How much is reasonable to park a plane

What is reasonable and how much have you paid to park

  • No fee is reasonable

    Votes: 6 9.8%

  • Parking fees/Ramp fees are only reasonable if you stay overnight

    Votes: 24 39.3%

  • Up to $5 is reasonable

    Votes: 10 16.4%

  • Up to $10 is reasonable

    Votes: 17 27.9%

  • Up to $15 is reasonable

    Votes: 5 8.2%

  • Up to $20 is reasonable

    Votes: 6 9.8%

  • I have paid up to $5

    Votes: 5 8.2%

  • I have paid up to $10

    Votes: 7 11.5%

  • I have paid up to $15

    Votes: 1 1.6%

  • I have paid up to $20

    Votes: 4 6.6%

  • I have paid more than $20

    Votes: 13 21.3%
  • Total voters
    61
AdamZ

AdamZ

Touchdown! Greaser!
Joined
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Location
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Adam Zucker
What do you consider a reasonable fee to park your plane at an FBO and what is the most you have ever paid to park a GA aircraft pernight
 
I've never minded 5-10 bucks a day at a small GA place. We have to support them, after all. The last time I was in PHL (and it is likely to be the LAST time), I paid something like 60 bucks for a landing fee for a 172. Sorry, not cutting it for me. The bathrooms WERE fancy, I suppose...:rolleyes:

I don't mind 25 bucks at a bigger FBO, because I have been known to take a crew car to go get some food. I'm cool with that, fair is fair after all. You go play with the big boys ya gotta pay some. But much above 25 is too much of a hit for me.

Jim G
 
Charging people to park airplanes outside drives me nuts. i would pay for a hangar, but have a personal conviction that Tie Downs should be free. this has probably been brought about by too much flying around small airports in the midwest
 
All fees should be waived if you purchase a reasonable amout of fuel.
 
N2212R said:
All fees should be waived if you purchase a reasonable amout of fuel.
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Agreed. And the one airport I've flown to that had fees does exactly that. Sure glad my $100 hamburger airports don't have fees to tie down for a meal.
 
I have only been charged for over night parking at one airport and that was PLK in MO. They charge $10.00 a night for single engine and $20 for small twin. If you fly a TurboProp or Jet its much more. And they will not wave it for a fuel purchase and fuel there is around a $1.00 a gallon higher than other airports in the area. So I pay there parking fee and buy fuel somewhere else.
 
On our ferry flight in the new R44 from TOA to N99, we stopped at 15 airports, overnight at 4 airports (including 1 class B and 1 class C), we didn't pay any fees (unless we get a bill in the mail, which is possible). We got courtesy cars at 2 airports (the other 2 we used hotel shuttles). We did buy 100LL at every airport.
 
I guess it depends on the field. I recgonize that taxes ain't gonna cover it all and these smaller FBO operators are struggling. Here in the Northeast I have seen 10 straight days go buy with crap weather no one is renting planes or flying in or out and thus no one is buying any fuel. My FBO charges a $10 overnight fee but they also have free soda pretzels, snacks, and sometimes hotdogs for folks that fly in as well as a courtesey car. They donate over $100 in prizes to the Wings Fly B Q and generally bend over backwards to be of help. They also have the cheapest fuel in South Eastern PA.

Sometimes I do feel guilty flying into afield not to far away and I don't need any fuel. If I use a crew car I'll throw a few gallons of gas in even if I just take it for a 5 mile ride. I have flown places for work used thier place to change, get a taxi, watch TV and grab a slice of Pizza. So I ain't gonna complain about 5-10 bucks.

I do agree that if you buy a certain amount of fuel you the field should waive their ramp fee.

Now some of the ramp fees in those resorts like ed said ...sheesh.
 
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I will say that I do try to make an effort to support the little places around here as many of them have no landing/parking fees so I will buy a new sectional, stickers, tshirt, fuel, you know those kind of things.
 
Depends on the airport. For big airports with high concession fees, I'm willing to pay more than a small, muni strip in EBFE (which ought to be free).
 
wsuffa said:
Depends on the airport. For big airports with high concession fees, I'm willing to pay more than a small, muni strip in EBFE (which ought to be free).
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Somehow I always felt bad about going to a small mom and pop FBO, sitting around all day, watching only a couple other airplanes come in, buying no fuel and paying no landing fee. Sometimes I'd even offer to pay one. But I can be generous with other people's money. :dunno:

I can see how FBOs need to charge for their services especially if you stay longer than an hour or so. You're there taking up space, drinking their coffee, eating their cookies and using their crew car. A lot of places waive the fee if you buy fuel.

I think a reasonable fee for a small piston airplane if you buy no fuel and stay for a while would be $5 to $10. For a turbine maybe $25 to $50. That said, I've paid as much as $400-$500. :eek:
 
Nothing. No landing fee or ramp fee is acceptable. It costs the FBO absolutely nothing to have me parked in front for a few hours.

I will say, however, that overnight fees are ok, because they could be charging monthly for the spot that I took.
 
AdamZ said:
What do you consider a reasonable fee to park your plane at an FBO and what is the most you have ever paid to park a GA aircraft pernight
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I've pretty much always avoided them by buying fuel. I even got a week in a hangar for the price of a box of donuts. I do however avoid the "Executive" FBOs, although most of the Million Airs when they first started treated me very kindly. I've heard some recent bad reports concerning some of their facilities and that saddens me. The one in Palm Springs was always good to me and had a nice out door hot tub for after skiing at Big Bear. Most of the time I took fuel, some times I didn't. "Need fuel?" "Nah, pretty full today, just gonna defrost in the hot tub for a bit." "Ok."
 
SkyHog said:
Nothing. No landing fee or ramp fee is acceptable. It costs the FBO absolutely nothing to have me parked in front for a few hours.
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Not exactly Nick... When I inquired as to why we had ramp fees at MWC when I worked there ($5 or 5 gallons), the FBO owner told me two reasons:

1) Too many pilots would take the free courtesy car and keep it for hours, go on long rides in it, never buy fuel, run up long-distance charges on the courtesy phone, blah blah blah... And never buy a thing. :mad:

2) We had to have a liability insurance policy to cover transient planes parked on the ramp. The premium was $21,000 per MONTH. :hairraise: Though I suppose that'd be cheap if some freak accident wrecked a couple of jets.

So, that second one... Yes, you do cost 'em money just by being there.
 
It depends.

For example, say I want to go to Milwaukee. I have a few choices:

1) MKE, Mitchell International. Only GA parking is on $ignature's ramp. For the privilege of being treated like a second (or third) class citizen and generally ignored except when it comes time for you to pay, you get to part with $46 for a piston single. And that's for four hours or less. This is the one airport in the world that I simply will not go to. :mad: :(

2) MWC, Timmerman. Lineman will park you, handle any needs you may have, front desk staff is friendly, and everyone is attentive. $5 ramp fee, $10 overnight IIRC, waived with fuel. Well worth it in comparison to the above.

3) UES, Waukesha. Pretty much exactly the same as MWC.

4) RAC, Batten Field in Racine. Very friendly folks, staffed 24/7, brand new Honda Odyssey courtesy van, no fees at all but you have to drive a bit to get downtown. No fees. I'll fill up the van just because.

I've had it with MKE and their no-service-for-a-fortune business model. I'll still go to any of the other three, and I generally choose between them based on where exactly I need to go.

Bottom line: If I get what I pay for, I'm happy. If I'm going to be completely ignored, a dollar is too much.
 
flyingcheesehead said:
1) MKE, Mitchell International. Only GA parking is on $ignature's ramp. For the privilege of being treated like a second (or third) class citizen and generally ignored except when it comes time for you to pay, you get to part with $46 for a piston single. And that's for four hours or less. This is the one airport in the world that I simply will not go to. :mad: :(

I've had it with MKE and their no-service-for-a-fortune business model. I'll still go to any of the other three, and I generally choose between them based on where exactly I need to go.

Bottom line: If I get what I pay for, I'm happy. If I'm going to be completely ignored, a dollar is too much.
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I believe then that their policy has had the desired effect. They don't want your business, they don't want you in the pattern, they don't wan't you on their ramp. You are a liability to them. I don't really blame them either. Jet traffic and spam can traffic mixed at an airport is a headache. Not only in the pattern but on the ramp as well. Consider the potential damage done when a a jet fires up, advances the throttles to get her rolling and turns the jet blast at a J-3. The ramp holder owns some liability in this so the J-3 becomes a PITA, and if insist on being a pain in theirs, you get to pay for it. Pattern issues are obvious. Since most all of these airports are federally funded public use airports, they can't say "get the f*** out of here", so they make you as unwelcome as possible to encourage you to just fly on by. Now if this was the only airport in the region, I would have a problem with that, but since you say that there are 3 other airports available to you with good to excellent GA service, I withold my taking issue with this. When I lived in SF, it would have been very convienient to keep my plane at SFO, very. But they priced me out, so I kept my plane at Hayward most of the time. A bit less convienient, but still accessable by public transit. Hayward is a very GA friendly airport with a lot of good GA type FBOs and shops.

So you can choose which perspective to view from, being encouraged to take your business to a nice GA friendly field, or the rich snobs keeping the crack heads out of the neighborhood. Having run ramps, I know what a PITA mixing jet and small recip traffic can be. I chose the former perspective.

BTW, I have found that when I accidentally land at a high dollar field on a crosscountry trip, I can with a smile typically negotiate a much lower, reasonable rate for what I need. I've even RONd the Ag Cat at STL for free because they thought it was cool.
 
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I pay $10/night or $150 a month at Borth Eleuthera. Fuel is $1 more than here at Zephyrhills but I am happy to pay it. My forst 20 years or so there we had no FBO or fuel. Elsewhere I'm OK with $20 or so. I do get upset when the rate for a twin is more than the single rate. They do this at EYW. My Twin Comanche occupies identical space to a single. A PC-12 or Caravan uses a lot more space at the single rate.
 
AdamZ said:
My FBO charges a $10 overnight fee but they also have free soda pretzels, snacks, and sometimes hotdogs for folks that fly in as well as a courtesey car.
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Oooo... They have a Courtesey car. I Knew I liked Wings after they treated me so well at the Fly-b-q. So Adam.... how close is a mall with Khols and a Real JC Penny to Wings???? I think I figured out how I'm going to go shopping from now on! Too bad the planes are always filled after each flight, cause It'll only be 1/2 tanks of fuel that I would be buying from them.

Missa
 
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Thats right Missa they gave your battery a shot free of charge. As for your question Khols is exactly 2 miles from KLOM and The mall with a Boscovs and Strawbridges is 1/2 mile away and The Court and Plaza at King of Prussia ( The largest mall east of the Misssissippi and bigger than mall of America)l with the Nortstroms, Sacks, Neiman Marcus ( I call it needless markup) Bloomingdales and too much other crap for me to remember BECAUSE I HATE MALLS :no: is about 8 perhpas 10 miles away.

BLECH MALLS
 
AdamZ said:
Thats right Missa they gave your battery a shot free of charge. As for your question Khols is exactly 2 miles from KLOM and The mall with a Boscovs and Strawbridges is 1/2 mile away and The Court and Plaza at King of Prussia ( The largest mall east of the Misssissippi and bigger than mall of America)l with the Nortstroms, Sacks, Neiman Marcus ( I call it needless markup) Bloomingdales and too much other crap for me to remember BECAUSE I HATE MALLS :no: is about 8 perhpas 10 miles away.

BLECH MALLS
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Ok, keep rubbing it in!

On all the stores you listed (that I reconized except Khols) I really don't like because they are way to stuffy and expensive... Give me a JC Pennys, Khols and Sears and I'm good. But the Pennys here is a mini Pennys. The selection sucks and they are missing lines that I like alot and the one they have are scalled down. What is/are Boscovs and Strawbridges? I don't know what they are.

Malls have their time and place... but Chrismas is not their time!

Missa
 
Everskyward said:
Somehow I always felt bad about going to a small mom and pop FBO, sitting around all day, watching only a couple other airplanes come in, buying no fuel and paying no landing fee. Sometimes I'd even offer to pay one. But I can be generous with other people's money. :dunno:

I can see how FBOs need to charge for their services especially if you stay longer than an hour or so. You're there taking up space, drinking their coffee, eating their cookies and using their crew car. A lot of places waive the fee if you buy fuel.

I think a reasonable fee for a small piston airplane if you buy no fuel and stay for a while would be $5 to $10. For a turbine maybe $25 to $50. That said, I've paid as much as $400-$500. :eek:
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We have quite a lot of airports in Texas that are unattended or essentially unattended (e.g. you got the ramp, you got the self-service fuel, maybe you got a shack or building - and a payphone if you're lucky). I see no real reason to pay much of a parking fee there, although I do buy fuel whenever I can.

For the situation you describe, I agree: no problem with a small fee or paying for fuel.
 
PHP: 
1) Too many pilots would take the free courtesy car and keep it for hours, go on long rides in it, never buy fuel, run up long-distance charges on the courtesy phone, blah blah blah... And never buy a thing. :mad:
On Tuesday when we flew into Juneau, Wisconsin, the FBO let us use their crew car. She politely asked if we could put in some gas or leave a few bucks for the privilege.
It was a simple request. The restaurant was 15 miles (round trip) and we put in three gallons.
Reading the posts, I think that the great majority of GA pilots are willing to do the same. But I suppose that there may be a few bad apples who stiff these friendly FBOs.
But when I hear "too many" pilots are misbehaving, I wonder if one or two are too many. I think that this owner is over-reacting
Kind of like some entities are over-reacting to a fear of GA (Mayor Richard Daley).:hairraise:
Great airports or FBOs with crew cars: Juneau, Wisconsin: Rapid Air (KGRR); York, Nebraska; Rock Falls, Illinois; Galesburg, Illinois: Weatherford, Oklahoma; Ludington, Michigan, Tulip City, Michigan (****); Milwaukee-Timmerman, Wisconsin (****), Phoenix-Williams Gateway, Arizona: Belleville, Illinois; Denver-Centennial, Colorado and Ankany, Iowa. Thanks to you, FBOs!
The Apache's annual is complete. Time to fly!
ApacheBob
 
A nice smile, and a cute FBO desk gal go a long way to not paying a parking fee.
 
zephyr said:
I pay $10/night or $150 a month at Borth Eleuthera. Fuel is $1 more than here at Zephyrhills but I am happy to pay it. My forst 20 years or so there we had no FBO or fuel. Elsewhere I'm OK with $20 or so. I do get upset when the rate for a twin is more than the single rate. They do this at EYW. My Twin Comanche occupies identical space to a single. A PC-12 or Caravan uses a lot more space at the single rate.
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Do you keep your plane there full time? If so, I would think $150.00 a month for an outside tie down is high, but again location, location, location. I only pay $135 a month for an enclosed hangar, the most expensive hangar here is $150.00 a month and there are 4 of them.
 
Missa said:
Ok, keep rubbing it in!

On all the stores you listed (that I reconized except Khols) I really don't like because they are way to stuffy and expensive... Give me a JC Pennys, Khols and Sears and I'm good. But the Pennys here is a mini Pennys. The selection sucks and they are missing lines that I like alot and the one they have are scalled down. What is/are Boscovs and Strawbridges? I don't know what they are.

Malls have their time and place... but Chrismas is not their time!

Missa
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Boscovs is basically like a Pennys Strawbridges is a step up.
 
Henning said:
Jet traffic and spam can traffic mixed at an airport is a headache. Not only in the pattern but on the ramp as well. Consider the potential damage done when a a jet fires up, advances the throttles to get her rolling and turns the jet blast at a J-3. The ramp holder owns some liability in this so the J-3 becomes a PITA, and if insist on being a pain in theirs, you get to pay for it. Pattern issues are obvious. Since most all of these airports are federally funded public use airports, they can't say "get the f*** out of here", so they make you as unwelcome as possible to encourage you to just fly on by.
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I would agree, but for one thing: None of the fees go to the airport. Not directly anyway - There's no landing fee, it's just $ignature's "ramp fee" and "handling fee." Unfortunately, there's nowhere else on the field to park.

Of course, the controllers at MKE aren't real nice about flight following (they do NOT take handoffs, ever, and they always say "remain clear of Charlie") but when I call in as landing, I usually get a straight-in for 7L which minimizes both flight and taxi time. So it would seem they aren't averse to handling the traffic. Again, it's just $ignature.
 
ApacheBob said:
But when I hear "too many" pilots are misbehaving, I wonder if one or two are too many. I think that this owner is over-reacting
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Bob,

Nope... I got to see it plenty myself. However, usually the GA pilots are flight enthusiasts and would act in a reasonable manner. It seemed that it was more 135 and/or corporate pilots who abused the free services.

Ironically, the same field was in your list:

Great airports or FBOs with crew cars: ... Milwaukee-Timmerman, Wisconsin
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I did just land there the other night, used the crew car, and wasn't charged anything but I think that mighta been Jim's doing. Dunno who the hottie behind the desk was, she's new.
 
flyingcheesehead said:
I would agree, but for one thing: None of the fees go to the airport. Not directly anyway - There's no landing fee, it's just $ignature's "ramp fee" and "handling fee." Unfortunately, there's nowhere else on the field to park.

Of course, the controllers at MKE aren't real nice about flight following (they do NOT take handoffs, ever, and they always say "remain clear of Charlie") but when I call in as landing, I usually get a straight-in for 7L which minimizes both flight and taxi time. So it would seem they aren't averse to handling the traffic. Again, it's just $ignature.
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Exactly, since $ignature is the only player on the field, they have to deal with everything. They don't want to. You can still fly in land pick up/ drop off somewhere there for free though correct? Typically there's always a small public ramp near the tower for a stop-n-drop.
 
Palm Springs FBOs have an annoying ramp fee. IIRC it was $20. If you purchased something like $20 gallons of gas at an agregious price, the ramp fee was waived, but if you were just flying in to drop someone off and quickly depart, it was very annoying. You had to shut down the engine(s), get out and either pay the fee or wait for fuel.

AT MCO the fee was high, but it saved having to rent a car to get where I was going to be. It's all tradeoffs. The busy places are just going to cost more and be more congested. Usually, you can go somewhere else to save some money, but the location and convienence may make it worth the extra cost.

Dave
 
Henning said:
Exactly, since $ignature is the only player on the field, they have to deal with everything. They don't want to. You can still fly in land pick up/ drop off somewhere there for free though correct? Typically there's always a small public ramp near the tower for a stop-n-drop.
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No public ramp. Tower is in the middle of the airline terminal portion of things. Stop'n'drop is still $46. :mad:

I guess what gets me is the contrast between MKE and MSN. MKE has wannabe-ORD controllers and an exhorbitant-ramp-fee-charging FBO. The closest class C, MSN, has friendly controllers and everything is FREE. No landing fee, no ramp fee, no "handling" fee. Very nice terminal, cookies and coffee are free too. And so are the three courtesy cars. And the linemen will park you right next to the jets, and tow your plane out of the way if the jets are going to depart first. And they'll bring your plane back front and center when you're ready to leave. And the desk staff is friendly and attentive. And... And... And...

Wisconsin Aviation (MSN FBO) is what happens when people care. They handle ALL of their customers with care and appreciation, from 152's to Gulfstreams to A-10's and F/A-18's to Boeings. I once flew a really ratty 172 in there and was parked between two jets and given the red carpet. OK, the carpet was blue, but still... I wish more C and B FBO's would behave this way, rather than how $ignature MKE does.
 
I think the only time I've paid anything was at Tamiami (Miami) and it
was like $12 per nite or something like that. And they waived 1 nite
since I bought gas.

Among the nicest I think was Jackson, TN (at the suggestion of CarolT).
Didn't charge me anything, put my plane in their hangar on their own
when storms were coming, one of the kids that worked there gave me
a ride into town to a motel, picked me up the next day on his way to
work and refused a tip. And FSS was was right on the airport within
walking distance.

RT
 
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