The guts to cancel a flight

Should be like the Bahamas of Europe really.

Just make sure every jobsworth has a salary component based on flight movements. Airports are typically managed by soviet standards.

What reason does the fuel man have to hurry up or to squeeze you in? What reason does the airport employee have to grant you PPR? Capitalism, market and competition are the way to improve service. If airports were decently managed they would offer lots of specials like “come to LGKR, buy 200l of fuel and get the landing free” or “package for landing and hotel including transfer only EUR XXX”.

The only big airport in Germany I know of that is managed by somebody with a brain is Hannover EDDV. Smaller airports that are well managed are Portoroz, they even come to the AERO show every year. There should be a booth of the “Fly to Greece” tourism association.

Mooney_Driver wrote:

Would be one EASA rulemaking I would propose: Public Service Airports asking PPR need to provide proof that they are not able to handle traffic, especcially transit flights. They would also have to prove according to movement stats that they ever got into trouble parking GA planes. Only if they can prove that would they get permission to ask forPPR.

I like this one
Often it is a seasonal thing, so it may makes sense if it is.
If it’s all year long than it makes no sense I think.

I have started a new thread on self service pumps here

Peter wrote:

I may be going thick but I haven’t yet seen one that works in a way which a non-local pilot can understand

I’ve used lots of them, they are quite common in Switzerland.

Some of them require a key from the C-Office, others work straight off the credit card. I agree it might be good to put some sort of instruction onto it in English as well as the local language. But then be sure there will be a guy who speaks Spanish and bitches as it wasn’t there in Italian.

As for the PPR mania in Greece and elsewhere: It is total rubbish and one bit which is a direct threat to GA and it’s purpose of flexibility. And, what hacks me off even more, it is in 99% of cases totally unnecessary and just a left over from plan economy which some of these people like so much.

Our small airplanes can park anywhere out of the way, there are maybe some very few cases where that is not the case, but most airports have PLENTY of space if they used their grey matter a bit. Korfu? Give me a break. They got two aprons, main apron and one on the other side of the runway and they do not have space? Nothing to do with it, all they want is to be able to plan their day and lunchbreaks, so they require you to PPR so they know 3 days ahead that one of them has to get up and service an airplane. Same elsewhere: Plenty of space, plenty of capacity but just unwilling to rise their ass fror a GA plane. As if we really want them to, the only one who has to is the fueller, the rest we can do ourselfs thank you very much.

PPR 48 hours in advance makes an airport unusable for most of the time. GA has to stay flexible, weather and all that, so if we can narrow down to a MONTH where we are going to be that is asking too much. PPR is simply another word for “we don’t like GA, go away”.

Would be one EASA rulemaking I would propose: Public Service Airports asking PPR need to provide proof that they are not able to handle traffic, especcially transit flights. They would also have to prove according to movement stats that they ever got into trouble parking GA planes. Only if they can prove that would they get permission to ask forPPR.

The worst thing to do is to give a monopoly concession to a company at an airport. The result is bad service. It’s communist thinking. The moment you add a 2nd fuel company, things start become 100x better for everybody involved. Knowing that not every airplane landing there will have to take their fuel, does wonders.

And I totally agree, a self service pump beats any fuel service…

GISCO will simply not have a 3rd refueler on permanent payrol for me and you. Its a budgetary thing,

Why not install a self-serve fuel pump? No need for another person on the payroll.

Kerkyra always stands out as the place you will end up being grilled on the apron for hours, waiting for fuel (or if you want to stay for longer, getting bollocked because you haven’t booked your parking space – all the while the apron is empty).

When was this, boscomantico?

I have been there 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and never saw that.

LGKR is PPR – currently 48 hrs

and they are known to refuse a landing clearance to people who didn’t get this (no reports of that for a few years, however). It is highly advisable to get it in writing (i.e. email or fax) or if that isn’t possible, get it from Handling. If it happened to me (it happened to somebody who merely got PPR by telephone) I would declare a mayday due to low oil pressure. The PPR also deals with any parking issues; in fact the CAA guy told me the reason for the PPR is to “manage apron capacity” (while looking out of the window at a vast empty apron)

The food at Corfu is pretty crap nowadays, unfortunately – very rare for Greece.

Unfortunately LGKR is usually the most convenient Port of Entry for Greece which also has avgas.

Yes, but this is true for every airport that is primarily airline-driven! Yet others cope somewhat better.

Kerkyra always stands out as the place you will end up being grilled on the apron for hours, waiting for fuel (or if you want to stay for longer, getting bollocked because you haven’t booked your parking space – all the while the apron is empty).

I stand by my judgement that Kerkyra is a disgrace.