The worst FBO's

[leardawg]

Signature DET
Mercury PDK
Jimsair SAN
Northern Air (?) PVD
Jackson TN (MKL) - no FBO to speak right now, pilots must sit in "airline terminal" area reserved for pilots. Try doing a 8:00 a.m. arrival/4:00 p.m. departure there. Talk about looking for hanging strenth rope!

Smiley faces? WTF! Not my doing.

 

[n757st]

Signature DET
Mercury PDK
Jimsair SAN
Northern Air (?) PVD
Jackson TN (MKL) - no FBO to speak right now, pilots must sit in "airline terminal" area reserved for pilots. Try doing a 8:00 a.m. arrival/4:00 p.m. departure there. Talk about looking for hanging strenth rope!

Smiley faces? WTF! Not my doing.

I have to second northstar PVD, those people suck.

 

[mcjohn]

....................

 

[flyboycpa]

Signature! Signature! Signature! (particulary BOS, BWI, SFO, LAS, MIA)

minor caveat: I like many of the folks at Signature-BNA (I used to be based there with a previous company) and also the "new" Signature-TRM (formerly Million Air). The TRM folks are still so new at the Signature mentality that they are still actually nice (Million Air influence) since they haven't had their dose of brainwashing yet!

Mega dittos to JimsAir-SAN and the previous comment about Million Air-TEB (what up with whats-her-name always getting CSR of the year?)

Every year I send in my card voting for best (usually Wilson, for me) but I always put in the comment section that these are nothing more than popularity contests. You just never remember the super mom-n-pop places at smaller fields that would do anything to help you out. Same goes for catering. Who really remembers the name of that great caterer in Timbuktoo? Everyone always remember Rudy's, or whatever. Like I said, it's all a popularity contest.

 

[414Flyer]

I will third Jimsair at SAN. Some serious retards working behind those counters there. Goto Gillespie or Montgomery instead. I'm surprised no one has said Signature SBA yet. $30 to park a single and eat at the Elephant bar accross the street and depart two hours later.

I will vote for Mercury at Ontario Cali, for charging $500 dollars for parking a Shorts from about 945pm to 615am the other night.

Signature at SBA, well service is okay, but the cookies and coffee are great.

 

[coloneldan]

I agree with you Flyboy. The Mom N Pop places are where you get the best service. The problem is, you don't get 3 or 400 people through there a day, so there is no way they can get the votes to compete.

Catering is another subject. Rudy's is good, there is also a place at SNA that has the best chicken salad sangwiches on the face of the planet. On the other hand, I was in Lebanon NH once. I ordered a fruit and cheese tray for 2. The lady at the FBO told me that since there was less than 4 hours notice, the caterers would charge a $100 rush fee. I thought that was pretty unreasonable, but for what ever reason, I said OK. When I got to the airport, the bill was $298!!! I couldn't believe it. $100 for a rush order and $198 for $10 worth of fruit and cheese. That learned me. When the rush fee is unreasonable, ya better check on the rest of the road kill.

 

[GeeThree]

San

JimsAir, SAN is notorious for Catering issues! They charged me $57 / quart of OJ, not too long ago. They will not allow other caterers on their property so you have to get the other caterers to deliver your stuff to the hotel.
Pain in the rear! They and all Signatures get my vote!

 

[ACT700]

Million Air @ MDW.

Although I haven't seen any live rats in the lobby lately.

I think Atlantic, MDW is an upscale joint compared to that MillionAir dump. Doesn't help that it is run by an idiot not even his employees like.

I say tear down MillionAir for more (productive) ramp space!

 

[infiniti757]

SGF Regional

If you stop there and are a freightdog then be prepared to be treated like a second class citizen. I was given very dirty looks and almost wasn't allowed into the planning room when I diverted there. And all at the expense of the taxpayer since it is run by the airport authority.

 

[Darkhlmt]

About the INT deal.
When my first passenger showed up, I headed across the ramp to the fuel truck that had been parked there all morning. I was going to fuel the thing myself. I got about half way across the ramp and a lineguy came out of the line shack and got in the truck. I thought, finally. I went back to my airplane and he drove up to the Citation parked next to me. I went over and asked him when he was planning to fuel me. He said I'll get you next, this Citation is leaving in an hour. I said I'm leaving in 10 minutes and my passengers are already starting to arrive. He went right ahead and hooked up to the Citation and fueled it first. He finally pulled in front of my airplane and started fueling. He got about 15 gallons in and the truck ran out of fuel. By the time I finally got fuel, it was almost 0900. He was so *amn slow, I had the passengers on and one engine running before he moved the truck. Not long after that, the owner moved the airplane to Greensboro.

The short version of the HPN incident goes like this. We called on the flite phone about 2 hours out. We give them our eta and told them we needed a quick turn. 2 hours and 45 minutes after we land I pay the ramp fee, start up, taxi to Avitat, buy fuel and leave.

I also have a agree about JimsAir in SAN.

It may be faster if you attach some bike peddles to your engines and peddle your way to the next airport.

 

[coloneldan]

Hey Dark, Hickory NC is only 10 minutes away, I had enough on board to get there and I seriously thought about hoping over to get fuel there.

 

[Darkhlmt]

I'm just a lowely student so what I say doesn't mean much. But good lord in heaven. I would have been out of there so fast.

 

[Flyerjosh]

Mercury Air Center BNA. I can understand excessive handling fees at major Class B airports (LGA, ORD, LAX)... but $250 for a 3 minute "hot" quick turn in a Citation just about gave me a heart attack!

When we shut down to take on fuel (and get the "handling" fee waived), the lady explained that "some days" (whatever that means) they waived it, but couldn't on this particular day because the ramp was busy. Makes sense to me since it took them more time and parking space to keep us there while we took on whatever the absolute fuel load was.

I agree that the Signature at BNA is one of the best in the country (As far as Signatures go)...

 

[coloneldan]

Hey Dark, The only reason I didn't jump to HKY is it costs a LOT of money and fuel to do that. I was in a Lear 25 that day. With both engines at idle on the ground they burn 150 gal/hr. You flightplan roughly 300 gal for the first hour of flight because you burn so much fuel at low altitude and high power settings during the climb. With taxi, takeoff, and the short hop I still would have burned close to 100 gal. Plus there is the maintenance costs to be considered. Every takoff and landing uses up part of the tire and brake life, plus just putting that much time on the airframe. All in all, I got fuel quicker, cheaper, and got on the road faster by waiting on the fuel where I was. I still wasn't happy about it though, neither was the owner.

 

[pilotviolin]

Any local government FBO gets my vote. Worst ones yet are at VGT and Executive Terminal in Tucson. We had an engine problem so I ran inside to grab a couple of ear plugs so we wouldn't go deaf and those brods still needed to charged me 35 cents a piece, even though they could see we were very rushed, and we had just spent $1500 on Jet-A! Morons! I forgot to add Naples Gov. run joke. Just another example of bad government.