SE MEETUP- February 24 Lunch @ The Flying Machine (KLZU)

Which date is better?

  • Total voters
    19
  • Poll closed .
Just got off the phone with the manager at The Flying Machine to inquire about our potential meet-up and asked about their possibility of being closed. He told me that they’re really concerned about not being able to sustain business through the end of the winter due to low customer volume. The airport authority made them remove their sign, and being at the end of a road, they don’t have much visibility without that sign. I told him we were planning a get together around the 24th of February for lunch (12p-2p) or thereabouts and he said to keep in touch with him as it gets closer to see what their status is. Said he’d love to do it if they’re open. So stay tuned..plans may change.

Sorry if this is old news @EppyGA. Wanted to find out the 411.
 
Lance F said:
I dropped off three passengers at Epps at PDK on Monday and had lunch at the Downwind. $40 ramp fee.
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But you are flying the heavy iron! :). I think it's only $20 for a single. Epps owns the 57th, so he might give you a break if you eat there. I should know these things, but I don't. I will find out tomorrow.

If the Flying machine is still open, I vote we give them the business.
 
Dave Theisen said:
If the Flying machine is still open, I vote we give them the business.
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I concur. That’s first pick. Let us know what you find out about their fee’s. If he could waive it for us, that’d be great!
 
Flocker said:
Source?
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Their FB Page. A lot of people have commented which may help them keep going. Some folks have even talked about giving them some marketing help. I'll be there tomorrow evening prior to our chapter business meeting.
 
We’ll stay M.I.A for a few weeks and I’ll touch base again when we’re about 2 weeks out and get the scoop and go from there. If all else fails..plan B it is!
 
Says this is a real southeast fly in but it is almost exactly the same distance to fly their for me as it was for Greenville. Hmmmmmmmm o_O:p
 
Ryanb said:
We’ll stay M.I.A for a few weeks and I’ll touch base again when we’re about 2 weeks out and get the scoop and go from there. If all else fails..plan B it is!
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I fail to see how contraceptives have anything to do with this :p
 
I can make the 24th. Flying Machine is a fun place. Hope they stay open.
 
We flew into a grass strip just south of Atlanta and had lunch one day. Trying to remember the field and restaurant.

Anyone?

Edited to add: Peach State (GA2)
 
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Flocker said:
I fly into LZU all the time. Never been charged a ramp fee at the Flying Machine.
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I was referring to PDK. If their ramp fee’s can be waived by eating at the 57th fighter restaurant, I’d be down for it!
 
Could be tough for Ryan as most rental places don't allow their planes into grass strips.
 
EppyGA said:
Could be tough for Ryan as most rental places don't allow their planes into grass strips.
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That would suck. I used to rent at a place that had approved certain grass strips based upon their condition. There is a difference between places like Triple Tree and Peach State versus some rough private strip behind a farmer's barn. Not all paved strips are created equal either. An intelligently ran rental operation should realize this. I'd vote for GA2 over PDK if everyone can land there.
 
I noticed on the sectional that Peach State is now called Alexander Memorial for Ron Alexander who was lost along with another pilot when his restored Curtiss Jenny caught on fire. Great restaurant with a small museum attached.
 
EppyGA said:
Could be tough for Ryan as most rental places don't allow their planes into grass strips.
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Yeah, I will have to check on their policy. Seem’s like they have to approve of the strip prior to landing there. Only times I’ve performed true soft field ops was with a CFI on board, so that might be as far as it goes under their reign.

For now, we’ll stick to the original plan of LZU until further notice, if that’s okay with the rest of the crowd.
 
I dont mind landing at a hard surface airport and bumming a ride with some of the SE finest.

:fcross:
 
If we go on the 17th, I can bring most of the Gold Seal team. Otherwise, I can still make it on the 24th.
If we tie this down we need to let the owners (Hokey and Joy) know and plan for it.
 
write-stuff said:
If we tie this down we need to let the owners (Hokey and Joy) know and plan for it.
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I called last night to find out their business forecast and gave them the potential game plan, so they’re aware.
 
PDK info for future reference. Many of you know that there are two restaurants on the field.

The Downwind is in the airport administration building which is attached to the Epps hangar but has no affiliation with Epps. It can be easily accessed from both Epps or Atlantic, Signature is over on the side of the airport.

The 57th Fighter Group, is owned by Epps, but is down the street. It's walkable, but Epps will give you a ride. Epps does have a $20 ramp fee for single engine aircraft which is waived for 20 gallons of fuel, or a top off if you can't take 20. They will also waive the ramp fee if you show them a receipt from the 57th. They also give a 50 cent discount on avgas on weekends.
 
Dave Theisen said:
PDK info for future reference. Many of you know that there are two restaurants on the field.

The Downwind is in the airport administration building which is attached to the Epps hangar but has no affiliation with Epps. It can be easily accessed from both Epps or Atlantic, Signature is over on the side of the airport.

The 57th Fighter Group, is owned by Epps, but is down the street. It's walkable, but Epps will give you a ride. Epps does have a $20 ramp fee for single engine aircraft which is waived for 20 gallons of fuel, or a top off if you can't take 20. They will also waive the ramp fee if you show them a receipt from the 57th. They also give a 50 cent discount on avgas on weekends.
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Excellent! Thanks for the PIREP Dave! If The Flying Machine doesn’t pan out, we’ll shoot for the 57th @ PDK. Good alternative.
 
BrianNC said:
Airport management...oxymoron? :D
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In some cases yes. I personally find it absurd that any airport authority would require the removal of a long time on field restaurant’s sign. I don’t know the nitty gritty behind it, but it looks to me like it’s a move to get the restaurant closed permanently. Too much control in the wrong hands...
 
Dave Theisen said:
My guess is they want the restaurant closed to make room for more hangars.
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Need more storage for the airplanes that never fly because there’s no place to fly to because all the airports get rid of their restaurants. :)

Makes sense to me. You? :)

Wouldn’t want there to be any fuel sales or parking fees or anything like that from people coming to said eating establishments either. Better to have one jet a day and a Signature ramp. That’ll make more money anyway with a single airplane.

Lots less noise complaints that way, too. :)
 
Ryanb said:
In some cases yes. I personally find it absurd that any airport authority would require the removal of a long time on field restaurant’s sign. I don’t know the nitty gritty behind it, but it looks to me like it’s a move to get the restaurant closed permanently. Too much control in the wrong hands...
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I understand the politics of LZU and their Airport Authority pretty well. While I don't (yet) know the exact details, I'm pretty confident that this was some standard restriction on advertising signage. I seriously doubt that The Flying Machine was singled out. But because of the importance of having a restaurant on field, I don't know why they haven't allowed them an exception to the rule in the form of a waiver or variance of some type.

A ground swell of member of the public appearing at the Airport Authority meetings could possibly make this happen.
 
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write-stuff said:
I understand the politics of LZU and their Airport Authority pretty well. While I don't (yet) know the exact details, I'm pretty confident that this was some standard restriction on advertising signage. I seriously doubt that The Flying Machine was singled out. But because of the importance of having a restaurant on field, I don't know why they haven't allowed them an exception to the rule in the form of a waiver of variance of some type.

A ground swell of member of the public appearing at the Airport Authority meetings could possibly make this happen.
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The airport put up all new signage several years ago and the sign had to go at that time. The Flying Machine is not the only business on that side of the airport. You might imagine what kind of mess they would have if they allowed then to have a sign at the corner and not everyone else with a business. If they spent half as much time doing a bit of marketing as they have complaining about the sign they would have more business. We had dinner there last night prior to our chapter business meeting and they were moderately busy. We would have given them more business but some genius sent out notice that dinner would be at a different restaurant last night. We discussed The Flying Machine at our BOD meeting Tuesday and talked about supporting them and then this genius send the notice out to go to a different place. Four of us went to The Flying Machine anyhow :D It would be helpful if they had the resources to enclose the patio in the winter and put heaters out there. The airport manager is not known for his love of airplanes and such, he's just a government bureaucrat. Our chapter does more than pretty much anyone on the airport to promote the airport to the general public. We fly Young Eagles every month, have youth every Saturday building airplanes, bring in the Tri-Motor and B-17 nearly every year, have our monthly pancake breakfast, have hosted three Rusty Pilot seminars, put on a week long summer camp in June as well as other things.
 
EppyGA said:
The airport put up all new signage several years ago and the sign had to go at that time. The Flying Machine is not the only business on that side of the airport. You might imagine what kind of mess they would have if they allowed then to have a sign at the corner and not everyone else with a business. If they spent half as much time doing a bit of marketing as they have complaining about the sign they would have more business. We had dinner there last night prior to our chapter business meeting and they were moderately busy. We would have given them more business but some genius sent out notice that dinner would be at a different restaurant last night. We discussed The Flying Machine at our BOD meeting Tuesday and talked about supporting them and then this genius send the notice out to go to a different place. Four of us went to The Flying Machine anyhow :D It would be helpful if they had the resources to enclose the patio in the winter and put heaters out there. The airport manager is not known for his love of airplanes and such, he's just a government bureaucrat. Our chapter does more than pretty much anyone on the airport to promote the airport to the general public. We fly Young Eagles every month, have youth every Saturday building airplanes, bring in the Tri-Motor and B-17 nearly every year, have our monthly pancake breakfast, have hosted three Rusty Pilot seminars, put on a week long summer camp in June as well as other things.
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You’re a great ambassador for the community, keep it up! Hope they can pull it through and keep their restaurant going. Hate to see stuff like this happen to local businesses.
 
EppyGA said:
The airport manager is not known for his love of airplanes and such, he's just a government bureaucrat.
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We have that same problem in the town where I live. The county administrator over the airport is not a pilot and the airport is just another responsibility on his plate. He is not motivated to improve the airport and will not do anything more than he absolutely has to. KBXG has no fuel and no hangars, yet we have a nuclear power plant in our county paying considerable taxes and power plant vendors that would use the airport if it had any services. The county south of here is a small and rather poor county. The leaders there were forward thinking enough to realize that if you create infrustructure, people will take advantage of it. There were no airplanes based at 2J5. They put in fuel and built eight "T" hangars. The hangars are now full and because the fuel is competitively priced, we have a good many airplanes stopping in for fuel. Since I am the AOPA Airport Support Network representative for both airports, I tried working with the county administrator here at KBXG to at least put in fuel. I finally gave up and just moved my plane to 2J5 to take advantage of the new hangars. Oh yes, my property tax bill also moved to the other county when my airplane moved. So short sighted but what can you do? Even though I have to drive an extra 10 minutes to get to 2J5, it has been so worth it having a hangar and fuel readily available.
 
I plan to be there form Huntsville AL. Probably be the last flight before my wife gets her new knee and I become a full time nurse.
 
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