FAA clarifies acceptable hangar items

During the Oct. 21 meeting of the Saratoga Airport Board, the bulk of the discussion centered around items that are allowed to be stored in hangars.

Bobby Chitwood, airport board member, called the FAA for clarification on hangar storage rules which came up during recent inspections. The FAA told him so long as items in hangars can be justified as “aviation related” there should be no problem.

If someone is running a business out of their hangar they need to have that use of the hangar approved by the FAA, which may allow for certain items, such as recreational vehicles, to be stored in a hangar if it is business related.

The board is still waiting on vinyl numbers to be produced by the technology students at the high school. The numbers will be used to label hangars,

The airport passed a recent 5010 inspection by the State of Wyoming. A 5010 inspection is part of the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Airport Safety Data Program.

The FAA also recently completed inspections and had the Automated Weather/Surface Observing System (AWOS) and Non-Directional Beacon (NDB) re-certified. The technician was able to find a problem with the modulation potentiometer in the NDB, which has been failing regularly for some time. The NDB now appears to be in good working order and the search for a new potentiometer is under way.

The future of the runway and taxiways is looking up as a contractor to the State of Wyoming recently took measurements needed to develop a cost estimate for crack sealing. Sage Engineering says they will begin crushing aggregate for a repaving project this winter.

In an effort to have all of the board members present at their regular meetings, the board may change their regular meeting time. Any change will be publicly advertised.