[ this thread picks up the discussion of self service pumps from here ]
Why not install a self-serve fuel pump
I may be going thick but I haven’t yet seen one that works in a way which a non-local pilot can understand 
The French ones I have seen didn’t work without a fireman turning up, or a local pilot with a TOTAL card which is practically-speaking not obtainable to foreigners (there is a way but nobody will bother unless they regularly fly to small French airfields).
The one at Annecy nobody could work out, so a reluctant fireman (only one, the others didn’t know how to work it either) had to come out. And it seemed to take only AIR BP, or so they said (which I had).
The one at Lelystad nobody could work out.
The one at Zell am See I could not work out, due to German button labels, and anyway had to first walk to the office for the special magnetic card (which worked intermittently) which defeats the purpose of a self service pump because you hold everybody up at the pump (having taxied there after landing) while walking to the office.
The one at Cannes had to be worked by a local.
Wangen Lachen – local pilot required, some interesting arrangement.
Oristano – got some strange winks and nods but not speaking Italian got nowhere.
Some of the above are years ago, but clearly things have some way to go before you can fill your plane like you can fill your car. It should be trivial but somehow they don’t seem to manage it.
Are there self service pumps where you can just shove a credit card, pull the hose out, and fill the plane up, and it’s all done? I have never seen one.
Are there self service pumps where you can just shove a credit card, pull the hose out, and fill the plane up, and it’s all done? I have never seen one.
Biggin Hill.
Peter wrote:
The one at Lelystad nobody could work out.
Unfair ! We have a new fuel pump that even accepts regular bank cards. Unfortunately if you do not literally sprint from one wing to the other it will shut down before you get to fill the second tank which means restarting the whole process :(
Cannes self-service works very well (though taxi markings a bit confusing). No need for a local. One dedicated Air BP one plain vanilla MC/Visa. Instructions and buttonology in FR / ENG.
Peter wrote:
with a TOTAL card which is practically-speaking not obtainable to foreigners
That may be true for a UK resident with its broken banking system, but in every country where banks do SEPA transactions it’s fairly easy to get one.
Also, I had no problem whatsoever with the automatic credit card pump in EBCI Charleroi – the only downside is that you can only get ~70 Liters per transaction, so filling the tank needs multiple transactions. Furthermore, the credit card pump (not total) at Troyes also worked very well.
That may be true for a UK resident with its broken banking system, but in every country where banks do SEPA transactions it’s fairly easy to get one.
The problem is that the UK is probably of the order of 1/3 of all of European GA (depending on how you measure it) so making life hard for UK pilots is not a good way to do business.
Especially as UK pilots quite evidently do disproportionately more foreign touring than those from most European countries.
But then the removal of Customs/Immigration from about 50 French airports is not a good way to do business, either, yet they (well, their authorities) didn’t seem to worry about that. Some of the airports reportedly lost 1/3 of their movements, instantly.
If I was running an airport I would make it really really easy for people to drop their money all over the place. Especially as pilots who go places do tend to drop hundreds of € everywhere they go, and an airport makes of the order of €0.30-0.40 per litre on avgas. That sort of income vastly exceeds the money from food and drinks and landing fees.
ELLX self-service pump works fine with normal credit cards – also limited as Charleroi – have done fuel turnarounds at Luxembourg in under 30 minutes. We hold an account there and landings are dirt cheap (under EUR10 for 182)
I can testify from personal experience that both Haverfordwest and Halfpenny Green have easy to use, self-service pumps which are well located and provide a receipt.
Mrfacts,
is getting an account there as easy as sending them an e-mail with your details? If yes, I might do it – costs you nothing and might prove useful one day when transitting the area…
UK 1/3rd of European GA?
France:
1’010 ELA2 aircraft (1’200 < MTOW < 2’000)
5’400 ELA1 aicraft
UK:
960 ELA2 aircraft.
5’272 ELA1 aircraft.
I’m willing to bet that the rest of EU (say EU 25) add up to more than 900 ELA2 aircraft…
