Crew Car (FBO Loaner) Edicate?
Q: What have you experienced borrowing the FBOs car for a quick trip into town? Is there a common "policy" about borrowing the car? If I fill the plane is that enough rent, or should I offer a few bucks for the loan? I really like to be able to borrow a car and don't want to abuse the privlige...
A: -I have only had one chance to use a crew car so far, I showed up at the FBO at closing time, asked for overnight tiedown and a topoff for the morning. They offered me their crew car for the night, and I took it (a brand new car in great shape - wow!). I drove it to the local motel and dinner that night, in the morning I filled the gas tank and picked up a dozen doughnuts for the guys at the FBO. It was the least I could do. The "courtsey car" is certainly a tradition that will disappear someday - with the general decline in coutesy in our society, can anyone really doubt that? Do everything you can to try and help people find a reason to continue this fine tradition. -I haven't been to every airport in New Jersey, but I'm not aware of _any_ that has a courtesy car. Given the insurance and legal hassels in this State, it would not surprise me to find that there are none. Want to leave the field? Call a limo. -You don't keep the courtesy car for more than a couple of hours. Some FBOs tell you when you have to bring it back. Fill the tank before bringing it back, or at least replace the fuel you burned. The courtesy car can be anything from an old clunker that you can see the road through the floor in or it can be a nice new car borrowed from the rental fleet or it can be a van or even the pickup truck used to inspect the runway. Ours is a big old Chrysler. Courtesy cars usually belong to the FBO or they might even be the personal car of the FBO owner or airport manager. Some