Bad FBO Experience

[johnggreen]

Last weekend, I flew 600 nm and landed at a Class D airport in the DC area.  Weather IFR, shot my approach, all well handled, well sequenced, though I was asked to fly jet speeds on approach to the FAF for following traffic.

Taxied to the ramp of the nationally recognized FBO.  It was a football weekend in a football town, so lots of traffic, mostly bizjets.  To my left there was a lineman with orange wands standing to the side of a hangar door who motioned for me to turn in between three very expensive jets, which I did.  There was a vacant parking space next to the hangar though the lineman wasn't standing in it, still over around the open hangar door.

I split the difference between the first two jets as I taxied in and then the lineman starts some frantic motioning; right hand held straight out and left hand waving left and right parallel to the ground at waist height.  In over forty years of flying, I had never seen this particular hand signal, but the closest interpretation would be the signal to bear right, which I did.  It didn't take but a few feet until I was uncomfortably close to the jet on the right.  Needless to say, the hand signals became more fervent and less discernable.

Finally, I just stopped, raised my hands into the air and waited for the lineman to subsist from his dramatic gyrations.  Finally, he made the hand across the throat motion which I understood;  I indeed wanted to cut his throat.  Instead, I cut the engine and my wife and I deplaned.  Her only question was, "what the devil was that".

I was boiling, but kept my cool, merely said to the lineman that we must have experienced a lack of communication and started unloading the airplane that was stopped, caddy cornered in the middle of the ramp, pointed ominously at a ten million dollar business jet.  I then had the pleasure of strolling into the waiting room among professional pilots who looked a little confused at the Mooney sitting in the middle of the ramp.  Embarrassing as hell to be honest.

Point being, I can't imagine that a national FBO would allow a lineman on the ramp who didn't know basic hand signals, but they did.

I politley emailed the manager after getting home Sunday night.  To date, no answer.

No damage, done, but it was the poorest ground handling I have ever experienced.  I won't  say who or where since I'll be going back regularly.

JG

 

[rob]

I regretfully read this whole message and came to the end to find that there was no useful information in the PIREP. Without the specifics of the field and FBO, this is just grey matter.Thankfully, it's not difficult to figure out the field/FBO in question. Unfortunately, you left us having to do that leg work on our own.

 

[tbrickey]

next time park on the west ramp if I'm guessing correctly.

[xftrplt]

1.  I frequent the Jet Center on the east side of KHEF and have always had excellent service.

2.  Don't be intimidated by the corporate pilots.  Being a glorified chauffeur to fat cats was never a job I aspired to, and most of them would trade places with you (if they could afford it). 

3.  Before the corporate types flame away, let me say (with some pain) that during 20 years of flying heavy metal, I was usually most impressed with former heavy BJ captains, as they were the smoothest and most knowledgeable of civilian aviators.  (And this from a hard-core fighter pilot.)

 

[johnggreen]

Sorry Rob, I guess I didn't have any useful information to convey.  Just blowing off steam.  Ever done that?

As for KHEF, nope, wasn't there and let's leave it at that.  I go into KHEF regularly and have no complaints.  In fact, complaints at major FBO's or any FBO are rare.

It just seems that something as simple and critical as hand signals would be taught before placing wands in a lineman's hands.

As to being intimidated by the Pros, trust me, I'm not.  In this case, I was just embarrassed.

Apologize if I bored or offended anyone.

JG 

[rob]

No, I don't believe that I've ever blown off steam 3-4 days after the fact...

You do have useful information, you just didn't bother to share it. Saying you had a bad experience at a National FBO is really not telling us anything. If you were to say, for example, that you had a bad experience at Landmark at Charlottesville, then you'd be sharing something that's useful even to the lowly M20C drivers.

What I don't understand is why, if the experience was really so bad that you're still blowing off steam a few days after the fact, you intend to return? Are there not other options in the area?

 

[johnggreen]

Rob,

Your cool demeanor is a beacon of light to all of us not so blessed.  Again, I aplogize for offending you with my useless post.

JG

[rob]

Apology accepted, John.