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From: cfiaime@ihnp3.UUCP (Jeff Williams)
Newsgroups: net.aviation
Subject: Fixed Base Operators - Comments and Impressions
Message-ID: <156@ihnp3.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 19-Sep-85 11:43:41 EDT
Article-I.D.: ihnp3.156
Posted: Thu Sep 19 11:43:41 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 20-Sep-85 05:22:19 EDT
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL
Lines: 51
Keywords: good, bad, ugly

Several weeks ago, I had the pleasure of taking the Starhawk, an
all composite airplane (see PRIVATE PILOT, February 1985), to Patuxant
River, Maryland.  On the trip, the service received at various airports
ran from open hostility to absolute professionalism.  This prompted 
some thinking about Fixed Base Operators in general.

Ohio Aviation, Dayton, Ohio, gets my nod as one of the most pleasent
FBOs in the country for transient pilots.  They did everything from 
meet us at the airplane in a van so we would not have to carry our
luggage, to driving us to get a pizza (which we shared with the line
crew and the young lady behind the counter).  To top of the experience
of being welcome as a customer, yesterday I received a thank you letter
(form letter, merged with the airplane information given at the time
we ordered fuel).  It doesn't take a lot to make a crew feel welcome.
Clean building, friendly service, a crew van.  The cost is not too much
more, and the payoffs are many.

Aero Services, Richmond, Virginia, is also quite good.  On the way
down to Pax, we had ignition problems (which turned out to be a bad spark
plug), and Aero Services was quite helpful in giving us priority service
to get the airplane flying.  Friendly service, good facilities (old, but
clean), and good mechanics.

However, we had the pleasure of stopping in Petersburg, Virginia, for
a meeting with some area leaders.  The FBO was very unpleasent, to the
point of calling the FAA and complaining that I was doing illegal 
low-level aerobatics in an illegal airplane.  (I saw the FAA arrive
in a State of Virginia King Air on my first take off.)  While I supposedly
was endangering life and limb at the airport, I was snarffing up some
good biscuits and gravy in downtown Petersburg.  Truely not a friendly
reception.

With the three different FBOs that stand out on the trip, I could not
help but think that maybe the way to do business includes giving good
service at a fair price, with a smile or a thank you.  As a customer, 
I should expect some service (although, Aero Services, Memphis Aero,
Duncan Aviation, Combes-Gates, and the like certainly make service
at other FBOs look bad) and a whole bunch of courtesy.  If I run into
a surly person or bad service, I don't go back (unless forced), and 
I write a letter to the company president.  If you fly, you spend a lot
of money at an FBO, and should be treated accordingly.  Even in a 150.
And, you best believe, when I have the occasion to work at an FBO, the
customer is ALWAYS king/queen.  It may not be a literal red carpet (like
happened at Flower's in Salina to one of my students), but the attitude
is there.

Comments?  Places to avoid??  Places to go???

					Jeff Williams
					AT&T-Bell Laboratories
					ihnp3!cfiaime


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