The club I belong to (Edmonton Flying Club) has an automated reservation
system. You can cancel an aircraft booking up to 24 hours before the
rental, no questions asked. After that period, you get charged for 1 hour
if you don't show up or call in to cancel with the dispatcher. They do not
question judgements based on weather or illness. You are, after all, the
PIC. In fact, the last time I was going to go flying I got to the club and
then decided not to go up, because I had a nervous passenger, and it was a
gusty day with constant light to moderate turbulence reported (strong upper
winds, too). They accepted my decision with no problem, and even helped me
out by soliciting pireps from others who were aloft.

"Peter Duniho" wrote in message
...
"Greg Esres" wrote in message
...
[...]
My thought is that an airplane is a resource to the FBO, and they
should try to achieve the highest utilization that they can. Renters
who reserve but don't use the aircraft are using the resource without
paying for it, which produces higher costs for everyone else.

This is related to the "what happens when the plane breaks down" thread.
You might want to revisit that to see the varying opinions.

My opinion, of course (that is, if you read the other thread), is that the
whole point for renting is so that you don't have to deal with those
issues. That includes weather issues. There is some risk involved in
owning an airplane, with respect to maintenance, and with respect to not
being able to fly because of weather. One rents so as to not have to take
those risks. Someone else does, and spreads the cost of that risk across
all of their clients, in the form of an hourly rate for the airplane.

However, the FBO shouldn't have to tolerate people cancelling for no good
reason. A "one free" policy such as CJ describes would be more
appropriate for those situations. I just think the FBO or club needs to
be careful to only apply that sort of policy to situations that are
clearly due only to the pilot flaking out.

[...]
Some people cancel only when there's good reason to do so, but others
reserve on a whim just in case they might want to fly.

IMHO, it's more important to not alienate those who cancel for a good
reason than it is to worry too much about those who cancel just because
they had reserved on a whim and then decided not to fly. There can't be
that many of the latter, but there are plenty of the former. In addition,
those who "reserve on a whim" won't take long to identify. If they are
truly a problem, even a half dozen foundless cancellations in a month
wouldn't break the bank at the FBO, but would certainly be enough to drop
the guy as a customer.

Pete