running the apu to watch a phillies game

robofos

robofos

Well-Known Member
At my FBO today there was a GV that called ahead to tell us they had 4 passengers to drop off and they'd be with us for a few hours. Thats fine. they arrived, but I only counted three passengers get off the plane and leave for their meeting. Later I was told that the APU was going to be staying on for the entire time because one of the passengers just discovered the TV on the plane and wanted to watch the Phillies game. This was crazy to me because 1) Didn't he have a meeting to go to?!?!? and 2) Isn't that really frigging expensive to have that thing running for 3 to 4 hours. Its definitely annoying! I was just wondering when it comes to things like what the passenger wants and how much stuff costs, how the crew handles it. How much does it cost to run an APU at 3.60 a gallon?

I once fueled a Learjet that took off and 15 minutes later I hear back on the Unicom it is returning because a passenger left her purse in the office. I asked the pilot how much further would he have to go before he could tell that lady its just not worth it to turn around. He told me it didn't matter.

Its just crazy when you think about the money it costs to do simple things.
 
They're paying. It's their money and judging by the learjet they are flying in, they've got plenty of it.
 
Travis has a good turn around story.
At the end of the day these people purchase these airplanes to be ridiculously flexible and convenient for them, their employees, and their families. There might be some shock value to us commoners but it's definitely welcomed because if no one wanted varying levels of convenience and flexibility we wouldn't have jobs as pilots. So I say, forget that purse and watch that ballgame because without those accommodations I wouldn't have a job.
 
If they are flying a GV, they don't care.

I wouldn't care either because eventually it pays my bills.
 
Actually, I take back my previous comment. I could not support that waste of money for a Phillies game. Now if it were a Packer game, I'd be all in.
 
It's isn't cheap to run the APU but the customer usually gets what the customer wants as long as it is safe. They want you to fly mach .86 vs LRC you fly .86. They are paying your salary and the aircraft costs so they usually get what they want.

Not everyone on the plane may be a business person. A lot of Corp execs bring friends and family with them.
 
In the scheme of things, running the APU for 3 hours is a drop in the bucket when it comes to the yearly costs of feeding a G5.
 
Weird that a passenger stayed behind? Yes. Weird to run the APU for hours? Not so much.


I have been at crappy FBO's and elected to go out a couple hours early in the dead of winter and fire up the APU, turn on the heat, and enjoy a movie in the luxurious comfort of first class. I have also (on more occasions) started the APU on the normal time schedule of about 20-30 minutes before departure and the passengers were hours late.

It's chump change. Not to me or you, but to "those people" it is.
 
We run the APU for 4 hours or so all of the time. We get to plane for on time departure and pax keep pushing the departure back. Or we fly somewhere and not all the pax have to get off for a meeting and some stay on for more food and drink. All sorts of reasons why but like said earlier, it is their plane and we do as they want.
 
fsiflyer said:
We run the APU for 4 hours or so all of the time. We get to plane for on time departure and pax keep pushing the departure back. Or we fly somewhere and not all the pax have to get off for a meeting and some stay on for more food and drink. All sorts of reasons why but like said earlier, it is their plane and we do as they want.
Click to expand...

You don't run a very green-friendly operation there.



:D
 
robofos said:
At my FBO today there was a GV that called ahead to tell us they had 4 passengers to drop off and they'd be with us for a few hours. Thats fine. they arrived, but I only counted three passengers get off the plane and leave for their meeting. Later I was told that the APU was going to be staying on for the entire time because one of the passengers just discovered the TV on the plane and wanted to watch the Phillies game. This was crazy to me because 1) Didn't he have a meeting to go to?!?!? and 2) Isn't that really frigging expensive to have that thing running for 3 to 4 hours. Its definitely annoying! I was just wondering when it comes to things like what the passenger wants and how much stuff costs, how the crew handles it. How much does it cost to run an APU at 3.60 a gallon?

I once fueled a Learjet that took off and 15 minutes later I hear back on the Unicom it is returning because a passenger left her purse in the office. I asked the pilot how much further would he have to go before he could tell that lady its just not worth it to turn around. He told me it didn't matter.

Its just crazy when you think about the money it costs to do simple things.
Click to expand...

The pax staying behind is weird, but not the running of the APU. Once a crew on a GV that was with us, spent about 6 or so hours on board while the pax were out and about. I went up to the plane every now and then to hand them a fax and they (both pilots and the flight attendant) were just sitting down, feet up, eating and watching a movie with the lights off. They say they're more comfortable in the jet than inside the FBO. We also have another customer that comes in, and a few times they were late. The pilot told us it was because there was a forecast for turbulence and the pax HATE turbulence, so they ended up flying almost 100mi out of the way to avoid the forecasted area.
 
robofos said:
what about connecting the GPU to the plane and run everything off that without burning gas??
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The first problem with that is as the jets get bigger they need 400HZ AC power carts and not 28VDC carts. If the FBO has the cart they are often more expensive than running the APU. I've seen some FBO's charge $100-$200/hr for them.

The next problem is as the jets get bigger they need a pneumatic source for the air cycle machines that provide heat or ac. This pneumatic source can be an APU Bleed, Engine Bleed, or Air Start Cart (hard to find, expensive, and some aircraft mfr's have limitations about running the ACM's off them).

Lastly you could use ground conditioned air but even few FBO's have those and they are again expensive and would have to be coupled with a GPU. Do the math and it is cheaper to run the APU.

Heck a 727 only burns about 300 pph or 45 gph to run the APU for electrics and two packs. I would imagine a GV has to bee less.
 
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