That’s a funny thing because I don’t find the current FBO, Above View, very much more welcoming even now. Businesslike, just not very friendly.
Back in the day, the old airport was perched on a Mesa high above the little town (I did say ‘back in the day’!) and you could practically walk to the hotel. One night I thumbed through the local rag that had been placed in the room and started reading about a dinosaur trackway that had just been discovered a few miles outside town. “Turn right at the water tank, go on a couple of miles, turn left at the tree” and so on.
And so I found myself the next morning standing in a dried up stream bed gazing at the perfectly preserved footprints of a herd of fantastic beasts who had strolled this way a very, very long time ago. It was one of the most moving, extraordinary moments of my whole life. The place had been a stream bed then, and was again now. Ahead, the tracks led around a bluff and as I approached it I found that I was walking quietly, a little stooped, peering cautiously around the obstacle because I almost expected them to still be there. Today, that stream bed is packed in numerous crates in the parking lot of the new St George Discovery Museum, hopefully some day to be relaid in a new building.
The old airport is still there, apparently unobstructed, but lost forever. I planned one last visit, and when I told the briefer that I was going to St George, he said “Oh no you’re not!” because the new airport had opened that morning. As it happened, I was arrival #3, and certainly the first Brit to land on that superb runway. (So superb that it’s had to be closed a fair part of this year to repair subsidence!!!).
Back in the bad old days, just after 9/11, I went to the old St. George airfield to enquire about renting. The first FBO’s response at the desk was: “No way”, and he was phoning other businesses on the airfield to warn them about me.
I drove on to Grand Junction, where I got a warm welcome, and a check-out/ biennial next day, from an FBO I’d used several times before.
Back in the good old days (January), seems like a lifetime ago now, one of my favourite overnights was in St George, Utah. The courtesy shuttle is a long ride into town, plenty of time to get to know the driver. One lady told me she had been a pilot owner, now retired from LA and living in St George to be near her son who’d moved there. What did she own? (I’d just arrived in a C-172). Oh, a B-25. Really. She’d flown it in the movie business until a few years ago. Wish I knew who she was. They had another driver in the morning and I never found out.
One of the unfortunate effects of CV19 is that one can no longer meet up with these great old pilots in the airfield cafe. Zoom doesn’t replace this at all… very sad.
From a retired Belgian pilot:
“We used to fly cobalt mangoes back from the Congo. The cargo manifest definitely said ‘mango’, but the problem was that whatever the heading, the compass always pointed aft” 
Digging up this old thread.
Some time ago we were flying the Challenger into Casablanca. After landing, I hear a – apparently British gentleman – ask where to taxi as Casablanca was his alternate and nobody was expecting him. From the exchange with Ground one could tell he was flying single pilot.
So we get to our parking spot and next to us there is parked a Spanish registered C172. I go into the FBO and there is an elderly Brit talking to the handling guy. I asked him if he was the one diverting into Casablanca and if the C172 was his. It was, we got into a chat and he was flying on his own from San Sebastian to Lagos, Nigeria. Apparently he was an ex British Airways captain who just couldn’t stop flying and needed some adventure. A very nice bloke. I wished I had some more time to talk to him on how he organised the trip. He was doing parts VFR and parts IFR. Interesting guy to say the least!
Ultranomad wrote:
After several traffic lights, I started to feel something unusual yet familiar, then realised that the man was consciously exploiting Newton’s laws instead of trying to overcome them like many drivers do, giving a brilliant show of energy management and anticipating the necessary maneuvres well in advance, as if seeing the road far ahead.
I do that, too! I never thought it would be a common thing with pilots…
A few years ago, I had an interesting encounter on a business trip to Amsterdam. I was part of a group of people to be taken from the hotel to the airport. A black van pulled into the parking zone. Out came the driver, a bushy-browed gray-haired “grandpa” in Ray-Bans and an immaculate dark blue suit, and sarcastically asked the girl who was coordinating the departures:
- Where’s the fire?
- I’m sorry?
- Where’s the fire? You called me so many times during the last half an hour, I thought you were having a fire and I would have to evacuate the victims. We had a booking for 18:00, and it’s only 17:20 now.
- I am sorry, I only wanted to ask if you could possibly come earlier…
- Well, I am here, how many passengers have you got?
- Eight, can you take everybody?
The driver just opened the door without saying a word.
The coordinator counted the seats and said:
- Yes, eight. Please get in.
The driver interjected:
- Please leave your luggage outside, I will load it myself.
I took the last seat, the one in front. The driver sternly reminded everyone to fasten the seatbelts, then pulled off smoothly but energetically. After several traffic lights, I started to feel something unusual yet familiar, then realised that the man was consciously exploiting Newton’s laws instead of trying to overcome them like many drivers do, giving a brilliant show of energy management and anticipating the necessary maneuvres well in advance, as if seeing the road far ahead. When we arrived and everyone else left, I said:
- May I ask you a private question?
- Sure.
- Judging by the way you managed us passengers and the way you were driving, I got an impression you are a retired pilot. Are you?
As it turned out, he had indeed flown for KLM for 33 years plus a few years elsewhere – DC-3, DC-8, 737, 747… No longer medically fit to fly, he was working the airport transfers to stay close to aviation. We didn’t have time for colourful flying stories, but he was certainly a very colourful personality. I wish I could find him once again and invite him for a flight or three.
My goal is to be one of those old guys in 30 years with lots of great stories, only partially made up (excluding the ones about under aged girls:))…
Of course, I’ll explain how flying is nothing like it was back in the good old days of 2008-2020 when you still had to be an aviator (not a button pusher) to fly!
There are some great old characters in GA. One I have flown with (he was an FI for many years) used to fly dodgy arms cargo flights (B747 mostly) on behalf of the govt, doing spiral approaches from FL300 all the way down to Kabul, at night, no lights on the aircraft… He also told great stories about incidents on various planes. He is still flying and, in his 80s, sharp as ever.
Unfortunately for every one of these there is at least one bull$hitter, and I have flown with a fair number of those too The “best” one, actually a very good instructor if rather aggressive, had to disappear after some interesting financial adventures at an FTO, not to mention other types of adventures involving female students not necessarily over the age of consent 
