You bought a plane?! It’ll need a place to live.

Planes can live outside or inside. Airports will generally permit short-term storage somewhere on the premises (which is a very good solution if you’re just visiting), and often have very low-cost arrangements to tie down for the longer term (although your insurance may go up slightly). The trouble with storing your new investment outside over many months or years (depending a bit on local climate) is that as it is exposed to the elements, the longevity and resale value are impacted. We found more than one old wasp nest deep within our plane — don’t underestimate the curiosity of birds and insects if your plane takes up residence in a field. On the other hand, our airport has half a dozen planes parked outside, even during very cold and snowy winter months. This is certainly an option.

If you want to move your plane inside, you’ll need hangar space.

You could rent — check the classifieds at the airport(s) close to you, and call the FBO(s) to see if they keep a listing of available spots. Renting will involve sharing space with one or more other planes, and the rules and expectations of your landlord (who most probably owns one or more of those other planes). Depending on the space and the landlord, you may share tools or storage or common space; there may or may not be heat, or a bathroom, or permission to conduct certain types of maintenance on the premises. We first had a difficult situation, with a lot of limitations and a challenging landlord dynamic. We’ve since found a much better situation, where there’s a sense of community and appreciation for the planes and the related adventures. If you can choose between rental situations, approach it thoughtfully — finding a good place is worth a bit of a search.

Depending on the landlord, there may be contracts to sign or a waiver of subrogation required from your insurance company, which is not hard to obtain but is another step in the process. In most arrangements, you will either have to push a plane out of the way to access your plane, or others will need to move yours to get theirs out of the way. Hangar space is a bit like a friendly game of Tetris, and people generally understand that and respect each other’s planes as they would their own.

You could buy (and perhaps become a landlord!) — if you are inclined to do so, immediately after purchasing a plane. Availability of existing hangars or land on which to build a new hangar may be an issue, cost is a consideration, and the logistics of owning (or leasing) property within an airport gets complicated quickly. We may try to own a hangar eventually, but are happy renting, for now.

Technically, you could build your own runway and hangar wherever you like, but that requires a certain amount of land and tenacity. There are also airparks, which are rather like neighborhoods built with immediate access to a runway — and at the moment, locally, there’s more airpark availability than hangar purchasing availability. However, we’re not quite prepared to move our family to an entirely new house to meet the needs of our airplane.

Whatever you decide, hopping into your plane (after untying it, or wheeling it out of the hangar, or moving a few other planes around), heading for the runway, and flying away on an adventure, large or small, makes it all worth it.