Self Serve Fuel Manners RANT

PPC1052 said:
I managed to lock my plane key in the plane at the pump, with the parking brake set and the baggage door locked (of course).

Fortunately my co-owner lives pretty close to the airport, and happened to be home to bail me out.
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My mechanic is my backup plan on locked or missing keys. I gave him a complete set of airplane/hangar keys so he can work on the plane when I'm not around. (Yes, he's completely trustworthy.) I figure if I do something stupid I can go over to the FBO and borrow my own keys.

Tim
 
danhagan said:
Was at LLano (KAQO) a couple of years ago. Only one narrow taxiway from fuel to the asphalt runways. Recent rain so not using the grass runway. I fueled, went to the bathroom, sumped, cleaned up the cockpit (basically at least 30 min) and this guy is sitting there engine running the entire time. I walked up and knocked on the window as he wasn't responding on CTAF. He proceeds to finally taxi at 45 minutes since I started fueling. I didn't pay attention to his departure, only to find he didn't. He went to the other departure end, behind the slope, with a 22 knot tailwind.

As I announced preparing to depart, he finally piped up didn't I hear him. I responded there have been zero transmissions. He was STILL running up, I announced and departed. He did too several minutes later, and he caught me about 25 min later from behind, head down with a better than 40 knot over-take. I knew exactly who it was from FF and my PCAS.
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Llano huh? Was it a Mooney 231? I was there awhile back and saw a guy in a 231 at the pumps crank up and proceed to just sit there doing who knows what. I waited awhile, but not as long as you did, then went to his wingtip and made the universal "move please" hand signals. He did move at that point.

Here's another example of asshattery from a month or two ago; a dude at the top of my hangar row pulls out his Bonanza, cranks it up with the usual Bonanza/210/Cirrus roar... idles for a while, then proceeds to do his runup right there between the row of T-hangars, blowing dust and gravel everywhere and making an ungodly racket. Again I gotta go to his wingtip and give him the "WTF??? Freakin' move!!" hand signals. Idiots abound.

All these examples of lack of awareness or people who just don't give a **** about anyone else just drives me nuts. I'm glad I have a weird work schedule and can fly during the week; seems like there are fewer morons out flying during the weekdays.
 
Mtns2Skies said:
Oooh, an opportunity for a rant? Don't mind if I do.

Last time I got Self-serve, there was a tripacer infront of me with an older guy and presumably his son, probably a few years younger than me pretty lackadaisically fueling their plane. When they finally got out of the way and I pushed the plane forward, the older guy turned out to be a huge *******. I guess he liked the idea of "making one less stranger"... but by doing so he lectured me about how stupid it was that I would fly behind a carb'd O-470, because he had a carb ice event that he nearly didn't recover from. It was the worst engine ever made, and he converted the 182 that he owned to fuel injected because of it. I told him I had many hours accross the country in the plane over a few years and he assured me he had more knowledge over the 5 years he owned his 182. He then proceeded to be condescending to my wife (also a pilot) about how if it happened with her in the plane she'd never want to "come along with ever again".

I was so taken aback, I didn't know to call him out for being such an *******. Next time I see him, I won't make that mistake. His son stood by looking awfully sheepish. Being young in aviation, I'm not new to condescension that's what I've dealt with most of my flying career, but that was a whole new level.
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You know, there a pilots with 50 hours, pilots with 1,000 hours, and pilots with 50 hours of experience 20 times. The last group seem to be most willing to tell people what to do and how to do it...
 
cowman said:
A lot of the times on longer cross countries if we have a fuel stop and I don't see anyone around I'll fill up then walk in to use the bathroom, get weather updates, and file the next flight plan. That's the only scenario in which I feel like it's acceptable to leave a plane blocking access to the fuel pump... and then only because nobody appears to be around. I try to keep an eye out so I can move if someone shows up.

The thing is the Lance is hard to hot-start so I don't want to do that just to move it and shut down, it's not particularly easy to move by hand either and the tow bar is usually buried under baggage when we're traveling so if I don't see anyone coming I'm just going to wait until we're ready to go.
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Planes that used to be no problem for me to push have gotten considerably harder to push as I have gotten older, but when I go on cross-countries, I still make sure that the tow bar is accessible.
 
murphey said:
It’s incredibly difficult for me to push the cherokee uphill into the hangar. Nor do I wish to cause more damage to my body after 3 knee and 1 shoulder surgeries. I’ve used an electric tug ever since I moved into the hangar, almost 20 yrs ago.

I certainly wouldn’t stop driving if I couldn’t push the car into the garage. Which I can’t under any circumstance.
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I wouldn't presume to tell you what to do, but regarding your last point, cars have a reverse gear.
 
Nice ****ing contest about pushing an airplane, but bottom line, if you leave your airplane parked in front of the gas pump, you are a moron. Probably not too much anyone can do about it. But if it happens to me, I speak up.
 
jbDC9 said:
Llano huh? Was it a Mooney 231?
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No, a Bonanza ... on a subsequent flight through there I heard he stops in once a month from an airport further south.

jbDC9 said:
Here's another example of asshattery ... pulls out his Bonanza, cranks it up with the usual Bonanza/210/Cirrus roar... idles for a while, then proceeds to do his runup right there between the row of T-hangars, blowing dust and gravel everywhere and making an ungodly racket. Again I gotta go to his wingtip and give him the "WTF??? Freakin' move!!" hand signals. Idiots abound.
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Had that at Fredericksburg last year ... guy fired up in the parking spot just blasting everything behind him.

jbDC9 said:
All these examples of lack of awareness or people who just don't give a **** about anyone else just drives me nuts.
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This thread jinxed me at my field on Sunday. Self serve blocked (which is in front of the War Eagles Museum). There's a porta-potty right next to the pump ... nope, guy not in it and I'm blocked. About 10 minutes later he shows up and says he does this at ALL the fields to avoid getting a landing fee or ramp charge as he was picking up "a friend":mad::mad::mad::mad:
 
I have no idea why y’all are so polite.

“Hey are you going to move that effing thing out of the way so the rest of us can fuel?!”

LOL. Seriously. They’ll actually remember that the next time.

Can I help you push? Effff that. Gimme a break. Homie needs a whack with the cluebat.
 
denverpilot said:
I have no idea why y’all are so polite.

“Hey are you going to move that effing thing out of the way so the rest of us can fuel?!”

LOL. Seriously. They’ll actually remember that the next time.

Can I help you push? Effff that. Gimme a break. Homie needs a whack with the cluebat.
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^^^^^^This.
 
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