"Lazy B" Ranch Airport · · PAGE 3.

April 5, 2009: This is the hangar adjacent to "Hangar 2-P" where Irv shows us his later design for hangar doors.  The center overhead garage door is already up there.  Irv is demonstrating his rope and pulley system for lowering the side doors.  You can see that part of the overhead door track is mounted on the door that is being lowered in this photo.

Irv wanted to make sure I would see the overhead door locking mechanism.   Those perforated steel angle pieces fall into place when the side door is let down to the open position.  The angles block the overhead door rollers from running off the track if someone tries to lower the overhead door before the side doors are locked in the closed positions.

The thing to see in this photo is the channel in the upper left of this photo.   It holds the "upper end" of the rope and pulley that lower the side doors on the south side of the overhead door.  This is the same channel seen in the first photo at the top of the page.  You can see that Irv does not waste any hangar space.   There is another "hangar door" on the south side of this building with a 1968 model of the Piper PA-28-140 parked there.

Irv shows just how easy it is raise the door panels back to the closed position.  When the door is in the down position, the pulley at the door end of the rope gets disconnected via the hook that is bolted to the pulley.  At that point the rope is used to pull the upper pulley to the south wall out of the way of the airplane wing as it is pulled out of the hangar.  In case you missed it, look at the top photo on this page and notice that there are TWO door panels that lay down out of the way of the wings.  This is the second door adjacent to the south wall.  The one rope and pulley on each side of the overhead door operates both lay-down side doors.  This design is repeated on the north side of the overhead door.  Just to be sure you get the count correct, there are FIVE parts to this hangar door.  The center section is the overhead garage door.  Then there are two hinged, lay-down door panels on each side of the center door.

With the southern-most door panel back in the upright and closed position, you get a better look of how the pulley is hooked to an eye-bolt on the door.  Irv was also proud of his locking chain that pulls the door even tighter if the wind rattles the door panel. 

A closeup shot of the "lock" shows a pair of steel rods mounted to the wooden door frame and jamb.  The right side shows how a link of the chain floats up and down on the rod by the hangar wall.  The other end of the chain has a hook in a chain link that is hooked around the other steel rod.  When gravity pulls the chain down, the lock gets tighter.

And here is a view of the rope and pulley bringing the "inner south side door" back toward the "upright and locked" position.  This photo shows the detail of how Irv secured the upper end of the rope pulley to the track and the roller inside it.  This is what permits the single pulley system to operate both doors on this side of the overhead door one at a time.

Here is the inner door ready to lift back into the upright postion.   Notice the concrete taxiway outside.  More of Irv's patchwork concrete work.

The door adjacent to the overhead garage door comes back toward the closed position.

Finally, the overhead door tracks come into alignment at closure.  The angles are pushed back at the same time, allowing the overhead door to be lowered and locked.