Tell us your best courtesy car story!

Not exactly a courtesy car, but funny related story.

When my X and i were trying the titanic of our marriage we were assigned by the councelor to each plan a date alternating weeks. One of mine I flew us to an airport by the casino a 40 minute flight away... called the casino for the shuttle.... they darn near had it there by the time I hung up the phone! Im sure they thought they had some high stakes folks in their glass cockpit machine with deep pockets... bummer to find out it was a couple of 20 somethings in a 1975 club plane, looking for the buffet and to drop $20 in tbe penny slots! Lol
 
Me and my instructor would stop into several random airports while training for my check ride at KFLO. We landed at one with a fairly new Cadillac with the keys on the FBO counter with a note that said "Please leave the keys here when done" I thought that was so awesome.
 
Years ago I was in Wichita (ICT), but I can't remember the FBO, Yingling maybe?

They had a Hertz or Avis concession, so they had nice, new vehicles. If you needed a car, the first 2 hrs were free.
 
Late to the thread here, but here's another thumbs up for the friendly peeps in West Texas; two months ago we were flying a T-28 from San Diego to Houston and stopped for the night in Ozona, TX. It's a typical small town FBO there, pretty much a one man show, but he was as friendly and helpful as can be. The courtesy car was already loaned out, but he tossed us the keys to his Jeep, said keep it overnight and told where to find the one place in town to get a steak and a beer. Nice! I topped up his gas tank lf course... If you're passing thru West TX and need a good gas/lunch stop, OZA is a good pick.

For "big city" FBOs, I had a pleasant surprise in Pensacola last year at PNS Aviation Center. Got stuck for weather and would be there for 2 nights. Girl at the desk said take the crew car, no worries... plus they had beer in a lobby cooler after I had tied down my RV-8. A nice touch I thought...
 
jbDC9 said:
... we were flying a T-28 from San Diego to Houston and stopped for the night in Ozona, TX. It's a typical small town FBO there, pretty much a one man show...
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Been there as well. Love the takeoff straight at the I-10 traffic;)
 
Not an earth-shattering story, but when I was 18 I flew a Sundowner from Arkansas to Idaho and back. Spent the night Sidney NE, where the old guy (well, he was old to an 18-year-old) put my plane in the hangar overnight for free due to thunderstorms inbound, and tossed me the keys to their crown vic for the night.

Sometimes aviation is a truly wonderful place. Where else would a teen get that kind of support?
 
jbDC9 said:
Late to the thread here, but here's another thumbs up for the friendly peeps in West Texas; two months ago we were flying a T-28 from San Diego to Houston and stopped for the night in Ozona, TX. It's a typical small town FBO there, pretty much a one man show, but he was as friendly and helpful as can be.
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My memory is fuzzy, but I think Ozona is where the guy drove me to the Stripes gas station (Sunoco) for some autogas. I kept two 5 gallon gas cans in the back for that reason...
 
I have a good group of cirrus owning friends who live all over the country. We get the whole group together every year at Oshkosh but we also frequently have occasion to visit each other throughout the year. As such, when we are in another friend's location, it is customary for the local to provide a “crew car” to the visitor. Since most of us are car guys also, there are some fun crew cars to be had- I am able to offer up a selection of Porsches, an Aston Martin or Range Rover. In the group, we also have a number of other Porsches (including 3 GT3 variants), corvette Z06, BMW M cars, etc... as options as well.

My real crew car stories are pretty typical and nothing that others haven’t covered. Lots of old retired cop cars, some fairly decent newish cars but never anything hugely out of the ordinary.
 
Pilawt said:
Not too shabby for a Starbucks run at Yuma AZ (Million Air):



Only took us ten minutes of thumbing through the manual to figure out how to put it in gear ... :confused:
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Nice, late model, used Mercedes are surprisingly inexpensive, and usually very well cared for. I'm looking hard at a decade-old luxo-barge that could pass as near new. The owner probably spent as much on dealer-performed regular maintenance as I've spent on some cars... and you can't argue with IR night vision, massaging seats and a quarter mile time in the 12s. :D
 
Pilawt said:
Not a free courtesy car, but almost ...

In 1972 I borrowed my dad's Cessna 150 to take a young lady on a trip from Oxnard CA for a picnic in the Danish-themed tourist town of Solvang. (To be fair, the town has an authentic Danish heritage, but they've played it to the hilt for the tourists, quite successfully). We landed at Santa Ynez, where the FBO at that time had a fleet of rental cars -- all 1958 Chevys, all $5 a day.



The young lady must have liked the trip. She's still flying with me. :)

The coolest courtesy car I've seen in recent years is at Benson, Arizona (E95) -- a 1955 Dodge Coronet with "three-on-the-tree":

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Been there - drove that!

Jeff, the Arizona flyers are LONG overdue for a get together and now its getting hot.
 
KBPK used to have a Mustang coupe for a courtesy car. That was a nice one to tool around town in. Now, they've got some decent rentals but not near as fun as 'stangs and the standard retired cop car as the courtesy car.
 
ZeroPapaGolf said:
Not an earth-shattering story, but when I was 18 I flew a Sundowner from Arkansas to Idaho and back. Spent the night Sidney NE, where the old guy (well, he was old to an 18-year-old) put my plane in the hangar overnight for free due to thunderstorms inbound, and tossed me the keys to their crown vic for the night.

Sometimes aviation is a truly wonderful place. Where else would a teen get that kind of support?
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You were not a teen... you are a pilot. That’s ageless and timeless.
 
Lawson Laslo said:
My airport has range rovers!
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Yep, Sundance airport. I’ve enjoyed driving one of those Range Rovers to the Subway restaurant in nearby Yukon, OK.

I didn’t notice much to do there in Yukon, but I was certainly glad for the nice wheels.
 
ZeroPapaGolf said:
Spent the night Sidney NE, where the old guy (well, he was old to an 18-year-old) put my plane in the hangar overnight for free due to thunderstorms inbound, and tossed me the keys to their crown vic for the night.
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We have a Sidney courtesy car story, too.

In 2012 we were flying the 172 back home to Washington State after visiting friends in Kansas City. We hoped to get to Cheyenne or Laramie the first day, but convection developing over eastern Wyoming was starting to rule that out. Sidney was just a few miles south of our route, so that's where we elected to divert.

I called on the CTAF from 10 miles out, and the Unicom operator answered, "You going to Cabela's?" Since I'd never even heard of Sidney Nebraska before, and didn't know it was Cabela's corporate headquarters, I didn't understand the question. "No," I said, "we just need a hotel and transportation for the night."

On the ground at KSNY, we tied the airplane down as the winds from approaching storms kicked up. Inside the FBO, the fellow we'd talked to on the radio said the only transportation from the airport was provided by Cabela's to their fly-in customers. But, he said, "if you can wait about 45 minutes while I finish putting the brakes on the boss' car, you can take that one!" We did, and he did, and we had a very nice overnight visit in Sidney.

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