maules.com wrote:Remembering the good days.
Land at an airport with two or three fbo's and as I taxied off the runway had to make a serious decision.
Three golf carts came driving t'wards me each adorned and driven by a beauty in a bikini and a real 'come hither' smile and welcome.
Chevron, Philips, Exxon, which to choose. It was akin to a bathing beauty contest out on the ramp.
Having made one's choice, you climb out of your trusty Maule onto an adeptly unrolled Red carpet.
Fuel was less than $2, the lounge like a palace with pilot sleep areas, near new courtesy car and all amenities.
The heyday of general aviation, 1978, and no, I'm not dreaming, I'm remembering.
Thousands of light piston craft built and sold each year, now, less than 1000, total.
So, competetive marketing at its best,

ExperimentalAviator wrote:Here's that FBO's website: http://www.bayminetteaviation.com/

CamTom12 wrote:Bay Minette! Memories!

And great cookies!

CAVU wrote:

hotrod180 wrote:What bugs me in this situation is that you have to pay a private enterprise those inflated tie-down and handling fees, on a public airport! IMHO there should be a DIY transient tiedown area on all publicly funded airports, for 5 or maybe 10 ten bucks a night max.

Exactly. I'll pay if I need the services, but it's rare. The resort airports are the worst--Sun Valley, Eagle, Jackson Hole. Even if you top off and work out an accommodation of some kind, you're still paying a premium for the privilege of parking at a publicly-owned and maintained airport.

There are anti-discrimination provisions in FAA grants that are supposed to prohibit grant recipients from discriminating against different kinds of aircraft and operations. Usually, it's the big boys or specialty commercial operations like skydiving and gliders who pull these out. But how is it that grant recipient airports can eliminate public transient parking and force everyone to pay the ridiculous prices at Atlantic, Signature and the like?

San Jose International used to have reasonable access. Now, they've been so successful in driving out small aircraft that they removed the short runway (29) and are busy building out a huge hangar complex for the ultra rich. McClellan Palomar used to have a half dozen spots near the terminal where you could tie down and go to Lego Land. I'm not sure if those are there any more, but there's absolutely no reason why every public airport shouldn't have similar access. They don't even have to provide ropes if it's too much bother.

It's no big deal if there's a small airport nearby, but a lot of these places don't have competition. If nothing else, you can flame the outrageous operators on Airnav. The current reviews at PSP are all glowing. Let them know how you feel about the rectal exam.

My $.02

CAVU