Kfll

[Headwind]

Yesterday we had over one hour wait with engine running. I was told I was number 11 for 9L and directed to a runway that was closed to wait. After 16 airliners departed I was told there were 5 airliners still ahead of me ( at the gate) that had not started their engines.
Anyone have this problem at FLL in the last couple of months? For years we have been in and out of FLL with little or no problems. I was told they don't want private jets on the north runway.This is my favorite FBO and the airport is close to the boss's home in Florida. I will now need to go to FXE. Anyone who uses both FXE & FLL in medium size jet please help me. Will going to FXE solve my problems?

HEADWIND

 

[Gulfstream 200]

Would FXE help?

well...whens the last time you waited behind 21 airliners at FXE?

.

 

[CapnVegetto]

That is such f-ing bull$hit. First come first served my a$$. Is there some kind of complaint report or something that you can file?

 

[Rythm3]

I was in the same exact situation at HOU about 3 years ago. We were #1 at RWY 4 and ended up sitting there 45 minutes while Southwest departed one behind the other on 12R. Half of these were probably not even boarded when we initially called ready for takeoff.

But, this was the only time I have ever seen anything like this. Been in & out of HOU at least 25 times since then and never again have I had a delay like 3 years ago. My guess is that FLL was just having a bad day.

 

[LJ45]

not first come first serve

I have noticed over the last couple of years a dramatic change in the way ATC handles non-airline traffic. They are giving the airlines preference, even at our home field we have no luck. We could be 25 miles from the airport and they will vector us behind a airliner that is 30 or 35 miles out. Happens all over now, and I am not the only one that has noticed this.

You are right about the number, they give you a number and all of a sudden that number starts to grow and grow.

The other day in Tucson they had us expedite our taxi because they had a regional jet that "had a wheels up time" we get to the end and are ready only to hear pull into the holding area. We could have taken off 2 times before he caught up to us. Then after we let him go, we had to wait for about 10 F16's to land. I think ATC new about the F16's coming and didn't want to hold up the poor broke airlines. No problem letting us wait.

They will have some explaining to do next time...Remember the squeaky wheel gets the grease and I guess the airlines have been squeaking a lot!

 

[enigma]

We could be 25 miles from the airport and they will vector us behind a airliner that is 30 or 35 miles out. Happens all over now, and I am not the only one that has noticed this.

Do it the old fashioned way. Cancel. I wouldn't do it at an unfamiliar airport, but at home, I'd do it in a heartbeat. I only wish that I had the option, unfortunately I'm 121 and while it may be legal, cancelling probably isn't prudent.

enigma

 

[cosmotheassman]

I can't stand going into FLL. Especially if it is raining. They will definitely give the airlines priority. We get screwed every time we go there. The only good thing about FLL is the free key lime pies...

We chose to go to PBI for customs now due to all the BS at FLL.

 

[CorpLearDriver]

We are based at FLL so we have little choice. We need the 24 hour customs availabiliy. And I'm done repositioning the airplane to another airport at night. It depends on the day and your routing too. When we head out to South America, we have to wait less for departure (normally.) But going out via the ARKES or THNDR transitions you get caught in the bottleneck. If you can go via the extended overwater routes, you'll do better. FXE might be better, but they use the same departure routes.

During the peak winter months this year, they were giving a lot of ground stops to airplanes going into FLL. We got a 3 1/2 hour gate-hold at SGJ which is a 45 minute flight. I wouldn't accept it and made the flight VFR at 15,500. They ended up working us into the mix at FLL for the north runway even though we were willing to take the south (shorter) runway.

There have been a lot of complaints as of late, the FBO and thier customers have gone on to argue with Broward County Airport Operations and the FAA has told them they cannot close the south runway to jet aircraft. The arguing isn't over yet. Clearly there are still a lot of problems. In most cases, it should be first come, first served.

Today the weather was bad and the line-up was longer than usual. I saw several airliners make go arounds due to windshear. I was glad to be just doing office work today.

 

[westwind driver]

It's called flow control. Miami and Jacksonville ARTCCs have some of the worst congested/confined airway routings, and for the most part everyone stays on the airways until up into the higher altitudes (330 and above) If there were EDCTs in place, those airliners may have already been assigned Expected Departure Clearance Times and in order for the whole gameplan to work within other ARTCCs, those airliners have to depart during their slot. If no EDCTs were issued, then perhaps Miami was running 20 miles in between departures that shared the same initial direction of flight. This can be quite common during peak times.

It is easier for ATC to control the flow with aircraft on the ground (ground stops) than it is to reroute and work them in the air. Eurocontrol does everything by departure slot times. You may call up for your clearance in Hannover and be told expect startup clearance in 2 hours, and they will allocate that time slot to you.

 

[Groundpounder]

I work at an FBO at FXE, and we've gotten a few long time FLL customers to switch to our airport because of the delays at FLL. There are ATC delays out of FXE from time to time, but nothing like the ones at FLL, mostly because we don't have the same airline volume.

PM me if you want some info on our FBO, and I can get you in contact with someone if you want to set up a fuel price, and so on.

 

[Shamus]

Try the call sign Tango November, LOL!

FLL is bad, I'm based out of fxe, and when coming from over seas (after 5 pm local), we just clear customs in MIA because it is just a breeze compared to FLL..

 

[Bandit60]

Years ago, I was flying a lifegaurd flight and they told me to do a 360 so that the UPS airplane could get in front of us. I actually asked them if they understood the term lifegaurd.

I hope the person did not die because they had to get the boxes on the ground.