whats an airport bum?

E

evapilotaz

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Gilbert AZ. VFR All Year Baby
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Drone airspace abuser
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KCHD
What's an airport bum?

I'm afraid I'm becoming one. I couldn't get an airplane scheduled tomorrow but I do have one scheduled for Monday. "Labor Day"

Anyway! I'm going to go hang out for a couple hours watching the flying activities and listen to ATC sitting on the airport Restaurant upper patio.

Does this make me an airport bum?
 
I don't see anything patently wrong with it. There are people that hang out at the gym strictly to socialize, under the pretext of exercise. At least the old guys than hang around and bull**** in the lobby aren't pretending to be there to fly.
 
I hope I don't fall into the old guy category at 46yr hanging out at the airport.
I look at it this way. I'm there to observe and learn from others while watching.
 
BTW this isn't the first time I hung out at the airport. If for some reason I'm not flying, hanging out at the airport is the second best this to do.
 
I have been sitting at Lake Havasu City airport for 10hrs/day all week. I'm definitely a airport bum.
 
If you have to ask, then you are.

Yankin' your chain bud..:lol::lol::lol:

I used to hang at the airport waiting to fly, had my wedding reception at the airport, helped fuel other planes, asked questions and otherwise bugged the heck out of the mechanics, generally just hung around chatting with the other pilots.

Now that I bought the company, I don't have time for all that fun I used to have. :nonod:
 
Sitting on the patio listing to LiveATC and having discussion with other pilots=aviation enthusiast.

Chatting up FBO staff, mechanics, airport staff or the guy that is trying to be REALLY polite but REALLY needs to leave cuz he is late for an appointment and they are actually trying to get some work done=airport bum!
 
evapilotaz said:
Does this make me an airport bum?
Click to expand...
No, it doesn't. You have to be there at least five days a week, and the airport dog knows in which pocket you keep the treats without sniffing for them. You also need to have the folks at the FBO be able to set their clocks by when you arrive/leave, and know exactly how you like your coffee (as well as grumbling about how you drink a lot of their coffee but don't buy much of their avgas). It also helps for them to know how pointless it is for ask them "Don't you have a job?" or "Don't you have anything better to do?". You know you've arrived when the FBO manager tells you, "Hey, that couch is for customers!"
 
Age: 60 - 130
Gender: male
Cigarettes: Camel, 2 packs
Hat: John Deere or Ford tractor
Clothes: dungaree or canvas farmer Johns, with suspenders
Shoes: barely
Teeth: a few
Coiffe: greasy duckbill, or high and tight(vets)
Glasses: tri-focals, taped bridge
Scent: don't go there....
 
evapilotaz said:
What's an airport bum?

I'm afraid I'm becoming one. I couldn't get an airplane scheduled tomorrow but I do have one scheduled for Monday. "Labor Day"

Anyway! I'm going to go hang out for a couple hours watching the flying activities and listen to ATC sitting on the airport Restaurant upper patio.

Does this make me an airport bum?
Click to expand...

I'd say so! People used to tell me I was an airport bum. I'd go sit on the airport and do my homework while watching airplanes takeoff and land, that was until I got kicked off by the sheriff and told I wasn't allowed to be there.[I'm out of a big Class C airport]. Even when I'm not flying, I usually make an excuse to stop by the airport nearly everyday.
 
You're an airport bum when you have a special bench reserved for you on the airfield.

Like the four old guys at Columbia.
 
evapilotaz said:
What's an airport bum?

I'm afraid I'm becoming one. I couldn't get an airplane scheduled tomorrow but I do have one scheduled for Monday. "Labor Day"

Anyway! I'm going to go hang out for a couple hours watching the flying activities and listen to ATC sitting on the airport Restaurant upper patio.

Does this make me an airport bum?
Click to expand...


When you lose your family, your home, your truck and your job hanging at the field then you can call yourself a full fledged field bum.
 
I'm an airport bum. Have been since I was 13. Being an airport bum is how I got all the things I have now.
 
There used to be this old guy that would sit in his lawn chair on the side of the road right outside the fence, every single day, starting mid morning lasting until sometime in the afternoon, wearing thick sunglasses and a hat. At the Silverado Country Club watching the golfers cycle through.

Meanwhile, down the street at KAPC, usually the old guys would come in and drink at the airport bar at Joneseys every day and watch the airplanes take off and land, and occasionally one of them would tune in a handheld so they could listen to the JAL trainees make fun of themselves as they tried to communicate in broken English around the pattern.

The latter sounds more interesting than the former, but but really neither is a venue for picking up chicks so I can't see myself doing the same thing in old age. At present age, once I'm done with my business at the airport, I'm off to the pub to GET MY DRINK ON and GET MY GAME ON. Not necessarily, but usually in that order.
 
docmirror said:
Age: 60 - 130

Gender: male

Cigarettes: Camel, 2 packs

Hat: John Deere or Ford tractor

Clothes: dungaree or canvas farmer Johns, with suspenders

Shoes: barely

Teeth: a few

Coiffe: greasy duckbill, or high and tight(vets)

Glasses: tri-focals, taped bridge

Scent: don't go there....
Click to expand...


Is that your resume? :)
 
I could be considered one at some level.

I'll hang around at the FBO after I'm done for the day and shoot the bull.

If I have a few hours to kill between student I'll normally stay around instead of driving home.
 
Been known (like often) to make a 50 mile round trip to the airport just to clean the windscreen and wipe bugs then sit in the shade of the hangar door and watch (mostly nothing these days, not much flying going on).
I don't consider going to a bar and pickling my liver and my brain to be a sport.
And if I managed to catch some young floozy's attention my wife won't let me keep her anyway.
Some of my few and best memories of my dad involve airports and yellow planes - so I spoze there is some deep psychological disease in my desire to go to the airport.
I worked like a dog for over 50 years to have the money to go sit around the airport - and until the grim reaper or the even grimmer HSA stops me, I'm not stopping. .:D.
 
Meliss said:
that was until I got kicked off by the sheriff and told I wasn't allowed to be there.[I'm out of a big Class C airport].
Click to expand...

Best part (other than the airplane) to owning a hangar at a class C. I got a badge that says I can be there, and I have a view of the runway from the table I hauled down to the hangar. Can and have eaten lunch there several times, watching planes and listening to the scanner.
 
I am an airport bum in trianing. By this time next year, I hope to be a full bum.
 
Meliss said:
Yes, on both me and my car... I would park by the fire authority because it's the best view to watch the planes land on the 19s. Can't do it anymore though.
Click to expand...

That's friggin' BS. I have the same badge. When the Santa Ana winds whip through, we'd park right off the end of 1L with a case of beer and watch the airliners slam 'em on.

You need to hang with us, Melissa!
 
kayoh190 said:
That's friggin' BS. I have the same badge. When the Santa Ana winds whip through, we'd park right off the end of 1L with a case of beer and watch the airliners slam 'em on.

You need to hang with us, Melissa!
Click to expand...

Well if you're offering free beer :yes:
 
we call 'em hangar rats where I hail from! Often these guys have old planes like Bonanzas that they put an ad on with an unrealistic price with zero intention of ever selling the plane so they can justify their lifestyle of living at the airport for social interaction. I knew an old dude who lost his medical due to Parkinsons disease at LVK airport and had 3 nice Bonanzas rotting away in 3 hangars but wanted twice the retail price for EACH one. I laughed at the dude and told him he was living in fantasy land.
 
I'm an airport bum in two states. And proud of it.
 
As long as you don't spend your days picking apart every actual flyer, who cares?
 
I don't socialize. I just kick back in the patio chairs, Ear phones attached to IPhone and drinking a diet mountain dew. Ahh the good life.

I'm an Airport bum in training.
 
Can't go to the airport without driving down the hangar rows and seeing who's around. There are a few of us whose wives automatically add at least an hour to our return-home ETA because they know that we spend as much time hangar flying as we do in a plane.
 


I guess I am an Airport Bum. Been at the same airport for 41 years. I worked here as a kid (47N) and have flown here ever since. We hang almost everyday, several places to stop for a drink or cigar and hang with the crew. We fly something almost everyday, weather permitting. We have the Southside Lounge, Margaritaville and my place "The Platinum Club" which are the major hangouts.

Mike in NJ
If your near 47N, stop in anytime for a visit.
 
Whenever I have a free couple of hours I'll head down to IAH (20min drive) fire up LiveATC app and watch the heavy metal arrive and depart. Good times:D
 
Not sure on the sticker, it was given to me as a gift.

Mike
 
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