested in learning.
 

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One of the people in our hangar complex put up a couple of game cameras that record and store locally whenever they detect movement. They have some kind of IR illumination as well so even at night they get fairly clear video of any activity. So far we've seen:

1. A cougar walking past - I didn't even know we had them in the area, let alone the idea that they might get inside the fence at the airport. I'm sure there are a lot of mice in the field though so I guess this isn't surprising.

2. One of the airport security trucks short-cutting across our apron... and digging deep trenches in the wet grass when he got stuck (the airport manager was apologetic and sent a crew over to remediate).

3. A potential break-in attempt where someone came up and played with the lock for a bit and then left. Airport security took this quite seriously, reported it to the RCMP for us, and they asked us for the video to check into. We've had increased security patrols from the airport staff ever since.

All of these were discovered the next time the owner went to his hangar, of course, there was no reporting as-it-happened. The cameras are pretty discreet though, you'd have to be looking for them to see them.
 
I bought a 35 dollar dash-cam, and a 128GB memory card. It loop records 2 days of video. If I find an issue at the hangar then I at least have those 2 previous days to review. No internet required, just need USB power to run it.
 
I've solved this problem by living in a place where we don't generally have to worry about people breaking in to hangars.

Very effective so far.

- mark :-D
 
I installed a Simplisafe alarm system in my hangar. It's cellular based and doesn't need Wifi unless you want to use their cameras. It's some $25 a month for the monitoring.

The issue was though that the coverage inside the metal hangar wasn't good enough, so I took the base station apart and mounted the cellular modem with its antenna outdoors using a small plastic box. I had to extend the cable that connects the modem with the main board.
 
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