little venting........

[Huck]

A friend of mine leased-back his Baron to a flight school in BHM, until the instructors figured out the Hobbs meter only worked when the gear was up - they were flying cross-countries with the gear down for free.....

 

[Lear70]

I've seen guys get behind the panel and pull the Hobbs meter grounding wire just after taxiing away from the flight school.

Those guys never rented from us again.

My Aztec I leased back was luckily billed to the engine hours tach on the gauges. I lost about .2 each hour it flew, but no one ever screwed with it and we had the rate adjusted accordingly anyway.

I try not to fly them unless I just absolutely have to. An hour here in a 172 is up to almost $100 bucks. That's just rediculous. The cost of fuel doubling works out to about an extra $25 an hour in a 172; not $50. WTF?

If MY wages haven't doubled in 10 years, neither should theirs...? No wonder the flight school shut down last fall, no one can afford $100-150 an hour for a 172 and instructor.

 

[Goose Egg]

Got 3 landings and never paid for more than .5

Just for the record, you don't need to cut the engine on final to get 3 landings in .5.

-Goose

 

[FlyBunny]

Don't laugh, I can't talk anything aviation with my wife either.

She doesn't get it, doesn't want to, and that's just life.

She also doesn't complain that I'm gone 12-15 days a month either, so I kind of figure I can't get too mad she doesn't "get" my career. I'm just happy to have someone who doesn't freak when I'm gone and takes good care of the kids and house.

p.s. A while back I went to the same flight school I had been CHIEF PILOT for back in '95; they wanted to give me a "check out" flight. Had to call the owner at home to get them to p*ss off.

Anything for that extra .5 for the instructor I guess. Some people.

And what, Sir, makes you think you DIDN'T need a check out? Most places I have flown at require a checkout if you haven't flown 'THEIR' planes withing the last 90 days or so. To make you feel 'not so ABOVE others', we had a NWA DC-10 captain in 2001 who wanted to rent a 152, but he was more than happy to go on a check out ride.

Get off your high horse!

A billing dispute is something else, a check-out ride is a different scenario.

Bunny

 

[PropPiedmont]

Don't laugh, I can't talk anything aviation with my wife either.

She doesn't get it, doesn't want to, and that's just life.

She also doesn't complain that I'm gone 12-15 days a month either, so I kind of figure I can't get too mad she doesn't "get" my career. I'm just happy to have someone who doesn't freak when I'm gone and takes good care of the kids and house.

p.s. A while back I went to the same flight school I had been CHIEF PILOT for back in '95; they wanted to give me a "check out" flight. Had to call the owner at home to get them to p*ss off.

Anything for that extra .5 for the instructor I guess. Some people.

LearLove:
today I went to rent the same c-152 that I've rented since 1990. I've maybe flown 200 hours in that plane over the years, I was also a line guy and instructed at this FBO over the years.

It was the usual flight around the hometown and a few landings. 0.6 on the hobbs. Land, pay the bill (debit card) then BS with the fellow bums for awhile then it was home to watch the games. A few minutes ago I look at my bill to put the balance in my checkbook and see I was charged 0.15 for a "reservation min fee". I've never seen this before. I've done plenty of 0.5 (or less) flights in college when i could only scrape 25-30 bucks together for some flight time. No notification of any changed policy either.

Guess 16 plus years of bussiness doesn't make someone a valued customer anymore.

I think I just figured it out. LearLove, Lear70.....Coincidence? I think not. I've gone back to places where I use to work or ran the joint and never expected any special treatment. What makes me different from any other customer. I go to give back. To help give that struggling instructor an hour of flight time and 25 bucks. If you don't want to pay for renting an airplane or pay to meet the FBO's legal insurance requirements, then don't rent. If an extra .5 hours of a rental fee is that important, maybe you need to rethink your financial position and start putting more money in the bank.

 

[dingo222]

Don't laugh, I can't talk anything aviation with my wife either.

She doesn't get it, doesn't want to, and that's just life.

God, isn't that the truth.

 

[Caveman]

LearLove:
today I went to rent the same c-152 that I've rented since 1990. I've maybe flown 200 hours in that plane over the years, I was also a line guy and instructed at this FBO over the years.

It was the usual flight around the hometown and a few landings. 0.6 on the hobbs. Land, pay the bill (debit card) then BS with the fellow bums for awhile then it was home to watch the games. A few minutes ago I look at my bill to put the balance in my checkbook and see I was charged 0.15 for a "reservation min fee". I've never seen this before. I've done plenty of 0.5 (or less) flights in college when i could only scrape 25-30 bucks together for some flight time. No notification of any changed policy either.

Guess 16 plus years of bussiness doesn't make someone a valued customer anymore.

I think I just figured it out. LearLove, Lear70.....Coincidence? I think not. I've gone back to places where I use to work or ran the joint and never expected any special treatment. What makes me different from any other customer. I go to give back. To help give that struggling instructor an hour of flight time and 25 bucks. If you don't want to pay for renting an airplane or pay to meet the FBO's legal insurance requirements, then don't rent. If an extra .5 hours of a rental fee is that important, maybe you need to rethink your financial position and start putting more money in the bank.

If an FBO needs the .5 so badly they have to check out a former employee maybe they need to rethink their financial position. If I went back to the flight school where I was employed I fully expect to be able to rent without having to get checked out. I already got checked out to the tune of about $15 grand. If I'm not current or haven't flown GA in a while and need a babysitter that should be my call, not theirs.

 

[Caveman]

And what, Sir, makes you think you DIDN'T need a check out? Most places I have flown at require a checkout if you haven't flown 'THEIR' planes withing the last 90 days or so. To make you feel 'not so ABOVE others', we had a NWA DC-10 captain in 2001 who wanted to rent a 152, but he was more than happy to go on a check out ride.

Get off your high horse!

A billing dispute is something else, a check-out ride is a different scenario.

Bunny

That's because your a chick and a rookie one at that. "Most places"....what is that? Two, three? Every line pilot I know says that if they ever take the time to go fly a GA a/c they would have to take a CFI with them for a few turns in the pattern. I'm betting every one of them would also resent having to get 'checked out' based only on the fact they haven't flown at a particular FBO in a while.

 

[Lear70]

And what, Sir, makes you think you DIDN'T need a check out? Most places I have flown at require a checkout if you haven't flown 'THEIR' planes withing the last 90 days or so. To make you feel 'not so ABOVE others', we had a NWA DC-10 captain in 2001 who wanted to rent a 152, but he was more than happy to go on a check out ride.

Get off your high horse!

A billing dispute is something else, a check-out ride is a different scenario.

Bunny

High horse? This doesn't have anything to do with a high horse, Miss "I'm not really a commercial pilot, I'm actually a mathematician... no wait, I'm a physics researcher,,, no wait,,, I'm a grad student whose private pilot instructor told her about this board..."

So what are you today? Your posts border on the inane and, since you lack ANY experience in this industry, I think you know what you can do with your opinion.

I think I just figured it out. LearLove, Lear70.....Coincidence? I think not.

And what are you implying, sir?

I've gone back to places where I use to work or ran the joint and never expected any special treatment. What makes me different from any other customer. I go to give back.

That's nice. I go to fly a small airplane for fun because I want to take my wife/daughter/kids at church who are interested in flying.

Nothing makes me different than any other INSTRUCTOR who worked there. None of us should have to go through "check-out" flights after having given hundreds or, in some cases in the early 90's, thousands of hours of instruction in that exact aircraft.

That's simply assinine.

To help give that struggling instructor an hour of flight time and 25 bucks.

Good for you. That's your prerogative. To tell me that I should HAVE to do the same thing is EXTREMELY presumptuous. It's none of your business.

Secondly, an hour of dual is running about $150 bucks right now including the aircraft, not $25, but the money isn't the issue, it's the instructors and/or FBO owner trying to take advantage of an airline pilot. Screw that.

If you don't want to pay for renting an airplane or pay to meet the FBO's legal insurance requirements, then don't rent.

Wrong. And, in my case, the owner agreed.

If an extra .5 hours of a rental fee is that important, maybe you need to rethink your financial position and start putting more money in the bank.

What I have or don't have in the bank is none of your business, and I'm doing just fine, thankyouverymuch. Maybe not NWA DC-10 CA fine, but enough to go play around once or twice a year in a Cessna-beater.

How I SPEND my money is ALSO none of your business. Don't turn this thread into what it's NOT. I never said I didn't have the cash to pay, I said I didn't believe it proper to force a guy who flies every 6 months or so to "checkout".

Now if you haven't touched a single-engine airplane in 2 or 3 years then, as Caveman said, you owe it to yourself to grab the instructor and go do some stalls and your 3/3 as well as at least one instrument approach if you're gonna take it cross-country or in IMC.

But, as Caveman said, exactly how much time should be up to the individual pilot, not the FBO who is there to profit off any hour they can get.

As a 7,000+ hour pilot I'm in a much better professional frame of mind to know what I need to feel competent and comfortable versus a 300 hour instructor. Let him make his money off people learning to fly.

Talk about the blind leading the blind...

 

[PropPiedmont]

............ It's none of your business........

......What I have or don't have in the bank is none of your business.............

.....How I SPEND my money is ALSO none of your business. ...............

As a 7,000+ hour pilot I'm in a much better professional frame of mind to know what I need to feel competent and comfortable versus a 300 hour instructor. Let him make his money off people learning to fly.

Talk about the blind leading the blind...

Think you just hit the nail on the head. If it's none of my business then I'm sure it's no one elses' business. So why make post like that on here if it is no ones business? I have a lot of personal issues too. Instead of sharing them with the entire world and then telling them it's none of their business, I choose not to share.

Wow, 7,000+ hour pilot, you are professional. Just remember that line in the future when you break 25,000 hours. I'm sure you'll look at a 7,000 hour pilot how you look at a 300 hour pilot now.

But then again, your flight time is none of my business.