I’ve never seen this either. It tends to play out at lower levels. People get ejected from airports, etc.
What you do get in GA are all kinds of “big personalities” and I know this is really everywhere. Sometimes this spills into a “defensive” position where somebody is running some business which is not making much money (that’s true for much of GA anyway, in Europe) and then they see somebody doing something to avoid using their business…
Peter wrote:
In reality this kind of aggressive dispute could happen anywhere (humans are pretty much the same everywhere, especially where they fear loss of revenue or whatever)
In all the years I have had to do with many different airports and their representatives I’ve never seen anything like this. Not once. If this is representative of how airports treat their customers in the UK, then I do understand your thesis that most hassles come indeed from airports. Thankfully this is not the case in most other places.
In reality this kind of aggressive dispute could happen anywhere (humans are pretty much the same everywhere, especially where they fear loss of revenue or whatever) but the UK has this great “MOR” system where your dirty laundry gets washed in front of hundreds or thousands of people on that circulation list 
Insane.
Crikey
Just been reading a recent MOR listing and came across this gem:
Yeah; you’ve got a fantastic setup there – one which European pilots would give up enough body parts for to never get a medical again
The stuff some may think is crazy about cultivating relationships to maintain your stuff is actually part of what I enjoy doing with my life… and its completely necessary. I don’t have a Ferrari but even with my daily drivers I’ve had the same people doing oil changes for close to 25 years. Maintaining my ten motorcycles requires that I know all kinds of people, typically because they know who has what parts, how to get machine shop work or whatever done by competent people and so on…. The one in Germany is stored and maintained by a guy who has done it since 2006, and actually since 1998 with a previous owner.
It’s the same with the plane. Living in its own hangar is for sure invaluable, 99% of everything is done there. Three unaffiliated A&Ps do different kinds of things when needed: one guy is good for more technical, involved work like repairs and modifications (he also BTW taught me to fly 18 years ago and I employed him at work for a while before he got his current, very good day job as a field rep), the second guy is a German immigrant and can read the parts and workshop manuals quickly, there are no English language equivalents. Also it’s good to have a third set of eyes. He is very busy doing work on flight school planes etc but fits me in, probably as much as anything because he comes to our house occasionally and my wife feeds him homemade German food. The last A&P is a full time employee at the same company as me, but has a long term background doing aircraft electrical and avionics work. Nowadays he does those kinds of projects as a sideline for me and others to make extra money.
I don’t know how I’d get anything on the plane done without these guys, and others who are available to give advice on propellers (he designs and manufactures them as his business), brakes (likewise) and so on.
The problem with aircraft is that they have wings and they are captive wherever their maintenance happens. For any fault, the companies can charge you what they like up to the cost of taking the wings off and on and trailering it out, before it becomes worth your while to do so.
Peter wrote:
At most airfields where there are maintenance companies, you will find that > 50% of based aircraft fly elsewhere for maintenance. That’s crazy too. They do it because either the based one is no good, or they do it as a precaution: if they have a dispute with that company they might get kicked off the airfield.
I like the model these guys have – they do the work out of a van if needed. They did an annual on one of my hangar mate’s aircraft – they were very fast and efficient.
