If Dan Cybloski could hop in his plane and fly away, he would.

But the Murphy Rebel float plane sits in pieces in a hangar at Norman Rogers Airport, its wings folded neatly behind the fuselage.

Despite Cybloski’s wishes, the plane won’t be flying for a few months, a victim of what he called an “incident” in August that left it floating upside-down in the west end of Loughborough Lake.

Now, Cybloski faces another challenge after receiving notice from the city that he and most other tenants of Hangar 5 need to be out by the end of the year.

“You can imagine my problems,” he said.

“You can imagine trying to find storage at this time of the year, when you would like to go in and drag the plane out or go in and do some work on it. Absolutely impossible.”

The order — essentially an eviction notice — was the result of a recent inspection of Hangars 4 and 5 by the Kingston fire department.

In a statement, Sheila Kidd, director of transportation services, said the fire inspection showed Hangars 4 and 5 did not meet fire code regulations, which prohibit multiple tenant from occupying a building without fire separations.

“Kingston Fire and Rescue has identified that Hangar 4 and 5 at Kingston Airport do not comply with the City’s current use, which is the lease of the Hangars to multiple occupants,” Kidd stated.

“The city will act in accordance with the requirements of the Ontario fire code and has given notice that the monthly lease agreement of any non-aviation-related-tenant will terminate as of Nov. 28, 2013. Further, the city has also given notice to one aviation tenant to vacate Hangar 4 by Dec. 31.”

The changes do not effect the Kingston Flying Club, which will become the sole tenant in Hangar 5.

Cybloski said the flying club doesn’t have room available that would allow him to repair his plane during the winter.

Cybloski questioned why, after more than 70 years in operation, the hangars no longer meet fire code regulations and he has only a couple of weeks to get out.

“That hangar has been operating that way since World War 2,” he said.

Hangars 4 and 5 were built early in the Second World War and became part of the British Commonwealth Air Training Program in 1942.

Among the pilots who trained in RCAF station Kingston were David Clarabut, who won a Distinguished Service Cross and Robert Hampton Gray, Canada’s last Victoria Cross recipient of the Second World War.

The city’s plan for the airport involves the decommissioning and demolition of the older hangars.

“It does not make good business sense to make a significant investment in a facility scheduled for demolition in 2014,” Kidd stated.

Jeff Canton, a career pilot who stores his own plane at the airport, said the aging hangars and the eviction notices are not encouraging light aviation at the airport.

Canton, whose plane is stored in another hangar at the airport that does meet fire code requirements, said other airports in Peterborough and Smith Falls have fostered light aviation resulting in the construction of dozens of hangar buildings.

elliot.ferguson@sunmedia.ca

Twitter.com/Elliotatthewhig