FBO Courtesy Car Etiquette

Windchill

Windchill

Well-Known Member
I'm about to start going to town with cross-countries to get my hours up to start my instrument training Part 61. I still may opt to go Part 141, but if I do it'll be a local FBO-esqe school.

When arriving at other airports. What's the proper etiquette for using a courtesy car? Time frame, reasons to use it, etc?

Is it only appropriate to run and grab a quick bite, or pick someone up/drop off ... or is it okay to use it and check out the local scenery for a bit?
 
The longest I've used one for is a couple of hours. Most of the time we just use it to go get someone or something. When returning it, put some gas in it, more than it had when you got it.

Unless there are people fighting over who is going to take the car, it should be fine for you to take it for a while.
 
How considerate of you to inquire about this. I'm sure people will have several opinions on this.
Personally, I think it depends on the type of airport you are flying into. If it is a relatively quiet airport with very little traffic, I don't see why you couldn't use the courtesy car to sight-see, etc. As long as you let them know what your intentions are and they seem alright with that, I'd say you can do whatever. At the airport I fly out of, we prefer that it be used by pilots to grab a bite to eat, but we occasionally let people take it overnight if they are leaving early in the a.m. since there isn't a whole lot of demand for it.
Remember, it is a courtesy car, so it would be courteous of you to put some gas in it after you use it. Airports don't make anything off the car and gas is expensive. I'm sure they would appreciate it, as well as the next person who uses it.
Of course, if the employees are rude and disrespectful, take it and drive the crap out of it!

Hope this helps and to anyone else, feel free to plug in the holes I missed or to correct me!
 
I consider myself the Crew Car king
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...

...and it DOES depend on the FBO. Big and/or busy FBOs will have time limits (i.e 1-hour to grab lunch or run an errand). Smaller FBOs are pretty liberal with what you can do and how long you can stay out. Best thing to do is call ahead and let them know what you want to do; they might "reserve" it for special occasions, otherwise it will be first-come, first-serve of course. It also helps to call and see if a car is available at all (some places refuse to have crew cars because of insurance/liability nowadays, and some places may have their car in the shop when you want to use it). Been to a couple mostly-unattended places that leave the keys in the car 24-7 and post a sign in the FBO that explains to transient pilots that they can just grab the car and go...And some places will let you take it overnite if you bring it back early (as has been said).

Regardless, a crew car/courtesy car is a COURTESY and if you have the time/money, top it off for the next guy when you use it, and get some 100LL to help out the FBO, too (even if you don't really need to top off the plane, it's a good courtesy). If it's a busy place and others are likely to drop in and use the car, you may wanna think twice about keeping the car out for a long time.

AND...don't abuse the car or wreck it, either (your insurance may not cover a "borrowed" car, and some places don't insure their crew cars properly, as I found out the hard day one day when I backed a crew car into a tree by accident).

BTW, the worst crew car ever is located in BFR (Bedford, IN). I've driven that piece of crap a number of times over the past few years, and I wasn't surprised when AOPA did and article on crew cars last year and the BFR car made the list of worst crew cars.

It's a tan Chevette, 50 percent rusted away. Barely starts, barely gets you to town, barely gets you back, sounds like he11, etc. etc.
 
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I'm about to start going to town with cross-countries to get my hours up to start my instrument training Part 61. I still may opt to go Part 141, but if I do it'll be a local FBO-esqe school.

When arriving at other airports. What's the proper etiquette for using a courtesy car? Time frame, reasons to use it, etc?

Is it only appropriate to run and grab a quick bite, or pick someone up/drop off ... or is it okay to use it and check out the local scenery for a bit?

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Most FBOs have a 1 hr time limit.

btw, it's also considered a nice idea to put some gas in it.
 
One other thing. Remember that courtesy cars are meant for professional pilots that are stuck at the FBO! Business people, pilot/owners on business and the like are expected to take taxis or rent cars.

Student pilots or pilots-in-training are a slightly gray area. Most FBOs will let you take the car, but be courteous and ask around the pilot lounge if anyone else wants to go to lunch. Not a bad networking opportunity there either.
 
Really? Every time I've needed to use one, there's been zero conflict about me not being a 'professional pilot'. It's my opinion that they're there for pilots who need a car to take a quick trip to town.
 
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Really? Every time I've needed to use one, there's been zero conflict about me not being a 'professional pilot'. It's my opinion that they're there for pilots who need a car to take a quick trip to town.

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You and John are most likely talking about 2 entirely different type of FBO's/Airports though. The larger FBO's, where corporate pilots spend a large percentage of their time, most likely view their crew cars more the way he's referring. The 2600' runway, taxi 'er over to the grass type FBO's, more along your line of thinking.
 
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Most FBOs have a 1 hr time limit.


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Not in my experience. My FBO had no limit. Every other one I went to was cool with however long if I told them when I'd expect to have it back. Flightcraft at PDX has a 4 hour limit, but they waived that for me when I got stranded one night.

P.S. They also never batted an eye at the fact that I wasn't a corporate pilot.
 
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Most FBOs have a 1 hr time limit.


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Flightcraft at PDX has a 4 hour limit, but they waived that for me when I got stranded one night.

P.S. They also never batted an eye at the fact that I wasn't a corporate pilot.

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Night time has different rules of course. But during the lunch rush most of the Florida FBOs want you to keep it to an hour.
 
The only thing I have to add is that they've never cared that I wasn't a corprate pilot any time I've used one of their cars, not just the night I was stuck.
 
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The only thing I have to add is that they've never cared that I wasn't a corprate pilot any time I've used one of their cars, not just the night I was stuck.

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When I was a CFI I never noticed it. But later on, when I was sitting in the crew lounge with the rest of the "captive" pilots, I would hear comments like "some dumb CFI took the crew car for two hours, so we get no lunch." Being a CFI myself I jumped to the defense, but it didn't take long for me to remember taking a crew car for more than an hour a few times.

The people at the desk have never asked "Are you a corporate pilot at work or just a CFI on training?" However, I saw an incident at TLH Flightline one day, when an ATA CFI and student brought the car back late and received a little bit of a lecture from Brian at the front desk. He informed them that many other people were stuck here and had no way to get anything to eat, and to "please be considerate of those for whom the cars are intended."
 
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you can borrow a car at any small airport to go tool around/grab a rental/grab food and then fly right outta there? geez, I always wondered how you all got around when flying from airport to airport!!

That's awesome!! Doug - we need to go flying around now that we know there are cars we might be able to use.

is this common at most small airports like in Sedona or what not? I think it'd be so much fun to take a flight and go for dinner somewhere and then come back. But I was always thinking "well, how do you get from the airport to your dinner spot and back if they don't have any rental car companies there?"
 
Whether you're a "dumb CFI" or a corporate hotshot in a G-V, you're a customer of the FBO, and you should be treated accordingly. If the rules of the courtesy car are abused, then that should be addressed. However, I don't think a person should get chewed out because they are a "dumb CFI" and the corporate pilots wanted to go get lunch. It's a really pet peeve of mine when there's discriminatory customer service going on.
 
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Whether you're a "dumb CFI" or a corporate hotshot in a G-V, you're a customer of the FBO, and you should be treated accordingly. If the rules of the courtesy car are abused, then that should be addressed. However, I don't think a person should get chewed out because they are a "dumb CFI" and the corporate pilots wanted to go get lunch. It's a really pet peeve of mine when there's discriminatory customer service going on.

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I agree with you - to a point! My pet peeve is parking the jets up front and making the single engines park way in the back, a long way from the FBO (yes this means YOU Sheltair!)

But back to the topic. People who are in control of their own schedule - i.e. CFIs, should be considerate of those who are stuck at that airport waiting on someone else.

As I said, I defended that actions of the so-called "dumb CFI" to the obnoxious corporate pilot, but I could see his side as well. I was stuck there with no lunch as my passengers were due back at 2pm, and both crew cars were gone until 1:30.

My stomach was making interesting noises on the flight back
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BTW, the worst crew car ever is located in BFR (Bedford, IN).

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I nominate the crew car at McAlester, OK (KMLC). What a pile that thing is.
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Apparently Warrenton, VA (W66) has a relatively new Cadilac for a courtesy car. Airnav Member Comments for W66

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Nice - a new car and revamped runway. Stopped in there last summer and they had no car (line guy took us into town and dropped us off for lunch, picked us up when we were done). They had the runway cut down to about 2100' or so at the time because of construction, too.
 
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One other thing. Remember that courtesy cars are meant for professional pilots that are stuck at the FBO!

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I work longer hours and longer days than alot of "professional pilots" (as you like to call them). I deserve to eat just as much as the next guy. . .
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