Security gates and bowsers

As time went by they became required at almost every airport.

With ASIC cards came security fences and gates. Typically the gates were easy to exit. Turn a handle and walk out.

It is unfortunate to report that a number of Australian airport security gates are not pilot friendly.

In an ideal world there would be a security gate that a pilot can exit from air-side and that has a code available for the pilot to note and use to get back to the aircraft. That code could be on the back of the exit gate and changed periodically. But no, a number of airport authorities have no gate code in sight and no readily available security officer to open the gate. I have a laugh when I see up to six warning notices on the land-side of the gate but no phone number to call to get the gate code or to call for the security guy, if there is one.

Taree and Bundaberg are two such six-notice airports. The gate near the fuel station at Mackay has three notices but no mention of a code or a number to phone to get the code.

Ceduna is the same along with Cairns, Hervey Bay, Cooktown and Longreach.

Needless to say there are many more. Sometimes you get lucky and another pilot or the refueller tells you. But not always.

And what happens if our pilot is without that code? Sometimes the only way is to get directory assistance on the phone and try and make contact with the airport operator to find out the code. Costly, time consuming and not guaranteed.

Remember all these airports charge a fee for landing and even overnight parking.

Maybe we as pilots should directly contact the airport operator by email or letter and advise that as users we are not getting the right service? It may be that only by having pilots at large contacting the airport and complaining about the problem will the issue be addressed.

Did someone forget that the pilot is the end user?

Fuel bowsers. Once upon a time there was someone to help refuel your aircraft when you taxied in at most airports, and at no charge. Then with costs rising there came a bowser opening fee. Sometimes there was also a call-out fee. Sometimes both.

Pilots rightly complained and an end result of all that was the introduction of self-service bowers. It was around this time that the big fuel wholesalers started to get out of the retail side of fuel supply and sold off their variousoutlets to independent suppliers. Now to fly into an airport and do a self-serve refuel can for the most part be a simple and hassle-free operation, but not always.

For someone wanting fuel at a self-serve bowser using a credit card the usual process is to insert the card, punch a few buttons and be greeted with the words ‘amount’.

Now this is not the estimated cost of the fuel or the number of litres but a check of available credit that can support the fuel purchase.

The card reader then does an on-line check to see if you are good for up to that amount. If you have the credit up to the value of the figure inserted then you are told ‘take fuel’. One of the drawbacks here is that for infrequent users or simply new flyers they think that amount is the amount in litres.

The other drawback is to try and work out roughly how many litres you need and then find a cost per litre figure to work out the total and to insert an ‘amount’ of credit required above that figure.

One suggestion for fuel suppliers would be to put the expression ‘credit amount’ on the read-out face to tell pilots they need to advise an available figure above the fuel purchase estimate. Another way would be to explain all this in simple words in the printed how-to instructions alongside the bowser.

Sometimes the most obvious cannot be seen.

A second gripe with self-serve fuel bowsers is that of cards. Some self-serve units will only take the fuel supplier’s card. Some will take certain credit cards.

It is unfortunate to say that if the self-serve unit only takes the fuel supplier’s carnet card, and you do nothave one, then you have a problem. If you phone the local supplier’s number the usual comment is ‘So you don’t have one of our cards?’ ‘No, I am only dry hiring the aircraft so no reason that I would have your card’. ‘OK, I will come out but there will be a $20 call-out fee and it will be a half hour before I get there’.

I acknowledge that supplier card loyalty may be something, but could fuel suppliers perhaps consider having readers that will accept credit cards as well as their own carnet card? Please! Security gates and fuel supply cards. We live in a user-pays world but sometimes the user gets forgotten about.

Service. What’s that?