Just come back from a winter-tour trip covering most of Scotland, Outer Hebrides, Shetlands & Isle of Man. I do not recall ever being so incensed to the point of warning other GA pilots of a particular airfield such as Aberdeen. The surrounding area is beautiful and well worth visiting/flying. I knew the costs were going to be steep but the reason for pressing on to Aberdeen was to visit an old friend. With some fuel (approx 50mins fuel burn from our previous stop) + all charges the bill came to £120+. (This makes circuits at Zurich Intl look ridiculously cheap + you are met each time with a "follow me" car/truck) but not at Aberdeen. The FBO's concept of service was in our opinion a joke. We did our own flight plans, notified the tower and weren't even given any guidance of the specific subtlies regarding ATC so invariably sat on the ground at a Holding point for 40+mins being bounced from one frequency to another and asked why our FBO hadn't explained the procedures to us (despite reading up on Pooleys etc). [And this before our departure to Sumbrugh]. For anyone doubting competency my flying friend is armed with an ATPL. The ATC handovers were uninterested in us and had to verify each step of the way if we were VFR or IFR despite a clearly transmitted flight plan at Aberdeen.
The same FBO operates at the other major Scottish airports and what a difference! Edinburgh although in the end not used due to a last minute weather diversion (ILS DH decision) went out of their way to help and accommodate us even before leaving for EDI. Glasgow was equally receptive. But at Aberdeen we were met with folks more concerned about telling us how they could only do one job according to their titles and were hence unable to conceptually do anything beyond the literal terms of their job descriptions and in my opinion can be summarised as: Multitasking & helpful, friendly service out; Politics in: A
PR disaster.
Based on our opinions of the service received we wholly recommend Perth and just about anywhere else in Scotland for GA other than the above airfield. A bad day for Scottish GA.
EG