Airport car today

[Diana]

We flew the Skyhawk to Grove, OK so Tom could get his flight physical. We had reserved the courtesy car to drive to town to the doctor’s office, a 4-mile ride.

About a mile from his office, we ran out of gas.

We slowly pulled over to an asphalt plant and wandered into their office. All five people there went to their gas tank, filled up a can and gassed the old beat up car. What nice people!

We actually made the appointment on time.

Running out of gas was a first for us with old beat up airport cars. Many other things have happened: windows and doors not working, mirrors dangling, flat tires, bad brakes, and once in Wyoming a door fell off.

What interesting airport car stories do you have to share?

 

[Dustin]

>Running out of gas was a first for us with old beat up airport cars. Many other things have happened: windows and doors not working, mirrors dangling, flat tires, bad brakes, and once in Wyoming a door fell off.

LOL. The door fell off? I have owned cars like that, literally! Fixed it up with speaker wire and kept driving it.......on second thought disregard.

Dustin Smith, A&P?

Seriously, at one time our courtesy car had some problems. When it was raining, the wipers would turn off every time you turned on the left blinker. It was okay with the right blinker. Have to say, our vehicle maintenance did fix it, after a couple of months.

 

[bharris]

A few years ago I landed at Lordsburg New Mexico. As I rolled out after touching down, I noticed an airplane in the ditch between the runway and the taxiway. I parked my airplane and went to the FBO, where there were a couple of guys in serious conversation about something. I asked the person at the counter if there was a hotel in town, as I wanted to spend the night.

I did not get an answer, but the person I was talking to went over to the other two guys and joined their conversation. After a while they all came over to where I was and asked me if I would mind driving one of them into town in the airport car. I said OK.

I then found out the guy I was to drive into town had ground-looped his recently purchased Citabria just before I landed. He was really shook up, and the two locals were not willing to let him drive into town in the airport car.

Bernie Harris
N7895W

 

[Michael]

you mean you guys get a car!?

 

[Ken Ibold]

Maybe this is a little off topic, but here goes.

I had flown the Citabria from Orlando to Atlanta for my grandmother's funeral. I left early the next day to try to beat a front that was coming through. I faced 35-50 knot headwinds the whole way. I landed in Waycross, Georgia after 3.7 hours (the same leg in the other direction the day before had been 2.0) for fuel. The wind was right down the runway and I landed and stopped on the numbers. The FBO operator said "well, that was an interesting landing. It looked like you stopped in mid air and just hovered down to the numbers." He then offered to let me borrow his van to drive back to Orlando and come back in a couple of days and get the airplane! I thanked him but declined. He then asked me if I would "mind" taking off from the ramp in front of the FBO so he could get a better view. Again I declined. But it sure shows how life at rural airports is a different world than we urbanites live in.

 

[terzap]

At KROX they have two vehicles...watch out for the van. It steers like a barn door (that is if the steering wheel stays attached)...no wonder my buddy had such an evil grin when he suggested that I drive.

terry

 

[Diana]

Maybe this is a little off topic,

That's OK. I love to read anything you write Ken.

The wind was right down the runway and I landed and stopped on the numbers. The FBO operator said "well, that was an interesting landing. It looked like you stopped in mid air and just hovered down to the numbers."

Wow, wish that would have been videotaped. How neat.

But it sure shows how life at rural airports is a different world than we urbanites live in.

So very different. It would be a good subject for a book.

Which reminds me, Toby and I still have our dream of flying across the country in our taildraggers stopping at only grass strips.

I was going to do that on the trip back and forth to Alabama, but it didn't work out logistically (winds, forgot about needing food too, etc.).

 

[citationxjl]

[QUOTE
Seriously, at one time our courtesy car had some problems. When it was raining, the wipers would turn off every time you turned on the left blinker. It was okay with the right blinker. Have to say, our vehicle maintenance did fix it, after a couple of months.[/QUOTE]

At Million Air in Downtown St. Paul, they gave my student and I a Jaguar. When it started to rain (just barely), the windshield wipers came on automatically. I was trying to figure out what button I pushed, but then they stopped automatically when the rain was done. Pretty nice!!!

 

[Dustin]

At Million Air in Downtown St. Paul, they gave my student and I a Jaguar. When it started to rain (just barely), the windshield wipers came on automatically. I was trying to figure out what button I pushed, but then they stopped automatically when the rain was done. Pretty nice!!!

Wow! I have always wondered if an automatic windshield wiper could be made. Taht is pretty neat.

Dustin

 

[gkainz]

At Million Air in Downtown St. Paul, they gave my student and I a Jaguar. When it started to rain (just barely), the windshield wipers came on automatically. I was trying to figure out what button I pushed, but then they stopped automatically when the rain was done. Pretty nice!!!

Oops, that's not how that's supposed to work! The infamous Lucas Electric is designed to shut all electrical systems OFF at the hint of moisture, and re-engage all electrical components whenever it feels like it...

 

[Ken Ibold]

Wow! I have always wondered if an automatic windshield wiper could be made. Taht is pretty neat.

They are on a bunch of high end cars now and even some midrange cars.

I also like it when they switch to interval when you're stopped at a light, which my Honda Pilot has.

 

[Earthroamer]

When I am on the road, I like to get cars and just drive. I dont care where but just drive. I took some people to Glendive, MT about a year ago. The airport manager was super nice. They had one hanger and asked if I wanted the little Lear put in there. Sure! So, he drove the Tug around and put the little Learjet inside. Now the Tug is an old old old Jeep truck with a camper shell on the bed. They welded a plate on the front and a little bitty notch sticking up for the tow bar to rest on while they pulled the plane around.

Afterwards he asked if I would like to have the Tug to run into town over night. I expressed my consern that I didnt want to take his only Tug into town and leave him without one. He then reminded me that they only had one hanger and that it would be fine. So I said "thank you" and agreed.

Now being bored, I saw signs for a National Wildlife Park and decided to go check it out. I talked to the Manager and he said that I could go up any of the 4-wheel driving trails. Whooo hoo! So I did. I got to see great things like wild horse's, etc. Eventually I was climbing a steep hill with the Tug and the CB antenna went under a tree and slapped the camper shell. That scared me half to death. So I stopped and got out and looked at the little Jeep Truck. In the back under the shell was a gas tank with a couple of hundred gallons of AV-GAS, with a reel and a hose!

I was 4 wheeling in a bomb! Now I had to turn around and 4-wheel out of there with that knowledge for an hour! Sounds of rocks scraping the truck now had a new meaning.

Brent

 

[Dustin]

They are on a bunch of high end cars now and even some midrange cars.

I also like it when they switch to interval when you're stopped at a light, which my Honda Pilot has.

Cool! That means that in about 10 years or so, I can afford to buy one of those cars. LOL.

Dustin

 

[fgcason]

What interesting airport car stories do you have to share?

Not exactly car story, more like alternate airport transportation if the car was gone.

Instead of HS prom nonsense, I had a much better way to blow that kind of money. A 7 hour solo night XC sounded like a perfect plan to me and I didn't tell anyone what I was up to. Wheels off around 7:30pm. I got to some airport in the middle of absolute nowhere Oklahoma or southern KS at probably 23:00. On the pump was a seriously weathered note saying "$x.xx/gallon do the math yourself (I think it was $1.15/gallon), self serve after hours put the gas $$ in the glass jar and write down the fuel quantity on the notepad after you fill up so we don't run out. Thank ya and have a good flight!" It also said if the courtesy car was gone (keys were hanging right there in plain sight), pilots could use the bicycle around behind the small hangar to pedal the couple miles into town. The ancient car was there and looked reasonably servicable. I just had to go look at the bicycle thinking I could ride it to the ends of the runway then put it away and go home. Well, when I got back there, it was one of those one speed contraptions from probably the early 1950's deep in the weeds and most likely rusted into a single chunk of metal with no moving part. It didn't even have rubber on the tires. I decided a walk would be good for me anyway. My parents still don't know about that flight but it was no end of fun.