Plane and Wing Storage in Minnesota
 

I live in Minnesota and my work area for planes is in an insulated and heated garage. The temperature and humidity varies quite a bit inside the garage especially in the winter. I am wondering is this the best place to store my planes or should they be in a more temperature and humidity controlled environment like inside my house? The inside of my house doesn't have space for planes and that's why they are in the garage.

As far as the garage temperature in the winter goes I try to keep it around 52 degrees when not working on planes, and when working on planes I usually heat it up slowly so condensation doesn't develop to about 67 or 70 degrees. If you heat up your garage to fast condensation developes on cold metal which will start rusting tools and parts.

What is the best way to store planes in this type of environment?
1. Wings. On a homemade wing rack stored horizontally? Or, stored vertically on a wing tip?
2. Fuselage. On a homemade rack hanging from the horizontal stabilizer or tail? Or, stored horizontally on a rack?

Things I am not too sure of when storing Fuselages and Wings would also include engines. Do the engines need to be lubricated more frequently and turned over when in this type of environment to prevent rusting of the bearings or other internal engine parts?

Any answers to the storing of wings and fusalages in this type of environment would be helpful

Thankyou.
AW

RE: Plane and Wing Storage in Minnesota
 

Here's some pictures of the ceiling storage that I use in my insulated but unheated gagare in northern Indiana. I don't do anything special for the engines as you suggest and don't have any problems. By the way, my ceiling height is 12', so you may have to consider the amount of head room you have.

RE: Plane and Wing Storage in Minnesota
 

AW, I used to keep my planes in an unheated garage in Michigan. As you mentioned the temperature fluctuations created a lot of condensation on any metal. These conditions never created a problem for my planes. For the engines I always lube them up real good at the end of the flying season and don't touch them until the spring. However I like your idea of turning them over periodically… can’t hurt.

For fuselage storage I’ve used all the different methods in the past 20+ years. As for hanging them vertically or horizontal… In my opinion one doesn’t suit the airframe better than the other. The method of storage for me has always been directed by size of the plane and the space available, with an emphasis on keeping it out of harms way and not getting hangar rash. For wings I don’t like the idea of standing them there its tips. Too much chance of falling over and getting damaged, I’ve always used the horizontal storage method.

One thing I always did when my planes were stored in that garage during the winter was remove the receivers and batteries and store them along with my TX’s in the house. Regardless of the storage conditions, planes and transmitters that are to be stored for a long period should have the batteries disconnected.

Hope this helps.

RE: Plane and Wing Storage in Minnesota
 

I used to live in Minnesota, thank goodness I don't anymore :)

I'd add some after-run oil in your engines at the end of the flying season, or after each flight if you are brave enough to fly all winter long!

Enjoy the building season.....

RE: Plane and Wing Storage in Minnesota
 

I live in MN and here's how I store some of mine