"Any fuel Sir?"

[Bubblewindow]

Though primarily fixed wing I am required to fly on rotary from time to time. On Friday during a long low level sortie we called into a regional airfield for fuel and an obligitory coffee. The airfield in question is about to close up shop for good within a few weeks so all the facilities other than fuel and crash rescue are gone.
Right so, out the gate to the petrol station for coffee it is .
Filled my cup at the machine and presented it at the till. "Any fuel Sir?" says the guy behind the counter. His eyes lit up as I smiled and nodded towards the Heli behind the chain link fence and said "Yeh, 1500 Litres"

Despite growing increasingly fed up with my job after 20+ years it's times like this that make me smile .

BW

[Courtney Mil]

I love it! :ok:

[622]

Only coffee....?

I thought a Magnum was compulsary these days! ;)

[P6 Driver]

A helicopter pilot fetching his own coffee?
Don't you have servants for that sort of thing?

:ok::D

[diginagain]

Don't you have servants for that sort of thing?Perhaps Bubblewindow was dispatched to get the brews, although the pilot would have to be very trusting.

[Ken Scott]

I once was tasked into a small airfield not far from Trenton in Canada in a C130J - the airfield was just big enough for us although most of the concrete wasn't strong enough to hold the weight. We parked up outside the Flying Club to load our pax & refuel. The club was running a special offer - something like 'a free steak with every 100 litres of fuel'. We took on about 8000kg of fuel - the man looked a little distraught, didn't have the couple of cows to give us.

[sisemen]

Dropping in to Paynes Find (Western Australia) in a 172 one day for fuel I tramped over to the adjacent road house for a coffee (no airfield facilities whatsoever - the fuel is in a drum trucked in from the roadhouse).

There was another guy sitting there having coffee with a backpack.

"Any chance of a lift to Perth mate?" he says

"Sorry, just going to Northam" says I.

"That'll do for me" he says.

To say his eyes opened wide when I offered the RHS for the trip was an understatement. He's probably still dining out on the story.

[500N]

siseman

"the fuel is in a drum trucked in from the roadhouse"

With the hand pump that takes ages to fill up a tank of anything ?

[AGS Man]

Reminds me of the old Neil Williams story. Flying back from somewhere east of the iron curtain at all of his fuel stops the bowser was a horse and cart with 45 gallon drums on the back. All of the "bowser drivers" produced a fuel sample before filling him up. On his first refuelling stop in West Germany he was met by an ultra modern state of the art fuel bowser and was filled up. About 10 minutes after getting airborne he suffered a partial engine failure due to... water in the fuel.

[sisemen]

With the hand pump that takes ages to fill up a tank of anything ?

Got it in one!

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

Brindisi 1994. Light aircraft ferry so only about 70 gals needed.
Fuel place took only cash or Eurocheques. Had to take a taxi downtown to get the cash on my credit card. Banks were useless, but eventually managed to get cash by pretending to buy about 80 pizzas at a very helpful pizzeria.
As I paid, another pilot came in looking to pay for the fuel in his 727 and waving an Amex card about......

I died laughing. I wonder how many pizzas that was?

[Bubblewindow]

A helicopter pilot fetching his own coffee?
Don't you have servants for that sort of thing?

Not a driver, they chauffeur me!! We all walked for coffee anyhow, everyone's equal on our crew (just put that in there for CRM purposes ;) )

I thought a Magnum was compulsary these days

It was a crap drizzly rainy day, very humid in the cab , they would have melted all over the console :O

[Union Jack]

There was another guy sitting there having coffee with a backpack.

Was his name Billy No-Mates?:)

Jack

[Herod]

UJ. Now you're doing my trick (but funnier). "Mildly eccentric".

[Union Jack]

UJ. Now you're doing my trick (but funnier). "Mildly eccentric".

Why thank you, kind Sir.:ok: I try, in fact my current NOK has been heard to say that I'm very trying!

Jack

[St Johns Wort]

A helicopter pilot fetching his own coffee?
Don't you have servants for that sort of thing?

In my many years as an SH Crewman I have made tea and coffee for literally hundreds of Pilots. All have received the same, faultless, standard of service. However, those who cast me in the role of servant and treated me as such always had a little more care and attention lavished on their beverage; you could say that 'a little bit of me’ went in there.:E

Happy days.:)

[charliegolf]

'a little bit of me’ went in there.



A tiny bit from what I heard! :ok:

CG

[St Johns Wort]

A tiny bit from what I heard!

Heard or tasted CG? You always were a quantity type rather than quality;)

Who makes your tea in the staff room?:suspect:

[charliegolf]

Never go in the staffroom, Sinjun, full of oiky teacher types!

Hope all's well

CG

[St Johns Wort]

Tip Top mate. See you in November?

[charliegolf]

November: that's the plan. Really enjoyed last year- sad git as I am!

CG

[engtechp]

I was a Ground Engineer on the VC10s when we went into an airport in the Far East that we did not normally use. On requesting fuel the Fuel Representative asked me to sign his form before I could have an uplift. I read the form (never sign without reading) and the jist was 'If the MOD don't pay the bill within 28 days I will be held personally responsible'. He explained it could take up to 2 years for payment from the MOD. I took the form off him, went up to my dear Captain and said "please sign here for the fuel", he did, without reading it Phew! :O

[NutLoose]

I remember a Ten in the States arrived at a field to fill up, Main fuel agent turned up in a big tanker, offered fuel at XYZ price, little independant turned up in smaller older Tanker and offered fuel at XYZ plus ten cents, as he was unable to match his larger brethren, thought a while, then said he would throw in a couple of cases of erm Beer....... The smile on his face as he went back and forth in his little tanker filling it up got bigger and bigger... he probably uplifted more fuel on that one day than the rest of his year.

.

[mad_jock]

I took the form off him, went up to my dear Captain and said "please sign here for the fuel", he did, without reading it Phew!

He more than likely signed it M.Mouse like alot of us do in the civi world.

[Union Jack]

I took the form off him, went up to my dear Captain and said "please sign here for the fuel", he did, without reading it. Phew!

Couldn't have been BEagle - could it?:ooh:

Jack

[Exascot]

Again a 10 Sqn VC10 story routing Seoul, Korea to LHR with the Foreign Secretary on board. We had to stage through Novosibirsk to refuel in the middle of the night. We had done this before with someone there from the Air Attaché’s office to ensure everything was in place for our arrival and a fast turnaround. A new consulate had just been established there and despite my request the embassy refused to send a responsible adult to ensure fair play and insisted that the consulate staff would be able to manage our requirements. We taxied in at about two in the morning and were parked in some remote corner of the airfield. There was nothing in sight apart from the marshaller and a car with a lady from the consulate. After shutting down, APU running, I went to the forward door and shouted down, ‘good morning’ to the lady as there were no steps. ‘Is there anything you need’, she said. Four hours later and having had to extend our crew duty time we departed.

During the prolonged turnaround the Foreign Secretary thought that he would get out of bed and greet the staff from his new consulate. Despite changing out of his pyjamas into a suit and tie the huge armed Russian guard refused to let him step off the aircraft so he went back to bed.