Callout Fee

KILE is my home airport and I am not surprised. I have never attempted to get fuel there and parked my airplane at a different airport farther away from my home just to avoid those people.

When I first bought my itty bitty airplane, I went to what is left of the airport office and spoke to the airport manager about parking. I won't say what I really think of the people running the show at Skylark, but it is obvious when the city moved all commercial ops to KGRK, Robert Gray Army Airfield, they left the old airport in a shambles with no adult supervision. The old terminal building is abandoned and still taking up valuable space where there could be hangars and parking.

The City's ten- and 20 year plans for the airport are dependent on Federal airport funds and an enormous amount of taxpayer money to build several elaborate, tiered upgrade plans that will never funded. Totally unrealistic and not at all what is needed to revitalize the airport. They just don't care.

As an example, the self-serve function of the pumps should have been repaired, to avoid requiring a flunky to come out and turn on the pump. Getting the expense approval for that was surely denied due to cost and taping a sheet of paper to the machine was cheaper and didn't require the airport council, manager or whatever bureaucracy is in charge to fix it.

I don't live in Killeen on purpose. I lived there back in the '80s and left as soon as possible.
 
Guy comes out at night (or day for that matter) to help me fuel is going to get $20 regardless of policy. That said generally fuel at Class C airports at night as they are typically always open and don’t really fly at night that much so the gouge isn’t frequent.
 
Our airport is closed for runway maintenance, it's NOTAMed, and it has big Xs with flashing lights on the ends of the runway. Once a week we still get pilots announcing they are entering the downwind for runway X. These are not pilots conducting instrument approaches. These are pilots that make it into the pattern with no idea if the airport is closed until we inform them on CTAF.

In my experience, before the runway was closed the pilots that rent hangar space call for fuel about 30 seconds before their departure time and are quite grumpy if the fuel truck doesn't arrive by the time they hang up. There are plenty of nice pilots and there are more than enough demanding, entitled, condescending pilots to explain why pilots have that stereotype among the public. 75% of the CTAF or telephone calls we get for a quick turn fueling conclude with our linemen doing a NASACR style fueling and the pilot and passenger lounging in the terminal for 45-90 minutes. WTH? Plenty of pilots are inconsiderate and demanding, apparently just because they can be. You aren't the only VIP at the airport.
 
bflynn said:
....it sounds like he would have because he didn't feel comfortable flying somewhere else, therefore no violation.
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But would he have bought the same amount? Or just barely enough to get home? Who knows?
 
Half Fast said:
But would he have bought the same amount? Or just barely enough to get home? Who knows?
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Well, the OP did say that this flight was solely to get fuel. I don't know about anyone else, but I have never made a flight solely to get fuel, then did not fill up.
 
JOhnH said:
Well, the OP did say that this flight was solely to get fuel. I don't know about anyone else, but I have never made a flight solely to get fuel, then did not fill up.
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Neither have I. But then I haven’t been pi$$ed off about a fee and motivated to take my business elsewhere.
 
JOhnH said:
Well, the OP did say that this flight was solely to get fuel. I don't know about anyone else, but I have never made a flight solely to get fuel, then did not fill up.
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Yep, I filled up. My home base in Taylor (T74) only has fuel when an attendant is available and they weren't around for the holiday weekend. If I'd only put enough to get back home, I'd have been in the same situation I was before!
 
if this is KILE, Airnav today advertises the fee for assisted service (good), but also the presence of self service (apparently, lies). If I was transient and wanting a fuel stop, I would assume I had the option of self-service 24/7 since nothing here says otherwise. If their SS pump is broken, they've created a trap and should waive any callout fee or update details publicly that self service is not an option.

The "Fueling hours" thing might be trying to cover this shame, but it's still not obvious to me, and if I'm checking for a fuel stop at a glance, I would not expect to have OP's scenario waiting for me on the ground, and I'd be irritated. What price the pilot's time and energy that is being wasted by poor equipment maintenance and poorer communication?

If their SS pump is still inop, they should remove this product option from airnav and other places or waive the fee in embarrassment.

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yeah it's not obvious (to me) that "assisted service" and "self service" are the same currently. Different prices imply different service levels available, with "SS" traditionally being "no service" thus "no callout needed"

It is interesting to see the different assumptions we place on these things though.
 
schmookeeg said:
Different prices imply different service levels available, with "SS" traditionally being "no service" thus "no callout needed"
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Exactly. To me, "self serve" means, "the equipment is here for you to pump your own, and it works without us having to be here".
 
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