Fuel system outage

cowman

cowman

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Cowman
So my source on this is just from a couple of NOTAMs and talking to an airport manager so I may have some details wrong but apparently one of the companies that operates self-serve avgas kiosks at thousands of airports is having an outage. Fuel is there, the pumps work, but many airports can’t do self serve right now apparently due to inability to process the payments. So, you’re dependent on the airport manager coming out and manually dispensing fuel/processing the payment.

I just ran into this today at C65. Was able to get fuel but at some other airports it’s down completely. Check the NOTAMs and call ahead!
 
Auburn Washington (S50) is the same. From an email from the airport:

"Self Serve Fuel Unavailable:
"The self serve fuel terminal is currently down. A NOTAM has been issued. This is a national network connectivity issue for the fuel terminal company. Many airports are unable to distribute fuel because of this. If you need to get fuel at another airport I recommend contacting them beforehand and verifying they are able to distribute fuel. When we receive word the fuel is available another notice will be sent out."

I filled up today with good ol' car gas....

Ron Wanttaja
 
It is the QTPod system. I googled it and there is very little info being posted....except for some “info” on reddit..... they made mention of the new terminals and their ongoing cost, doesn’t sound like they were happy with decision. Another tidbit I found is that Qtpod is a sister company of signature...the ones infamous for ridiculous fees.
 
One of the local airports was faced with this on Saturday. The self serve kiosk wouldn't work, but they did have the ability to switch to "manual" and take card payments inside the FBO. The FBO manager indicated this impacted 3500 FBO's and the company behind the technology was half-assing things on the communication side. Instead of sending out a bulk e-mail describing the problem, FBO's were having to call the tech support hotline to get an understanding of the problem. So getting the word out was going to take 3500 phone calls from 3500 different FBO's to the hotline. This was as of ~10:00 AM on Saturday.
 
Our airport actually just upgraded the M4000 platform about a month ago. I found this posted on Reddit, not sure if the issue has been resolved yet or not: "Dear Valued Customers, I will continue to update you regularly on the outage we are currently experiencing on our M4000 platform. At approximately 11:30 EDT Friday night, we experienced a major server outage. Since that time, our IT teams have been working around the clock to bring systems back online step by step. Unfortunately, this is taking longer than anticipated and we currently do not have an ETA on when our servers will be restored."
 
I can confirm the gas was out for this very reason at KZPH last weekend. "Unable to process payment".
 
1/2 the airports I go to don't have fuel. If they have fuel it's a pain in the butt, you have to call airport manager to come down and unlock the pump. So I always top the tanks off when I leave Juneau.

I have not had problems calling for a fuel truck at Juneau (PAJN), Sitka (PASI), or Ketchikan (PAKT).
 
AKBill said:
1/2 the airports I go to don't have fuel. If they have fuel it's a pain in the butt, you have to call airport manager to come down and unlock the pump. So I always top the tanks off when I leave Juneau.

I have not had problems calling for a fuel truck at Juneau (PAJN), Sitka (PASI), or Ketchikan (PAKT).
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I tried calling them.
They got real nasty when I said the plane was at NY1.
Sheesh. Some people just can't be bothered to work for a living.
 
Shepherd said:
I tried calling them.
They got real nasty when I said the plane was at NY1.
Sheesh. Some people just can't be bothered to work for a living.
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Sorry to hear that. Flying to somewhere and ferrying back fuel is a PITB but I know folks who do that...:(
 
I was planing a multi-stop flight in the Cub tomorrow, but it appears that a few of my intended aerodromes are having problems with the fuel systems.
I'm sure I'll think of some alternatives for the Cub.
 
Vero Beach had that issue Sunday, KFIN was fine.
 
It's specific to the newer card machines that have a color LED screen. They are tall, white, monolithic and modern looking. The ones with the LCD screen on a pedestal are not affected.
 
An email from QT today:

"While we have not been given a definitive ETA for having this issue resolved, we are making significant progress and my best estimate at this point is that services will be restored within the next 24 hours.

While we still have not determined the source of the issue, I do want to assure you that due to the nature in which the QTpod M4000 and its cloud environment handles transactions, there is never any customer card data stored on either the M4000 nor in our cloud environment. Therefore, there is no risk that your cusotmers' [sic] credit card data has been compromised"
 
cowman said:
That's a pretty extreme amount of downtime for a payment processing system.
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Agreed! I went flying yesterday and discovered my local pumps were affected. I can't believe they don't know the "source of the issue"...
 
cowman said:
That's a pretty extreme amount of downtime for a payment processing system.
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Nah. Typical if they lose the HW, and had no backup plan. A lot of companies are on a show string budget and cowboy the operational side. And with EMV removing the operational access to sensitive data for middleman aggregated systems, they have even less incentive to do it right.
Would not be surprised if they lost the server and are scrambling to rebuild it.

I work in payments among other industries.
So been there, done that, seen it...

Tim

Sent from my HD1907 using Tapatalk
 
Ours has been down since Saturday at KHBI...hopefully, back online now per previous post.
 
tspear said:
Nah. Typical if they lose the HW, and had no backup plan. A lot of companies are on a show string budget and cowboy the operational side. And with EMV removing the operational access to sensitive data for middleman aggregated systems, they have even less incentive to do it right.
Would not be surprised if they lost the server and are scrambling to rebuild it.

I work in payments among other industries.
So been there, done that, seen it...

Tim

Sent from my HD1907 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Seen it too. I wonder how many spare servers they could have bought with the lost revenue of a weeks outage?
 
Seems to me there should be an over ride switch so the fbo can pump fuel without going online if need be.
 
Doug Reid said:
Seems to me there should be an over ride switch so the fbo can pump fuel without going online if need be.
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There is on the ones I have seen. But the FBO has to be open and available to handle the payment.

Tim
 
4 days, 16 hours roughly... That's a terrible amount of downtime, and those small FBOs sure didn't need another kick in the teeth right now. :(
 
It was a rough one, I flew from Georgia to Arizona (intending California), and every self-service pup had issues except Ak Chin, AZ (which does not use the QTPod system).
 
Heard on another site this system is based on Windows. Why do people continue to use that OS for serious work with all of the security problems?
 
PeterNSteinmetz said:
Heard on another site this system is based on Windows. Why do people continue to use that OS for serious work with all of the security problems?
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The embedded stuff is much better than the consumer grade stuff.
 
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