There was a discussion on the r.a.owning group recently that discussed a
situation in a flight club that was similar to the one that this FBO is
clearly trying to protect itself from...

There is one mistake in your example. You would be charged $1,000, not
$1,800, for retrieval. Whether or not it is fair depends on the full story
- was the repair scheduled to take 3 days? Longer? Shorter?

The way it is written now, it seems like if the repairs are expected to
take 5 days, you would still have to stay for 3 or be charged, which is
unreasonable. But if the repairs are expected to take 2 days, and you
decide you have to be home before then, quite frankly, you probably should
be charged.

The bottom line is it may not be unreasonable to expect that if you take a
plane out and it needs a repair, you are still responsible for getting the
plane back to the FBO after the repair has been completed.

I'm not sure why you need to stay with the plane, though. I think they are
trying to avoid the repair being completed after you leave, and you not
getting back there for 2 "wasted" days to bring it back... Or maybe they
are trying to say that if the repair will take more than 3 days, they will
take back responsibility. I could read it either way.

I would have worded it something like, "If repairs will take 3 days or
fewer, renter is responsible for returning the plane to the FBO within 24
hours of repair completion. If the renter cannot fly the plane back
himself, he will be charged for all time and expenses for the FBO to
recover the plane, to a maximum of $1000. If the repairs will take longer
than 3 days, FBO will recover the plane at its own cost. Either way, renter
is responsible for all costs of his own lodging, food, travel expenses,
etc. should he be choose to remain with the plane while it is being
repaired."

Of course, I am not a lawyer, so there may be problems with the language
that I put up. But I think that's the general idea of what they are trying
to do. There also will be an issue if the FBO wants to send a pilot who is
not commercially rated to recover the plane...

A policy that forces you to "stay with the plane" seems less reasonable,
And the calculation for the cost of the retrieval that they have used seems
like it could go either way...

Maxing out at $1,000 may be to your favor, depending on rates and all. I
wonder if they have some sort of insurance that covers this situation, and
the deductible is $1,000. If you fly 350 miles away, and two instructors
fly out together in another 172 to pick up the plane, figure 6 hours round
trip for each instructor, 6 hours round trip for the extra plane, and 3
hours for the return flight home for your plane. At $40/hr instructor time,
and $100/hr plane time, you're talking about $1280, which quite frankly,
you probably should be fully responsible for...

In many ways, the policy seems fair. And if the FBO is responsible for the
maintenance of the planes, it may never really be a big issue... The
biggest inconvenience that I ever had for a repair was a gash in a tire
that I found on preflight at 4:30pm, and all maintenance guys at the field
were gone, so I had to wait until morning to get it changed. If a cylinder
blows, or there is some major electrical malfunction, I think it's gonna be
more than 3 days to fix... The biggest risk might be if you get caught at
4:30pm on a Friday and they won't work on it until Monday, or if they have
to order a part...

I suspect if you get the plane back as soon as possible after repairs are
done, whether or not you stayed with it in between or not, no one is going
to care.


"Robert" wrote in
:

I received my private last September, and have rented a Cessna 172 from
the same place I completed my training at ever since. Recently, I've
been looking for a new place to rent because the 172's at my current
FBO are old and always down because something broke yet again.

I went to a different FBO yesterday to ask about getting checked out in
a plane there. Initially they looked like a great place to rent
from... at least until I took a look at their rental policies and
procedures. I really didn't like one of them, but am wondering if it
is "just me" or if it is a normal policy with most FBO's.

It says "If the PIC determines that the plane needs repair before being
flown, and the PIC has flown the plane away from its home location, the
PIC must remain with the plane for three (3) days while the plane is
being repaired. The PIC is responsible for all costs of his own
lodging, food, travel expenses, etc. during this three day period. If
the PIC elects to leave the plane during this three day repair period,
you are responsible for the smaller of $5 per mile or $1000 for an FBO
staff member to retreive the plane."

So, basically, if I fly from Long Beach to Santa Barbara (class C
airport), and the plane has an electrical problem to due to fault of my
own, and I decide to squak the plane in Santa Barbara, I have to pay
someone about $1,800 to retrieve the plane if I can't stay with it for
three days while it gets repaired.

Is this an outrageous policy, or is it normal? I could see that I
would be responsible if I damaged the plane, or just decided to leave
the plane somewhere else, but its almost like they are encouraging
pilots to fly planes back home that shouldn't be flown just so they
don't get stuck with a bill.

Robert