FBOs

Now that I could see the airplane, I was pretty sure that It was an Aviat Husky. The down-to-your-shoelaces fog that I’d driven through to the airport was beginning to lose its battle with the sun. When I got out of my car 20 minutes ago, the fog had been the absolute master of the […]

Flight simulator manufacturer Redbird ended operations at its Redbird Skyport FBO last Saturday. The facility, located at Texas’ San Marcos Regional Airport (HYI), opened its doors in 2011. In addition to the FBO, the Skyport featured a special events center and flight training operation, which also acted as an early test laboratory for the company’s […]

I’d stepped into the pilot’s lounge at the virtual airport after finishing up with my last student of the day. I didn’t think anyone was still in the building and I wanted to make sure the coffee maker was off—it has a tendency to create enough smoke to fog the room by morning if left […]

I happened to run into Armando during my last visit to the pilot’s lounge at the virtual airport. He’s been around the aviation insurance world for some years, is a CFI and has a common-sense approach to the world. We had some of the lounge’s lousy coffee as we chatted and watched takeoffs and landings […]

Although local residents continue to object, officials at John Wayne-Orange County Airport in Southern California have recommended a project to add a third FBO to the facility as well as upgrade its decades-old GA infrastructure. County officials heard local feedback on May 7 and agreed to return “in two weeks” to vote on a final […]

A few months ago, I was at the virtual airport watching the aviation world go by through the picture window of the pilot’s lounge when a sharp-looking Grumman Tiger taxied in and shut down. The canopy slid back and two old friends, Jayne and Dan, based at an airport a couple of hundred miles away, […]

It was a very good afternoon in the pilot’s lounge at the virtual airport. OK, the weather was well and truly lousy, and no one was flying. But a lot of pilots had somehow decided that it was the kind of afternoon where the right thing to do was sit in the ratty recliners, drink […]

It was my Sunday morning to pick up the doughnuts on the way to the pilot’s lounge at the virtual airport, so I wanted to get there early. If it’s your doughnut day and you show up after the regulars are already ensconced in the ratty old recliners, swilling coffee and telling flying lies, you’re […]

FBO fuel sales showed mostly positive growth over the last year, according to the Aviation Business Strategies Group’s (ABSG) Annual FBO Fuel Sales Survey results. As shown in the graph below, 75 percent of the more than 450 FBOs that responded to the survey said their 2018 fuel sales had either increased or remained the […]

Due to a mix-up on my part, I walked into the pilot’s lounge at the virtual airport an hour prior to the time I was scheduled to fly with a student. I found a magazine I hadn’t read and sunk into one of the worn, old recliners, trying to keep quiet so I wouldn’t interrupt […]