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HangarBot Provides Butler Service for Pilots

The Wi-Fi-enabled hot spot makes hangar connection easier.

One of the major ­advantages of storing your airplane in a common-storage hangar is line-service personnel will usually pull your aircraft in and out in time to your schedule. Common storage often includes a host of additional services for a monthly rental fee, often twice the price of a T hangar. Line-service folks can help make sure the ­engine is kept warm in winter if the large hangar doesn’t happen to be heated.

Now, thanks to ­HangarBot, pilots can enjoy some of those special services with an electronic butler to keep an eye on a variety of necessary tasks while the aircraft sits comfortably in a much less expensive T hangar. HangarBot’s main inside-the-­hangar unit is controlled by an app on the user’s ­smartphone. The company’s Wi-Fi-enabled assistant can turn on the heat of the hangar or power to an engine block heater to get that Continental or Lycoming ready for the pilot on a cold winter morning. HangarBot creates its own Wi-Fi hotspot inside the hangar for those ­last-minute chart or flight-planning ­data downloads, a handy item for T-hangar tenants ­located in areas with poor ­cellphone service.

Hangar security is ­always a concern and one that HangarBot solves with a ­module that includes a ­built-in ­camera for 24/7 live-­streaming video and an ­option to take snapshots of specific moments in time. Should someone or something enter your hangar ­unexpectedly, HangarBot alerts the aircraft owner.

Through the HangarBot central unit, a pilot can signal the hangar to open the main door just before the owner arrives with tons of gear to be loaded aboard the aircraft. Need to control ­other hangar systems? HangarBot handles it all as needed as the temperature drops or climbs. If you’re a coffee nut, you could even set your next cup to brew before you leave the hangar at night and simply tell HangarBot when to start the brew cycle before the next flight.

Powerful magnets make installing HangarBot a snap inside most metal hangars. Simply position the main unit near a power outlet, plug it in, and watch the magic begin as you add individual modules.

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