FBO Ownership: A Day in the Life

I don't know for sure if this is intended to be a funny story or a plea for advice, butafter two days of internalizing it, I do know for sure that I must put this down on paper.

I am one of three family members that are as a group the owners of two FBO's located inthe midwest. In December of 1997 we finalized the purchase of two FBOs at the same time.Life has had its highs and lows since the acquisition and for the most part we just keepsailing along. Two days ago, however, I thought that for sure I was going to evaporateinto a cloud of smoke.

At about 6:00 AM two mornings ago, my wife (one of the owners) and I were called by theline service manager of our largest FBO informing us that our only avgas truck at thetime, had locked up brakes and that we were presently unable to deliver any avgas to ourcustomers who were anxiously awaiting fuel. I told the manager that I was on my way,everybody just hold still for a few minutes! It would take me about an hour to get to theFBO.

We have two other avgas trucks that we use as storage trucks until our new above groundfuel farm is approved to be launched into service. So as I'm driving to the FBO, it occursto me that the simplest solution would be to put some avgas in one of the storage trucks,and press that truck into service. No problem, right? Wrong!

Upon arriving at the FBO and explaining my proposed solution, I'm informed that onetruck has no battery. Hmm, it did have a battery last I knew...where did it go? No bigdeal, I say, we'll take one out of one of the other trucks and put it in this one. I'm nowinformed that this would have been a great idea, except that the truck also was justdiscovered to have a broken PTO cable, so it can't pump fuel.

I'm also informed that we have customers who want avgas RIGHT NOW!

Well, okay, let's go get the second storage truck and use that. No can do. That truck,I'm told, has a broken PTO cable, won't start, and leaks fuel from the hose fitting!

It's now five minutes after my arrival at the FBO, and it's apparent that all theoptions I came up with during my drive have just gone up in smoke.

Well then, why don't we just use the main truck - the one with the locked up brakes -and simply pump avgas from where the truck was parked, as if it were a fuel island? Youknow, bring the airplane to the truck instead of bringing the truck to the airplane?(Sometimes I'm amazed at my own brilliance and creativity!)

I'm told that this would have been an excellent approach, except that the clutch on themain truck was burned out this morning when someone tried to move it with the airbrakeslocked. No clutch, no PTO, no pump, no avgas. Back to square one.

I walk back into the lobby to ponder over alternative solutions, just to be faced bythe pop-up catering request of a professional flight crew operating a 16 million dollarbusiness jet. Catering is generally not a problem but it can be when you have less thantwo hours to order and receive a very type specific elaborate catering request and yourcustomer service representative is handling her first day!

We worked that challenge out on time but it did require some spontaneous creativity.

Now I return to the challenge of how to pump avgas. Someone suggested that we designateone of our jet refuelers as an avgas truck. I seize on this immediately as a wonderfulidea, and wish I could take credit for it myself!

To convert a jet truck to an avgas truck you must drain the jet fuel, flush the system,change the filters, and relabel the truck. We had to do all of these tasks in short time.Not trivial, but at least it's a plan.

As the truck conversion job was being executed, I take a break from the chaos. I juststand in the shade and rest my mind...briefly. The reverie is shattered by a strange noisethat causes me to look up to see a new-hire line serviceman attempting, for his firsttime, to drive the manual transmission Chevy pick up truck that we use as a crew car. Whenone pops the clutch on this kind of truck it tries to pop a wheelie!!! He knows how todrive a stick shift now!

I confess that I am among the few remaining people who still smoke cigarettes... Inotice I've smoked a whole pack in about two minutes.

Well, we manage to convert the jet truck as required, service our now-very-ready avgascustomers, send the broken truck out for repairs, and finish out the day somewhatuneventfully.

Oh, did I mention that when I received the first call in the morning, I made a mad dashfor the door, unshaven and wearing the worn and tattered blue jeans and old baseball capthat I wore the day before when I tended to needs around the house and yard. What a sight!

I wish to with hold our names and location in order to protect our employees who by allright did make some huge mistakes but without any doubts were sincere and more thanwilling to find a way to patch up the day and make the business work smoothly. Thanksguys, we did it!

I have been a fan of John Denver for many years. I think of the lyrics to one of hissongs: "Some days are diamonds, some days are stone." I believe that dayrepresented granite! But life goes on.