Favorite On-Field Restaurant?

OneTankFlightsKevin

OneTankFlightsKevin

Filing Flight Plan
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May 17, 2010
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OneTankFlights.com
What's your favorite on-field restaurant and what do you recommend?
 
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Airport Diner, Gillespie County Airport, Fredericksburg, Texas (T82)

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OneTankFlightsKevin said:
What's your favorite on-field restaurant and what do you recommend? Please enter them at www.onetankflights.com
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I was gonna - And then it tried to upsell me to a "pro" subscription.

If you're gonna ask me for money, don't ask me to create content for you too. :nono: I wouldn't mind ads on the site, but paying more than my AOPA membership for an incomplete site that wants me to add content? Nope, sorry, ain't gonna do it.

The problem with ALL of these sites is that they seem to depend solely on pilots' input, and there are so many of them that it's nearly impossible for the information to be even close to complete. I've discovered most of the good $100 burger places around Wisconsin and northern Illinois via word-of-mouth and chance - But there's lots of people here. When I tried finding someplace to go in Iowa, there was hardly anything listed anywhere. I ended up calling someone who used to be a CFI in Iowa years ago to ask her where she'd go, and luckily the place was still there - Thanks, Laurie! :yes:

So - To make it worthwhile, you'd have to either scrape data from all the other sites, or call all the airport managers/FBO's, or...

But, to ask me for money when I'm about to provide you content just reminds me way too much of the HDHB fiasco. Nope, sorry, ain't gonna play!

Now, offer me a credit of, say, $5 per entry, and I'll happily enter in all the places I know of, which includes some seriously out-of-the-way stuff in quite a few different states.
 
SCCutler said:
Airport Diner, Gillespie County Airport, Fredericksburg, Texas (T82)

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I second AND third that. That's where I take all of the discovery flights that I can convince to fly for an hour total and stop for lunch to discuss training. It's pretty impressive, and fun, too. I want them to stay in business badly!

Ryan
 
Pretty raw deal, asking me for intel and to pony up. Kent's right, you should give some freebies to pilots who have good tips. You catch more flies with honey than vinegar.
 
What's HDHB?

Oh! Hundred Dollar Hamburger.

Kent: Agreed.
 
SCCutler said:
Airport Diner, Gillespie County Airport, Fredericksburg, Texas (T82)

2242266760_1ea34b7114.jpg
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I want to try that place. We drove out there when we were in SAT visiting my sister. The restaurant was closed, but the inside looked REALLY cool! We'll have to hit it up when we visit my in-laws in Bandera later this spring.
 
I went to the sight and logged in, entered info and was done. Wasn't asked for anything else, wasn't asked to upgrade or anything. Now I'm confused. :dunno:
 
I'm confused as well. We offer a free site for just this reason. You can search for destinations without paying anything. And when you enter one it never asks you to upgrade to PRO. If you were directed somewhere else, I'd like to know so we can fix it.
 
OneTankFlightsKevin said:
I'm confused as well. We offer a free site for just this reason. You can search for destinations without paying anything. And when you enter one it never asks you to upgrade to PRO. If you were directed somewhere else, I'd like to know so we can fix it.
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I went to the main site - I thought I might have signed up before so I tried logging in and it failed. So, I went back and clicked the button to register, and got the upsell page.

The other "problem" is that the non-Pro functionality seems to be severely limited. 100nm from the home field? That's not very far.

BTW, you need to come up with a way of marking things for deletion. I found at least three things listed that are all closed (Lake Lawn Resort, Scott's Bakery at C29, and the Telemark Resort at 3CU). Scott's had a comment about it being closed, I added comments to the other two - But they'll still show up in searches.

Also, the UI was a bit... Weird. When I'm looking at an entry, there's no way to navigate to anything else without continuing to open a ton of new tabs. Plus, BTW, I'd really prefer that you don't open new tabs for me - If I want to open a new tab when I click a link, I'll hold the appropriate key. Also, no search functionality? I went looking to see if a couple of my favorite spots were listed, and I had to click on a pin on the map, then click on a couple of "nearby" airports in the right general direction in sequence to get to the correct airport.

I really hope this helps you improve the site - It appears that you have a good level of content. I'm still a bit put off by the $49/year thing, though, even if you can access certain things without it. IMHO, one of two things should be the case: 1, you want to make this into a business - In that case, charge everyone but expect to have to add the content yourself, or 2, you want this to be a hobby and help out your fellow pilots, in which case I would much rather everyone gets the full functionality of the site for free and you support it with ads (Google or otherwise). The current in-between thing feels way too much like you're trying to make money off of content provided by others.
 
I appreciate the feedback. At the moment, only when you click the free trial will you get the "upsell" screen that advertises PRO...you can always go directly to the free site www.onetankflights.com and use it for free.

We have been working on this service for over 2 years in total, some as a hobby (the free site) and then we realized that there might be an audience for a more robust site, as suggested by our users. As with anything, it costs money to develop the code, pay for servers to host the content, etc etc etc. There are a lot of fixed costs, and we can't do that forever. So the choices are as you suggested....we either charge for the service and maintain it as "ad-free" (our preference) or we subject everyone to a site with annoying ads all over it. Personally I can't stand the Google ad sense ads. I think it detracts from the usefulness of any site. Without ads, we are free to show more content on the screen.

As far as content, we don't see ourselves as a content provider....its a much larger goal than that. We see our role as connecting pilots in a new way. We want to encourage connections in an organized way so we can all benefit. There's a lot of information out there, but there is no organized way to get it. Searching multiple sites and scrolling through comment after comment, not even knowing if its in your area seems to be a non-productive use of time to me. It was our own frustration that caused us to create the site as we attempted to find new places to go.

I don't want to justify our business model to you. I just want you to understand that not everything is free. And if we can provide enough add-value, we think pilots will appreciate it and reward us with their business.

Thanks for the comments and we will look into a way to allow users to "flag" destinations as CLOSED...for now, that's another of my jobs :wink2:

Take care!
 
flyingcheesehead said:
...
Also, the UI was a bit... Weird. When I'm looking at an entry, there's no way to navigate to anything else without continuing to open a ton of new tabs. Plus, BTW, I'd really prefer that you don't open new tabs for me - If I want to open a new tab when I click a link, I'll hold the appropriate key. Also, no search functionality? I went looking to see if a couple of my favorite spots were listed, and I had to click on a pin on the map, then click on a couple of "nearby" airports in the right general direction in sequence to get to the correct airport. ...
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I agree that the UI is odd. I've not felt particularly successful in navigating things once I get the desired set of listings up. I can't begin to describe how awkward it is - I haven't logged in in months (and don't feel inclined to now, the user experience is just too vexing), so my memory is more than fuzzy.

I much prefer the way Adventure Pilot handles things. It may not be perfect, but it's not in any way confusing (to me).

I had high hopes for One Tank Flights, but I've found it too cumbersome to actually use. And, I don't trust the listings - knowing that some things are closed and sensing that many of the listings (at least when I was first checking it out) were somehow "automated" (i.e., not verified by humans who were actually familiar with the establishments listed).
 
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The Perfect Landing, KAPA, Centennial, Colorado.
 
OneTankFlightsKevin said:
We have been working on this service for over 2 years in total, some as a hobby (the free site) and then we realized that there might be an audience for a more robust site, as suggested by our users. As with anything, it costs money to develop the code, pay for servers to host the content, etc etc etc. There are a lot of fixed costs, and we can't do that forever. So the choices are as you suggested....we either charge for the service and maintain it as "ad-free" (our preference) or we subject everyone to a site with annoying ads all over it. Personally I can't stand the Google ad sense ads. I think it detracts from the usefulness of any site. Without ads, we are free to show more content on the screen.
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I understand that - But I would rather see ads than pay $49/year, at least in this case. How about allowing an option for Pro users to either see ads or pay based on the user's preference instead of yours? You can make everyone happy that way.

Also, the content appears to be excellent, but the UI is a big stumbling block. Sites such as yours and mytransponder.com would do MUCH better with an overhaul of the UI to make them more usable.
 
JoeSelch said:
I agree that the UI is odd. I've not felt particularly successful in navigating things once I get the desired set of listings up. I can't begin to describe how awkward it is - I haven't logged in in months (and don't feel inclined to now, the user experience is just too vexing), so my memory is more than fuzzy.

I much prefer the way Adventure Pilot handles things. It may not be perfect, but it's not in any way confusing (to me).

I had high hopes for One Tank Flights, but I've found it too cumbersome to actually use. And, I don't trust the listings - knowing that some things are closed and sensing that many of the listings (at least when I was first checking it out) were somehow "automated" (i.e., not verified by humans who were actually familiar with the establishments listed).
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+1 ... Don't mean to pile on too much, but Joe hit my feeling exactly, I had high hopes but the UI is just unusable. After trying, I went back to AOPA and AirNav.
 
We're always open to suggestions....can you relate what is frustrating?
 
Personally I think onetank is a great concept. Not sure if I will go to pro yet. The OneTanke concept is pretty good. It takes the flyin listing calander one step further and allows for folks to register or sign up for the flyin so you know who is going that you might know from the aviation community. Kevin I'll PM you about the UI issue.
 
I don't get it. We, the pilot community, are the guys with knowledge (albeit in a distributed form) which we have to enter on a web site, which we then have to pay a subscription to, to be able to access the knowledge that has been submitted? Why can't this be done on this or another forum?
 
OneTankFlightsKevin said:
We're always open to suggestions....can you relate what is frustrating?
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#1: No specific search function. So, there's no way to say "I'm going to PWK today, what's there?" without playing around with the map and clicking nearby airports until you find it... or not.

2: Opens a new tab whenever you click on anything.

3: Navigation buttons only appear on the first tab - You're constantly opening and closing tabs to look at anything.

4: Have to enter things by address. Would much rather just say which airport they're at (or near).

5: Did I mention no search function? I would *REALLY* like to be able to specify an airport to search at/near. It would also be nice to find everything between two ranges - Say, enter a starting field, and get everything that's between 200 and 250nm. It'd also be nice to be able to find food along a route. I know you're "one tank" flights, but when I make a multi-tank flight, it'd be nice to be able to find airports with food on-field or nearby to use as fuel stops.

BTW, you have two entries at MSN for the same thing: "Pat O'Malley's" and "The Jet Room." It appears they show different locations, but it's the same restaurant (Pat O'Malley's Jet Room). It's at MSN on the east ramp in the GA terminal (Wisconsin Aviation FBO) at 3606 Corben Ct.
 
OneTankFlightsKevin said:
We're always open to suggestions....can you relate what is frustrating?
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1) I personally don't care for logging on and then being on the same screen. You have an intro/welcome screen. Once I log on, why don't you take me to the first value added screen?
2) I simply don't understand the search function at the top. If I enter CAK (Canton Akron), the search results in more than 27 tabs of items - 10 per tab. It also seems random. On the first page, there are items including activities in Florida, Indiana, Maine, Wisconsin and Minnesota. I ENTERED AN AIRPORT IN CENTRAL OH!
3) If I go to THE fly LINK and enter CAK, it takes me to central Oh and just shows a bunch of airports. I already entered the airport, why don't you simply show the activities around the airport.
4) If I click through the airport (CAK in this example) it leads to yet another screen that doesn't tell me anything about what is in the area ... just a bunch of click through bubbles. And the screen is tiny so every time I roll over a bubble, the screen jumps.
5) What the heck, at this point I know I'm not going to use OneTank, but I want to see what happens next. I zoom in twice, have to scroll all over to find CAK again (because the screen jumped everywhere previously) and then scroll over a bubble to see what it is. Everything is shown ... no way to filter to just restaurants.
6) I find the 356th Fighter Group restaurant bubble and click on it. Now, OneTank zooms me all the way back out (on a tiny map), shows all the other items in the state and doesn't tell me anything about 356th - no web link (www.356fg.com by the way), no address, no reviews, nothing other than the title 356th Fighter Group at the top. I've been there many time - great ambiance and mediocre food at reasonable prices, no easy way to get there from the FBO and EXPENSIVE taxi if you can't get a crew car or ride by the way.

I don't want to beat on someone who has clearly put their own time into a project to help the community, but I just find minimal value in what you've created. Best of luck with the project. If I could find a way to get any value out of the site, I'd gladly contribute content, but I just don't see the value with the site and won't spend my time trying to find and then contribute.
 
First I'd like to thank all of you for your constructive ideas. We do listen and make changes all the time when we hear things that are confusing. We are continually working on improvements and enhancements to make it better, and I have to say we've come a long way from the free version to the Pro version...especially for a couple of unemployed guys working out of their basement :wink2:.

For iflyforfun, there are definite limitations to the free product, but what seems to be the issue is the difference between what we call Discover and what we call Fly....the discover page was meant as the first step in the search process. You can look for things around your airport, but you can also change the airport on that page to see things near other airports. Once the map populates, zoom in to get a better look and then mouse over the bubbles. This map is not nearly as robust as the new version, but it works. The Fly page was intended as an airport directory, and we should have named it that from the beginning. Its meant to help you find an airport near a city....then all airports nearby populate. Then if you click an airport, you can see what's around it. Like I said, its not terribly robust, but its free. With regard to the search, its a global search, so if you type in CAK, you would see anything with that string, like CAKE for example....its not intended to be a regional search. Its just a simple search. But at the same time, if you type "fishing" it will search all comments too so you can see if someone suggested a new fishing hole near an airport too. It has its drawbacks, but there are benefits.

For flyingcheesehead, we will be introducing a search function in Pro, but we couldn't get it into the first release. In the meantime, for your question, if you're going to PWK, go to the Discover page, change the airport to PWK, and all the categories change to that location. Select any you like and they populate the map. We will be adding a category for "airports" btw, so you can then click the airport, go to the detail page, and then you will see the "nearby" destinations as well as "nearby" airports listed below that airport page. Hold tight...its coming. Everything else was valuable feedback and we've already made some of the changes..the Jet Room is gone...thanks. PS....I appreciate you continuing to make comments in the application itself too...I think the more you use it, the easier it will get too.

We want to make this something great, so keep the feedback coming. We appreciate the help.
 
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I can barely afford a $100 hamburger, let alone a $149 hamburger. Sorry!
 
If you fly at least once per month its only a $104.08 hamburger. :wink2:
 
Holy smokes!!!
Was looking for a new $100 omelet flight for tomorrow... checked my usual sources, and (amazingly) no new airport restaurants had popped up.

So, thought I'd see if OneTankFlights had anything useful to offer... And, I'll NEVER know. The "service" is now $24.99 for Premium access and $14.99 for Lite access... PER MONTH.
Umm... no. Hell no!
And now I regret having ever spent any time using the earlier versions of the site - providing feedback and maybe some info for their database.
 
SCCutler said:
Airport Diner, Gillespie County Airport, Fredericksburg, Texas (T82)

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If that's the place that is connected to the Hangar Hotel, be warned: It is only open 3 out of 7 days per week.

We made the mistake of flying into Fredericksburg (from Iowa, back when we lived in Iowa City) on a Sunday afternoon, only to discover that the restaurant was closed -- and it remained closed for the duration of our stay. I was NOT happy.

The Hangar Hotel is at the airport, which is far from the city and other places to eat. Thankfully, we got the last rental car as the FBO was closing, or my family would have been eating vending machine candy for dinner that night and breakfast the next morning.
 
RyanShort1 said:
I second AND third that. That's where I take all of the discovery flights that I can convince to fly for an hour total and stop for lunch to discuss training. It's pretty impressive, and fun, too. I want them to stay in business badly!

Ryan
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Thanks for the info, Spike and Ryan. Hard8 is good... But I'm always
looking for new and variety.
 
Enrique’s at Ponca City Municipal in Ponca City Oklahoma is pretty good. :D

Also there is a restaurant locate at the terminal of Santa Barbara Airport at Santa Barbar, CA
 
Jay Honeck said:
If that's the place that is connected to the Hangar Hotel, be warned: It is only open 3 out of 7 days per week.

We made the mistake of flying into Fredericksburg (from Iowa, back when we lived in Iowa City) on a Sunday afternoon, only to discover that the restaurant was closed -- and it remained closed for the duration of our stay. I was NOT happy.

The Hangar Hotel is at the airport, which is far from the city and other places to eat. Thankfully, we got the last rental car as the FBO was closing, or my family would have been eating vending machine candy for dinner that night and breakfast the next morning.
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For future ref, there is a cab in town, very inexpensive. If determined at the field, Hilda's is not too far away, with excellent tamales and other Tex-Mex fare.
 
I have been to Hildas and they are good. I really do miss the San Antonio area.
 
JoeSelch said:
Holy smokes!!!
Was looking for a new $100 omelet flight for tomorrow... checked my usual sources, and (amazingly) no new airport restaurants had popped up.

So, thought I'd see if OneTankFlights had anything useful to offer... And, I'll NEVER know. The "service" is now $24.99 for Premium access and $14.99 for Lite access... PER MONTH.
Umm... no. Hell no!
And now I regret having ever spent any time using the earlier versions of the site - providing feedback and maybe some info for their database.
Click to expand...

Interesting that on Jan 6th, Kevin tells everyone it is free. And just a few days later, it's not.
 
rsleeds said:
Interesting that on Jan 6th, Kevin tells everyone it is free. And just a few days later, it's not.
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Huh?
I didn't get that memo.
Or, are you referring to the post that Kevin made on Jan 6, 2011?
 
AggieMike88 said:
Thanks for the info, Spike and Ryan. Hard8 is good... But I'm always
looking for new and variety.
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Which Hard8 location is the best. I'm in and out of DAL about twice a year. I saw there is a location next to DFW or is it better to fly the extra 30 mins to Stephenville?
 
Jay, the diner dies have weird hours, unfortunately they match most of the town (Fredericksburg, TX). If you want something other than McDonald's on Monday you might go hungry.

Here are the current hours.

AIRPORT DINER HOURS
Wednesday through Friday - 11:00 AM till 2:00 PM
Saturday - 8:00 AM till 4:00 PM.
Sunday - 8:00 AM till 2:00 PM.
(Closed Monday and Tuesday)
 
Pik n pig. Awesome bbq and a driving range on the airport.
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View from the restaurant porch
 
Everskyward said:
Hey, I've been there!

2011-10-22%252520at%25252012-46-39.jpg
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I was looking for a photo of the sign, and Google came up with nothing. I forgot that you took lots of pictures when we ate there. Fun sign, they have an even bigger one out on the main road leading in to the airport. On Saturday / Sunday mornings, a bunch of elderly men - who I can't imagine are able to fly anymore - meet for breakfast and tell aviation stories. I've seen / heard them many times. The diner is a neat place.
 
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