City improves hangar with brand new bifold door!

Don't let him fool ya, he's not working, he's PLAYING!  Rick had a "blast" with this cutting torch, generously loaned from Jay Hubbell (Bill's Dad).  Thank you Jay, and Bill for the scaffold as well!

Thanks to the City of Osage City and in large part to Rick Garder, we finally have a new door.  Instead of the cable raised, wench driven door that was in danger of crashing to the ground if the cable wore, we now have a brand new Schweiss bifold electric door, operated by straps instead of cables.  The new door is much safer, quieter, secure, and insulated. And it's actually easier to maintain clearance when pushing the planes in. 

The City enlisted our help tearing the old door down.  Stress reliever: pounding at a door with a sledge hammer!  Below, Janelle helps out with a smaller hammer. "HAI YA!"

The City agreed to purchase the door and have it installed but asked for our help in tearing down the old door. The approach was to remove the sheeting to expose just the iron pipe frame of the door.  Next, a few crucially placed cuts were made to allow the frame to separate from the four points where it attached to the wooden header of the hangar frame.  Finally, we attached the midpoint of the iron frame to a truck with a cable, intending to pull the door down in one tug.  But Rick neglected to take into account the cuts he made for the attachment points, and when the go ahead came to pull it down, only one small section of pipe came loose!  Plan B: the frame was easily pushed over by hand.

The wooden header where the door was to be attached was damaged by water, so the entire length of that header had to be replaced with new lumber.  The damaged wood fell apart like wet cardboard -- much safer door now!

The door is operated by a single button and the raising mechanism is contained within the door itself.  After it was installed, we had to take turns raising and lowering the door, trying it out!

Thank you to everyone who made this possible!  The new door is awesome! Maybe we'll miss the wet carpet after rains, or chipping the ice away from the door by hand so we can get it open after an ice storm, or maybe we'll miss how the wind would shake that certain piece of sheeting to make the "wind alarm" noise at 17 mph.  Or maybe we'll miss having a sort of gate to aim for when pushing the planes in.... on second thought, maybe not.
 

Above, Rick makes the final cut to bring the old door frame down.  Turk and Jen were mostly just gophers for Rick the work horse: "I said I needed a HAMMER, not a CAMERA!"

Rich & Mike, Schweiss installers from Minnesota, worked long hours for 3 days to finish the installation in time for the weekend.  Below, Mike is surprised by the camera.

The finished door from the inside.  This quality door is not only quiet when raising and lowering, but it also dampens outside wind noise.