HANGAR

HANGAR

Talking with my granddaughter, the subject of a Spelling Bee came up. I asked her, “How do you spell the word that identifies the building where an aircraft is stored?” She said, “I think it is Hangar.” I was pleased to say the least.

Over the years, actually 60, I have heard it spelled like something that you hang your garment on, Hanger. This misspelling is common not only with the general public but journalists, teachers and even aviators. Realizing this, I decided to incorporate it into the tours I held while working at Wisconsin Aviation Inc., Madison, Wisconsin. 

Over a period of some 16 years I hosted an average of 800 children a year at the Dane County Regional Airport. The tours were held on the east ramp of the airport, more notably known as the “General Aviation” side. The average age of the children on the tours ranged from 5 to 7 years old, as well as some requests from day care centers for some as young as 3 years old.

 As school budgets dwindled, I then went to the class rooms of various area schools. No matter where I held them, school or airport, the tours all started out the same. “How many of you know where an aircraft is stored when it is not flying and how do you spell the name of that place?” Depending on the age and reading experience, less than 10% knew. At this point I would tell them how to spell the word. I would tell them if they remembered it by the end of the tour, or movie if at the school, they would receive a balsa wood glider, a cookie and a coloring book about the airport. 

At the airport, they got to sit in a Cessna 152 and fly on an imaginary flight to wherever they dreamed up. When returning to the terminal building I could hear them reciting, “HANGAR”!

My hope is that with the early exposure to Aviation, youth would be more inclined to pursue careers as pilots, mechanics and in customer services.

My next Blog will be remembering 16 years of HANGAR DANCES, with an amusing, but embarrassing situation.