Annoying FBO things....

[FL350]

We were just in a crappy FBO yesterday so it got me thinking about all the annoying things FBOs do. My personal favorite is the magnetically locked door to the ramp that takes an act of congress to have opened/unlocked for you. I could go on with a long list of things but I will leave that up to the rest of you...

 

[skyking1976]

Line guys that move your airplane and don't ask if your brakes are off.

Ramp fees.

Trash bags that sit next to the airplane that don't get picked up.

 

[mainah]

Spilling fuel all over the wing, not having ice, washing your windows and slamming the ladder used into your brand new airplane, asking for passenger names over the radio and not understanding why we won't tell them, theres more but I don't want to get too negative.

 

[Gulfstreamlover]

FBO's that have coffee machines that take an hour to figure out how they work. FBO's with 2 channles on the TV, and places that park you a mile away because you're not in a jet, even though there are no airplanes up close to the building. And places that require you to be driven to your aircraft (again if your airplanes doesn't cost 20 million dollars expect to be the last off). Just a few of my problems with FBOs.

 

[Flying Illini]

NO CREW CARS!
I was just at BKL (burke, Cleveland) at million air. A crew including FA came in after sending their pax on their way needing to go to a store 40 minutes away to pick up a special pax request. Million Air lady gets on the soapbox about how crew cars are a thing of the past b/c insurance costs too much and the crews would always bring the car back with no gas and how sometimes crews would take the car for more than 2 hours so they decided to just use a van to shuttle people.
Man that pisses me off. Signature at MDW has 4 cars, Sig at DET has 4 cars, Atlantic at MDW has 2 cars, even robinson, IL RSV has a crew car! To begin with, it's not the crew's responsibility to keep gas in the crew cars, second, I KNOW a large FBO like million air can afford insurance on a car or two.
The crew of the challenger that needed to go 40 minutes away was told that they can't shuttle them there because the drive time is too long and they can't afford to have a line guy away from work for that length of time. What this crew did was classic...they walked out the door, started up their 604 and taxied one ramp over to the other FBO! More power to 'em. There is NO reason not to have crew cars at ANY FBO. Period.

Sorry about the rant, but hey, you asked!

 

[SabreFlyR]

This just happened tonight. We pulled onto the ramp, line guy comes walking out with the wands in his hands and hand no clue as to wht the he!! he was doing. After we parked and I explained the the purpose of the wands were to guide us where you want us to park, he appologized and said "I've only been here for a year".
Lesson learned, next time we go to the other fbo (Eagle), even if the fuel is $1.00/gal more.

 

[learflyer]

Guys not knowing how to martial (sp)? you think they are set up in one direction then the'll turn the other way. Just freakin' stay put and let us know where you want us to park!!

Asking 5 times for a gpu, and when they finally bring one out, the fuel truck shows up at the same time and then they say they can't fuel with the gpu running. arrgghh!

 

[Diesel]

I've never understood the we can't plug the gpu in while we're fueling.

It's jet a not 100LL. You could throw a match into jet a and it wouldn't catch on fire. Needs to be atomized.

My favorite is when they bring the GPU out and the they fire it up it puts out like 30 volts or 26 volts. Hey how about fixing that POS.

Crew rooms that have more pax in it than crew. Then get all po'ed when you take the remote and change the channel. MMU's old signature/ lynton jet building was notorius for it. The pilots weren't allowed to wait in the front room so we had to wait in the back. Owners realized there was a TV back there and would take up all the lazy boys.

Satelite TV with the basic satelite package.

A fbo van that will take you anywhere you want to go as long as the guy isn't busy and it's within 3 miles of the airport.

Calling ahead to set up a QT with gpu, catering number and ice. You get there and the line guy has no idea what your talking about. GPU is still across the ramp and you know it's going to be a long day. Sigh

 

[IP076]

Mainah,

None of that is at Regent Millionaire is it?

 

[mainah]

No, its a combination of other FBO's and a certain one in Michigan that has done all of the above. No compalints about Regent whatsoever. In there three times this week and they always have great service and plenty of eye candy!