Aviation Etiquette

Half Fast said:
Hmmmm.......

Y’know, if we all armed our planes with guns and maybe a Sidewinder or two, I’d bet there’d be a lot more courtesy in the air. An armed society is a polite society.
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It seems like there are parts of the world that belie that adage right now. :(
 
Not so much a statement as much as a question.

What are your opinions on tipping at FBOs? I'll give an actual example that happened this past weekend.

I'm a new pilot and besides a few bathroom breaks on an XC with my CFI when I was a student, I haven't really done anything at FBOs before, so I'm sort of in uncharted territory here. I took my first passenger out to an airport for our expensive lunch and the FBO we stopped at was not a big name like Atlantic or Signature. But it was still very nice. No fees to pay because we were only there for a few hours, but the people were just very courteous. They only offered a crew car for overnights, but one of them offered to drive us downtown and gave us lunch recommendations. They even offered to drive us back after we were finished.

I wasn't sure if this was typical for an FBO, but I was quite impressed with the service and gave them a pretty generous tip for their hospitality. Is this expected or conventional? I figured given I tip taxi drivers, valets, and the like it should be just a no-brainer to tip the FBO guy. But he was truly taken aback by the gesture.
 
pvd_flier said:
What are your opinions on tipping at FBOs? I'll give an actual example that happened this past weekend.
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I hate, hate, hate the way tipping culture has grown, and I say that as a guy who has worked as a bartender, server, and an FBO line guy. My advice that that tipping is absolutely not expected at any FBO (and would be a little weird in most contexts) but if you feel the line guy went above and beyond to help you out (or you asked for extra service like window cleaning), then a tip is appropriate to offer. I always appreciated a small tip for cleaning windows and so forth. Naturally, the guy yelling at me to make sure I remembered to only go in one direction on his windshield (thanks, gramps, first time I've done this) is the guy who doesn't tip at all. *sigh*

Please don't feel like you should be tipping FBO desk staff or the guy who just rolls up to throw fuel in your plane.
 
Something like 30 years ago, I tipped a guy for coming to the airport to refuel my plane after hours. The guy who got refueled right after me did the same.
 
pvd_flier said:
What are your opinions on tipping at FBOs? I'll give an actual example that happened this past weekend.

I'm a new pilot and besides a few bathroom breaks on an XC with my CFI when I was a student, I haven't really done anything at FBOs before, so I'm sort of in uncharted territory here. I took my first passenger out to an airport for our expensive lunch and the FBO we stopped at was not a big name like Atlantic or Signature. But it was still very nice. No fees to pay because we were only there for a few hours, but the people were just very courteous. They only offered a crew car for overnights, but one of them offered to drive us downtown and gave us lunch recommendations. They even offered to drive us back after we were finished.

I wasn't sure if this was typical for an FBO, but I was quite impressed with the service and gave them a pretty generous tip for their hospitality. Is this expected or conventional? I figured given I tip taxi drivers, valets, and the like it should be just a no-brainer to tip the FBO guy. But he was truly taken aback by the gesture.
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That's actually pretty normal service in this industry. It's certainly not below average, but it's not OMGWow level either.
AvNavCom said:
I hate, hate, hate the way tipping culture has grown, and I say that as a guy who has worked as a bartender, server, and an FBO line guy. My advice that that tipping is absolutely not expected at any FBO (and would be a little weird in most contexts) but if you feel the line guy went above and beyond to help you out (or you asked for extra service like window cleaning), then a tip is appropriate to offer.

Please don't feel like you should be tipping FBO desk staff or the guy who just rolls up to throw fuel in your plane.
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This. I've been tipped - and not tipped - as anything from a line guy all the way up to a charter captain. Nobody is getting paid "I need a tip to make a living" wages, so tips should not be expected in the normal course of things. If you're asking for services above and beyond what might be the normal expectation, it certainly doesn't hurt, and nobody's going to turn it down either. As an example from my line guy days, we had one based pilot who was a doctor with a nice 310, and he was ALWAYS in a huge hurry, so we'd pretty much automatically meet him at his hangar. He'd pull the mixtures before he even stopped, dive out the door (I swear he sometimes did this before the wheels stopped turning too!), hop in his car and tear off, but he'd always throw us 20 bucks to do a quick postflight fluid topoff and put the plane away in his hangar. He usually got the bugs wiped off without asking for that too...
 
Lost the count, but I'll contribute "Don't tiedown on any random open spot unless you know it is designated for transient aircraft."
 
Years ago at IAD there were two FBOs. Signature (the successor to Page) and the upstart Hawthorne. The person running Hawthorne had a simple philosophy. Treat everyone nicely. You never know if the guy who flew in the Bonanza on Saturday wasn't the guy in the back of the Gulfstream on Tuesday.

Similarly we have two local airports. One treats you like crap if you aren't burning kerosene. The place is largely a ghost town. The other says "You small GA guys are keeping my airport alive while I attract business to my county". Keeps fuel an hangar prices low. Builds new hangars to meet the demand. Does amenities to get people to fly there. Guess what? His operations count goes up, and he can push for the FAA for LPVs for both ends of the fields plus a localizer. Gets to show they have a top notch airport for the county to attract other industrial business there.
 
Half Fast said:
- Don't untie and relocate somebody else's aircraft on the ramp without leaving the owner a note telling him where you put his plane.
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years ago, ma$$port moved my airplane off my tiedown to make room for the airshow at KBED... putting it on the grass between the taxiway and 11/29. After the show was over, guess who was responsible for moving the airplanes back onto their tiedowns...
 
I tip for over and above service. I stopped on the way home from picking up my plane. Stopped at the self service fueling. Guy came out, fueled my plane, moved it to a tie down (staying overnight), went and found tie downs (I did not have any in my new to me plane) and tied it down. Got my bags out of the plane and took them into the FBO and gave me a ride in the golf cart.

I tipped him. But almost had to force him to take it.
 
idahoflier said:
Lost the count, but I'll contribute "Don't tiedown on any random open spot unless you know it is designated for transient aircraft."
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Hmmm. I have been to many airports in 20+ years of GA flying around the country, and I have seen ONE that actually marked spots for transients.

I would suggest that if your tiedown is in an area that looks like a main ramp, you should mark it as "Private".
 
flyingcheesehead said:
Hmmm. I have been to many airports in 20+ years of GA flying around the country, and I have seen ONE that actually marked spots for transients.
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I guess I'm lucky I have seen it at more than one airport. In any case, if in doubt, I always ask...
 
Don't use your low-pitched, slow, raspy voice on the radio. You're not Chuck Yeager
Don't try to have a social conversation with ATC, they're not there to serve your codependency.
 
flyingcheesehead said:
Hmmm. I have been to many airports in 20+ years of GA flying around the country, and I have seen ONE that actually marked spots for transients.

I would suggest that if your tiedown is in an area that looks like a main ramp, you should mark it as "Private".
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I would park my car in the spot to prevent someone from using it.
 
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