Is there still such thing as airport rug-rats?

Kritchlow

Kritchlow

Final Approach
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Kritchlow
At my small airport where I first learned to fly, there was always a couch full of pilots that sat around and talked aviation.
Students through CFI. After the day we often went for a beer at the local pub.
It was basically a daily hang out.
Does this still exist?

@midlifeflyer knows the airport, as we have actually met and he trained with my buddy (although he may not remember me), but it was a hometown airport and those memories were a lot of fun.

Does this type of thing still exist? Where you sit on the the FBO couch and just shoot the breeze??
 
It seems rare around here. Definitely was a thing when I first started training in the early 90s.

I think it’s a mix of online forums being pretty good for keeping up on things, and also the tight schedules that most folks who are affording to go fly have these days.

People seem to meet right on time or thereabouts and head out to airplanes or to a pre-briefing or ground school office or desk, and then have places to be after the post flight debrief.

Sitting around all day on a Saturday, even at schools and clubs with multiple couches and a good place to even sit, (which not all seem to have these days, or they’re trying to look like a mountain lodge with fireplace and adventure decor for the jet set passengers at the fancier FBOs), thumbing through ragged copies of Trade-A-Plane and shooting the **** over endless pots of cheap coffee, just isn’t happening much anymore.

Some of it is a tech thing of a different sort, too. People have their online “friends” in their age groups or whatever, and they’ll snap a photo after a nice flight and share it with that group and walk right past anybody sitting on a couch in a club or FBO lobby.

Now unlike some hobbies they’ll still enjoy meeting another aviator or three of any age group and happily interact with them, but you have to almost forcibly say something loud enough to get their head up out of their phone long enough to have that meeting actually take place. Or photobomb their selfie. Ha.

Then they ask if you want to be friends on X Y or Z social media platforms instead of exchanging business cards. Easier for them that way to find you, I guess. You still carry a few cards for old timers but most younger folks will ask you to send them your contact info on the spot if you’re in their chosen platform of iOS or Android, or link to them on a social media site.

Once they’ve met ya, they’ll stop at the couch if they see ya, and anyone is sitting there, but otherwise it’s “gotta hurry to the next appointment on my screen”.

They definitely don’t want your email address like us older fuddies always give to each other to stay in touch. They’ll PM via a platform or text message.
 
Kritchlow said:
@midlifeflyer knows the airport, as we have actually met and he trained with my buddy (although he may not remember me), but it was a hometown airport and those memories were a lot of fun
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Really? No, I don't remember. You gotta remind me!

But yes, it exists in various forms. Some formal such as seminars where people hang out and socialize too. Plenty of groups have cookouts and breakfasts on a regular basis. At both my former and current home bases, folks will be found sitting around and just chatting about flying,
 
midlifeflyer said:
Really? No, I don't remember. You gotta remind me!

But yes, it exists in various forms. Some formal such as seminars where people hang out and socialize too. Plenty of groups have cookouts and breakfasts on a regular basis. At both my former and current home bases, folks will be found sitting around and just chatting about flying,
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Ryanb said:
Yep, there’s plenty of them around my drome. Mostly old men who sit around and drink coffee.
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I want to come fly where you guys do, instead of “I’m gonna be an airline pilot while they’re all hiring” land around here, when I get back to flying. Hehe. Lordy everyone’s time building and jamming through ratings at my ‘drome these days.

I guess it’s good we have lots of young folk, but I don’t think they’re really into the hang around and shoot the breeze thing much, as noted above.

Keeps everyone busy and the pattern (over-)full, but not very social.

FTG is better for that than APA, of course.
 
It still happens in some places but with far less frequency than it used to. Most likely a generational thing with young people these days seeing less value in hanging out with the older experienced guys as they think they can learn everything online. :confused:
 
We've got that at my primary airport. You can usually find a few guys sitting around chatting, especially on the weekends. I will say it's almost always the same group of guys (with occasional others), and the average age has to be 70+.

Some of it also is affected by how the airport/FBO/etc is laid out. This one is perfect for that - FBO with a large seating area that is right next to the parking ramp and the runway, with floor-to-ceiling windows to watch the airplanes. Another airport I'm at a lot, the "pilot lounge" that's adjacent to the majority of the GA hangars has minimal windows and is behind a row of hangars anyway - literally can't see any aircraft operations from there - and nobody really hangs out there.
 
We get together and open up the hangar, pull some chairs drink am coffee and solve the worlds problems on the weekends. Kids run around and play ball or play on scooters

At night get together again depending on the day. Open up hangar. Maybe a couple of drinks again solve world peace.
 
Kritchlow said:
At my small airport where I first learned to fly, there was always a couch full of pilots that sat around and talked aviation.
Students through CFI. After the day we often went for a beer at the local pub.
It was basically a daily hang out.
Does this still exist?

@midlifeflyer knows the airport, as we have actually met and he trained with my buddy (although he may not remember me), but it was a hometown airport and those memories were a lot of fun.

Does this type of thing still exist? Where you sit on the the FBO couch and just shoot the breeze??
Click to expand...

Time for one of them @SixPapaCharlie one day at the hangar episodes.:)I know of a couple places where there’s often a few folk sittin around shootin the sheet at the FBO. And a couple where there are hangouts at hangars. Ones with refrigerators.
 
Kritchlow said:
Does this type of thing still exist? Where you sit on the the FBO couch and just shoot the breeze??
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All the time. Sometimes I go even if I'm not flying. Some of us bring our kids.
 
I still see some kids at the airport, but very few with an interest in aviation. We have a young man that works at our airport on weekends and while we're talking about airplanes, he starts watching YouTube videos. No attention span... He's almost got his PPL, but shows little interest when the old guys are talking! Most kids I see are on their phones playing games.

When did I become the grumpy old man?
 
Pretty sure it happens in Odessa and Wichita Falls, TX. I've seen those kinds of gatherings and overheard some interesting fables / stories depending on the credibility you ascribe.
 
Best we can do around here is plan a breakfast every now and then. Most the time I'm at the airport, I'm the only one there and that is in a hangar complex with at least 50 flyable airplanes in it. It would be nice to have folks just sitting around drinking whatever and talking about flying.
 
Timbeck2 said:
Best we can do around here is plan a breakfast every now and then. Most the time I'm at the airport, I'm the only one there and that is in a hangar complex with at least 50 flyable airplanes in it. It would be nice to have folks just sitting around drinking whatever and talking about flying.
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That would be better than talking about whatever and drinking while flying.

The few pilots around here get together any time someone is flying, or even just wrenching on something. There’s always someone to hang with, unless it’s the middle of the work day, and sometimes that doesn’t even matter. Good group of guys around here to talk airplanes.
 
Every Saturday n Sunday the local diner here has a table reserved for the pilot group, then back to the terminal building for another pot of coffee...
 
That show on Nickelodeon ended years ago..

Gibbs at MYF has a couch and a few tables, there are usually a group of people in there chatting and milling about
 
Lowflynjack said:
I still see some kids at the airport, but very few with an interest in aviation. We have a young man that works at our airport on weekends and while we're talking about airplanes, he starts watching YouTube videos. No attention span... He's almost got his PPL, but shows little interest when the old guys are talking! Most kids I see are on their phones playing games.

When did I become the grumpy old man?
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What that kid doesn't understand is what he can learn from you older guys. Older folks with time and experience always have something to teach younger people. But I'm sure that young man doesn't care.
 
It’s changing in the military too, at least in the Navy and Marine Corps. We have pilot ready rooms, “blue couches”, O-club’s, etc., but they’re being used less and less. Clubs are closing and the ready rooms are mostly empty. Happening for Lots of reasons: more pilots are married and therefore now have more familial commitments, we’re working longer hours and have more administrative burden so we’re less inclined to give up even more of our personal time willingly, more intrusive leaders and leadership that have dampened the espirit de corps and camaraderie we used to have, among probably dozens of more excuses. It’s not just affecting the FBOs. We just don’t hang out like we used to...
 
Hanging out at the FBO/hangar to shoot the **** has largely been replaced by social media platforms like FB and these forums. Much of the learning/hangar flying is done in text via the interwebs instead of in-person. There are obviously pros/cons to that shift, but it is what it is.
 
Banjo33 said:
It’s changing in the military too, at least in the Navy and Marine Corps. We have pilot ready rooms, “blue couches”, O-club’s, etc., but they’re being used less and less. Clubs are closing and the ready rooms are mostly empty. Happening for Lots of reasons: more pilots are married and therefore now have more familial commitments, we’re working longer hours and have more administrative burden so we’re less inclined to give up even more of our personal time willingly, more intrusive leaders and leadership that have dampened the espirit de corps and camaraderie we used to have, among probably dozens of more excuses. It’s not just affecting the FBOs. We just don’t hang out like we used to...
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Plus the general destruction of the O-club culture that has been going on since 1991 and Tailhook. Go have a couple beers after work and risk having the SP or renta-a-cops tail you from the club to the gate to see if they can stop you and ticket you for even a hint of anything involving alcohol? Pass.

I was really pleased a couple Saturdays ago @ GAI. I got back from flying early and lots of hangar doors were open and a lot of good conversations.
 
Lowflynjack said:
I still see some kids at the airport, but very few with an interest in aviation. We have a young man that works at our airport on weekends and while we're talking about airplanes, he starts watching YouTube videos. No attention span... He's almost got his PPL, but shows little interest when the old guys are talking! Most kids I see are on their phones playing games.
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That's just today's generation.. the parent's aren't immune to the blame. It kills me when I'm at a restaurant and you see kids at the table and they're just lost in some iPad thing in a zombie state.. probably already drugged up on some ADHD drug because the parents complained to the doc and the doc gets a kickback.. it's vicious. Every so often (usually foreign parents) you'll see kids at a dinner table, well dressed, not on an iPhone or iPad, and actually participating in the dinner conversation. It's easy to blame the result (a crappy generation), but who's raising them?

Fallsrider said:
What that kid doesn't understand is what he can learn from you older guys. Older folks with time and experience always have something to teach younger people. But I'm sure that young man doesn't care.
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See I had the opposite experience, I always felt like the older people, while maybe they had some great stories and knowledge to share, always scowled and looked down on us, exactly like they were about to "teach us a lesson!" .. so it goes both ways. I had a similar experience at CAP here, all the 60+ dudes there had zero interest in talking to a millennial clown like myself. That's not always true, as I aid up thread there are some cool open hangar doors at MYF and the people at Gibbs are chill, but if you automatically judge any one group they'll likely judge your right back
 
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