The FAA has received more than 2,000 comments about its proposed policy regarding the non-aeronautical use of airport hangars. In response to the flood of comments and extension requests from the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) and others, the FAA extended until October 6 the comment period for the proposal, which states that hangars are to be used only for storage or maintenance of aircraft. Some of the comments chastised the agency for its misdirection or micro-management, while others congratulated the FAA for challenging situations they have encountered at their own airports.

Ever since the publication of a 1999 GAO report regarding the need for oversight and enforcement on unauthorized land use at general aviation airports, the FAA has been conducting inspections at 18 airports a year, frequently encountering hangars packed with non-aviation items such as cars, boats and furniture, along with some hangar tenants who were found to be operating commercial businesses unrelated to aviation.

Even the building of an aircraft might not be construed as aeronautical use under the FAA’s new interpretation, defining as non-aeronautic use anything short of final assembly of an aircraft to the point that it can be taxied. AOPA and EAA have urged the agency to broaden its definition to include the entire aircraft construction process, rather than just final assembly.