A few years ago the chapter leadership proposed an initiative to purchase a hangar, specifically Hangar S-12, the hangar we are currently occupying. The chapter went into a rental agreement with the hangar owner that contained an option to purchase. It was the full intent to proceed with the purchase and the chapter did some fundraising and established the Gold Membership program to make the purchase possible.

In 2017, the chapter came to a decision point as to whether to proceed with the hangar purchase or not. For several reasons the chapter leadership decided that it was not in our best interest to proceed with the purchase. The airport management changes with respect to hangar rentals and ground leases and the long term financial commitment of the chapter to a hangar purchase with other possible airport changes drove that decision.

After that decision was made, a chapter member decided to go ahead and purchase the hangar for himself, a sale that was concluded late last year and one that did not involve the chapter.

However, we continue to rent the hangar from the new owner, and we are able to sublet hangar space to two other tenants to offset the chapter’s rental cost. We are in a month-to-month agreement with a very cooperative landlord. We expect this arrangement to continue indefinitely.

(Scott Thompson)