Why do we put in our N number at self-serve gas pumps?

gprellwitz said:
There's sometimes a separate numeric keypad you can use for the numbers.
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Ours has that. Starts at "N" so you select that, and then 1279 on the numerical keypad, arrow left one character to "M" and done! I love our tail number for how well it works on these machines. Ha.
 
I use N6969 usually; don't know if it's because I'm childish, don't like the thought of people tracking me, or that it's partially correct (real number is N69CJ). I suspect all three. :D
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
Can't believe anyone benefits from the 'grounding question'.
Eg, I see no "are all tobacco products extinguished?"
How about, "is the engine off?"
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Those are covered by the bid red signage around the pump. At least they should be.
It's there for the same reason a McDonalds coffee cup has a caution contents hot warning on it.
 
tree96 said:
Those are covered by the bid red signage around the pump. At least they should be.
It's there for the same reason a McDonalds coffee cup has a caution contents hot warning on it.
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Exactly, so put grounding on a sign, leave it off the keyboard quiz.
 
ateamer said:
http://www.aopa.org/News-and-Video/All-News/1994/October/1/Waypoints

Contaminated fuel. The 172 I had a partnership in had a Chevron engine.
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We filled up at Oakland during that fiasco. Chevron contact my ex bro-in-law who had paid for the fuel. Took the letter to the FBO I had rented from, owner wanted me to say it had been the Twin Comanche that I had rented and not the Archer. (BIL did not enter an N number on the pump). I refused. Far as I know, the Archer never had a problem.
 
Checkout_my_Six said:
I always enter...."NNNNNN" and press enter. :D


btw....they have my name from the credit card. :eek:
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Yeah, but... After the bad Chevron gas in '94, the credit card companies wouldn't share contact info for card holders with Chevron... So the fuel blender wants your N# to track you down. There's a lot of John Smiths and even Ron Meekers in the world... And many of them have their addresses blocked on the airman's database too...

Chevron bought 4,000 engines plus installation, and a few lawsuits... Not pretty...

Paul
 
cowman said:
I just always wondered. Every time I buy gas the little kiosk wants my N-number. What do they use that for?
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So your receipt shows which tail number was refueled. It is not used for any other purpose that I can tell. Some don't ask for it.
 
DGlaeser said:
So your receipt shows which tail number was refueled. It is not used for any other purpose that I can tell. Some don't ask for it.
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Yep - and there's a rather obvious purpose that's useful to pilots that no one has mentioned yet: so you can find your receipt more easily among the many receipts left behind in the dispenser by pilots who aren't interested in keeping theirs. Those of us who do keep our receipts are thankful for this feature. :)
 
azure said:
Yep - and there's a rather obvious purpose that's useful to pilots that no one has mentioned yet: so you can find your receipt more easily among the many receipts left behind in the dispenser by pilots who aren't interested in keeping theirs. Those of us who do keep our receipts are thankful for this feature. :)
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It's not the one on top?
 
denverpilot said:
It's not the one on top?
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Not always. E.g. dispenser door is sometimes missing or open, some of them have fallen on the ground. Sometimes they bunch up on one side, and the latest is on the other. If there's a pile I usually have to sift through it to find mine.
 
You might consider that having a record of which planes have been fueled when is an important safety element should there be a fueling mishap or accident. It will help the airport operator contact all aircraft that might have been fueled after an incident. We've had both fueling mishaps (delivery of possibly tainted fuel) and accidents involving aircraft fueled at our field. In both cases any potential affected owner was contacted. Thankfully neither of these incidents involved fuel contamination but it sure would be a good thing to know!
 
Silvaire said:
I can attest that it's good to be familiar with how these things work. One time I ended up at a place called Corcoran in the Central Valley because the pumps at my planned fuel stop in Delano were not working. Corcoran was just a little crop duster strip and the kiosk was out in the open with no shade or cover so when I pressed the button to start I couldn't see anything because the lcd screen had been completely washed out by the sun constantly beating on it. Took a couple of tries but I was able to get through the sequence blind and get the pump turned on which was good because I really needed to get gas. Probably could have made it to Visalia but it would have been a little sketchy and a diversion from my course. Or I could have waited, probably wouldn't have been more than a week or a week and a half before somebody else showed up out there.
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Fail at fueling and you get sent to Corcoran? DAMN that's harsh. Did you get introduced to Chuckie Manson?

Corcoran is a maximum security state prison.
 
EvilEagle said:
I use N6969 usually; don't know if it's because I'm childish, don't like the thought of people tracking me, or that it's partially correct (real number is N69CJ). I suspect all three. :D
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Use N0YB
 
MAKG1 said:
Fail at fueling and you get sent to Corcoran? DAMN that's harsh. Did you get introduced to Chuckie Manson?

Corcoran is a maximum security state prison.
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Now you can't even fuel at CRO anymore because the state division of aeronautics shut them down to the public.


But JG Boswell has a nice 6800
2211c10ef34994eac26c40908d979f7c.jpg
' strip with its own unpublished NDB approach just south of there. Great place... Flew over it an hour ago on my way home.
 
I have a friend who got his engine overhauled due to a bad batch of fuel being discovered. He was in California on a cross country from Texas. He didn't have a problem, but the distributor detected the bad batch, and paid for overhauls on a bunch of motors. Had he not entered his N number he wouldn't have gotten the freebie.

I always enter mine...
 
And in the days before people entered their N-number, fuel purchasers could not possibly be tracked.
 
As an FBO operator & Airport Manager, yes, our Fuel Master terminal asks for your N number. That isn't transmitted anywhere other than to our terminal inside for book keeping though. It probably also does help in finding someone later in the event of contaminated fuel and also does help (a little) to ensure that people aren't fueling cars with it (I guess). The credit card companies aren't very interested in sending me info about a credit card holder. Input it or don't, we really don't care. If there's a problem and you want us to be able to find you, then that's what I'd do. We also have based customers that own more than one aircraft that like to be able to keep track of which aircraft are getting fuel when they are billed at the end of the month.

Let me offer this up though. If I remember correctly, the Fuel Master system began life as a system for fueling fleets of trucks. This probably allowed internal control over which trucks were taking amounts of fuel from the depot. The code was probably already in there when they began installing them at airports and they didn't really want to modify it that much, so they just changed the prompt to N number. Just a thought.
 
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