What Pilots Wish They'd Known

MtPJimB said:
Some good ones on the list. Definitely would echo some of these - especially learning to use the self-serve pump.

http://blog.globalair.com/post/Lessons-Learned-What-Pilots-Wish-Theyd-Known.aspx
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3. What to do when you have a flat tire: A flat or low tire can be a huge bummer, especially when you're away from your home field. And for some pilots, the first flat tire experience leaves them wondering just what they should do next, and wishing they has asked about this situation before hand.
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OK. With some deserved embarrassment, I'll bite. What do you do when you have a flat tire or low tire? ... and when you're away from your home field?
 
register@teamandras.com said:
OK. With some deserved embarrassment, I'll bite. What do you do when you have a flat tire or low tire? ... and when you're away from your home field?
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In my third person experience, it generally involves a tow from an FBO to haul you off the runway, followed by Captain Save a Ho pulling a tire and patching a tube.
 
I'm sorry, but using a self serve fueling station is a no brainer. If a person can fuel a car, then a person can figure out how to use a self serve fuel pump. Every self serve fueling station I ever used I just took a few seconds to read the instructions.:rolleyes2::rolleyes2::)
 
Zeldman said:
I'm sorry, but using a self serve fueling station is a no brainer. If a person can fuel a car, then a person can figure out how to use a self serve fuel pump. Every self serve fueling station I ever used I just took a few seconds to read the instructions.:rolleyes2::rolleyes2::)
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Yup, that auto-shutoff really is convenient, right? And you ground your car every time, too? Do you type your license number into the fuel pump when you fuel your car?

Most cars cannot be fueled at a convention gas station with fuel that will destroy the engine. Make it run poorly, sure (especially E85 for non-flex-fuel vehicles). But the Diesel nozzle won't even fit. The Jet-A nozzle might...

No, they are not the same. There are similarities, and differences.
 
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MAKG1 said:
Yup, that auto-shutoff really is convenient, right? And you ground your car every time, too? Do you type your license number into the fuel pump when you fuel your car?

Most cars cannot be fueled at a convention gas station with fuel that will destroy the engine. Make it run poorly, sure (especially E85 for non-flex-fuel vehicles). But the Diesel nozzle won't even fit. The Jet-A nozzle might...

No, they are not the same. There are similarities, and differences.
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As a guy who ended up spraying his entire left side with Jet A while fueling a helicopter for the first time a couple days ago, yeah, there are differences and difficulties involved :mad2:
 
Main thing I've learned...

If you absolutely, positively have to be there, don't rely on a small airplane! :D
 
MAKG1 said:
Yup, that auto-shutoff really is convenient, right? And you ground your car every time, too? Do you type your license number into the fuel pump when you fuel your car?

Most cars cannot be fueled at a convention gas station with fuel that will destroy the engine. Make it run poorly, sure (especially E85 for non-flex-fuel vehicles). But the Diesel nozzle won't even fit. The Jet-A nozzle might...

No, they are not the same. There are similarities, and differences.
Click to expand...

I also had questions about etiquette when I first encountered a busy fuel island. Do I pull up right behind the guy at the pump, or off to the side so I'm not in his prop wash? Is there a preferred direction to pull in from? How do I know which pump is avgas and which is jet fuel? Are those cars on the other side of the fence far enough away that I can start up and not worry about propwash hurting them, or should I tow my plane farther away first? Etc.
 
register@teamandras.com said:
OK. With some deserved embarrassment, I'll bite. What do you do when you have a flat tire or low tire? ... and when you're away from your home field?
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A buddy and I spent far too much time pulling a P-Navajo to the ramp after having a tire blow on landing at an airport in the middle of the night. Not a soul around to help. Had to wait for a mechanic to wake up and come to work.

Bob Gardner
 
Had a brake lock up on a weekend. Had to pull the airplane by hand,and wait for mechanic to come in on his day off. He taught me how to change the brake pads and what tools to carry.
 
.... that I shoulda gotten started 10-15-20 years ago when cost of entry was significantly less expensive.
 
I despise that website, but it sounds more useful than this one.
 
Zeldman said:
I'm sorry, but using a self serve fueling station is a no brainer. If a person can fuel a car, then a person can figure out how to use a self serve fuel pump. Every self serve fueling station I ever used I just took a few seconds to read the instructions.:rolleyes2::rolleyes2::)
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Have you ever tried doing it in the blind? One time I stopped for fuel at this placed called Corcoran. It's basically just a crop duster strip out in the middle of the central valley of California and the pump controller was just standing out there with the sun blasting on it and the little LCD screen was completely washed out, I couldn't read anything off it. But I had used self serve pumps enough to remember what the sequence was and it did make the beeps when I pushed the buttons so somehow I managed to get through it and get the pump turned on.

I was sweating it too because I had made my planned fuel stop at Delano, about 30 miles south of there and the pumps weren't working. There was a guy trying to get them fixed and I waited around for over an hour but it wasn't looking good so I decided to head up to Corcoran, which is out in the middle of nowhere, nobody around, the kind of airport you could probably hang out at for a week and not see another human being. And since I had already gone past my planned fuel stop it would have been pretty sketchy to have tried make it to yet another airport so I was lucky I was able to pull that off.

When I first saw that screen though I was thinking Oh man, what am I gonna do now? :eek:
 
I stopped at some Podunk airport in Nebraska. There was a fuel pump, with a phone to call the police dispatcher and they would dispatch someone to turn the pump on and take the credit card. So the police dispatcher was a woman and she got another call. Whatever she did with the phone, I could hear her side of the conversation. It went like this:
"So you are home by yourself?"
"Where is Dad?"
"What about Grandpa Joe?"
"I'll call Andy and tell him to look in on you"
"Don't be too scared, you will be all right"
"Call me again, sweetie, if you get scared. OK?"

Hey, small town America huh?
 
MAKG1 said:
Yup, that auto-shutoff really is convenient, right? And you ground your car every time, too? Do you type your license number into the fuel pump when you fuel your car?

Most cars cannot be fueled at a convention gas station with fuel that will destroy the engine. Make it run poorly, sure (especially E85 for non-flex-fuel vehicles). But the Diesel nozzle won't even fit. The Jet-A nozzle might...

No, they are not the same. There are similarities, and differences.
Click to expand...

Life must be really different in your area. Everywhere I have been a diesel nozzle WILL fit in a gas vehicle, and a gas nozzle will fit into a diesel filler. I know this because I have a diesel pick up, and its filler is the large one to take the truck stop nozzles, plus it will take the jet A nozzle, not that I have used jet A....:rolleyes2:. The jet A nozzle is a completely different shape than the 100LL nozzle every where I go. Ask Bob Hoover why. The nozzle at your neighborhood gas stationed is already grounded to your vehicle. I filled many a Piper Navajo and C-206/7/8 using a hand pump out of drums in Alaska. Need to do a sniff test first to make sure it is the right fuel and not diesel or car gas because the drums are not marked.

Now one time at a small airport the pump controller was across the ramp on the side of the FBO. I did take me about 30 minutes to find it. I found it in a small unmarked closed box.

I have also come across the sun ruined screen situation as well. Took a few misses before I got it right.

When I was a active instructor, I always had the students use the gas pumps. But they were all too smart for me. They never tried to use the jet A pump, and they all figured out how to fuel the plane.

I digress though, I remember the fuel pumps that dinged at each gallon.
 
Zeldman said:
Life must be really different in your area. Everywhere I have been a diesel nozzle WILL fit in a gas vehicle, and a gas nozzle will fit into a diesel filler...
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A real killer trap is when you go to Europe. The gasoline nozzles are GREEN and the diesel ones are BLACK - exactly the opposite of here. :loco:
 
I've run into a wide variety of self serve pumps and some are indeed a jigsaw puzzle to figure out.

Anyone else have a tail number that's 11111 at the fuel island? :)
 
register@teamandras.com said:
OK. With some deserved embarrassment, I'll bite. What do you do when you have a flat tire or low tire? ... and when you're away from your home field?
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14dkhmu.jpg


I carry the tools to remove the wheel, break down the rim, and a new tube and tire. This is our RV-9a. The Lancair is even easier as I don't even need a jack; I just find a piece of wood to place under the axle and lift the wing by pushup.
 
Zeldman said:
I'm sorry, but using a self serve fueling station is a no brainer. If a person can fuel a car, then a person can figure out how to use a self serve fuel pump. Every self serve fueling station I ever used I just took a few seconds to read the instructions.:rolleyes2::rolleyes2::)
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Man, if only I had thought to read the instructions. :Facepalm Tell me, are you always this condescending?

Some of the things that weren't covered in the instructions:
- Exactly where and how do you turn the pump switch on?
- How to reset the counters?
- Where do you clamp the ground clamp to?
- What do you do if you've done everything you're supposed to do and the pump still won't pump?
- What is the proper pump etiquette at a busy station?
Sure, I've figured all of these things out over time and with conversations with others. I'm not saying it's rocket science. I'm just saying it would have been nice if my instructors had taken time to have me stop at a self-serve pump and walk through it with me once during my training.
 
MtPJimB said:
Man, if only I had thought to read the instructions. :Facepalm Tell me, are you always this condescending?

Some of the things that weren't covered in the instructions:
- Exactly where and how do you turn the pump switch on?
- How to reset the counters?
- Where do you clamp the ground clamp to?
- What do you do if you've done everything you're supposed to do and the pump still won't pump?
- What is the proper pump etiquette at a busy station?
Sure, I've figured all of these things out over time and with conversations with others. I'm not saying it's rocket science. I'm just saying it would have been nice if my instructors had taken time to have me stop at a self-serve pump and walk through it with me once during my training.
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I guess, but it's really not a big deal to ask someone at the controlling FBO, or maybe the guy next to you that's filling up. Don't be afraid to look like a noob.

Ironically, it took me ten years to learn how to reset the mechanical counter at the self serve station on my field. I took a non-pilot friend of mine that used to work for UPS. When we got back and I stopped to fuel the plane, he said "Oh, aren't you going to reset the fuel counter?" And promptly turned the knob to reset it.

Not that it makes any difference at all on the bill, I just never bothered to reset it because I never look at it anyway when I'm fueling.
 
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