A Pissing Match Runs Its Course

What a pain in the rear the last 4 weeks have been.

One day last month, there's a new read file. Basically it states that all a/c are to be refueled at Chandler, 8 miles southwest of Williams Gateway. The reason: fuel at Chandler is over $1.00 a gallon cheaper, even full-service.

Gateway Aviation refuses to lower the price. If I was in their shoes, I wouldn't either. A flight school's $60-75k per month in fuel is nice and the loss would be felt. However, IWA is on the verge of MAJOR growth. A virtually clean slate airport with three 10,000 foot runways in a metro area with nearly 5 million people is definitely going places. Sky Harbor needs a reliever and IWA is perfect. Gateway Aviation is sitting on a gold mine. Why reel under pressure?

Logistically, it was a nightmare. Every lesson had to originate or end in Chanlder. Double logbook entries had to be made (students couldn't log the time between CHA and IWA or it would be considered a ferry flight). It basically ate at least 30 minutes out of a 2 hour lesson block. Planes were always coming in late.

To make matters worse, UND/Mesa Air and some others started doing the same. One day last week after a fuel stop in Chandler, it took 35 minutes from startup to takeoff due to heavy traffic. What is this...O'Hare? We had over a dozen light a/c in front of us. Both runways were active and the pattern was FULL. Plus there were helicopters everywhere. Way too much traffic for a little airport like CHD. Their controllers were getting a little stressed. They were used to the country club atmosphere with much fewer operations.

Thankfully, cooler heads have prevailed and we're back to fueling with Gateway aviation. Their price has come down enough to mitigate the value of flying to CHD for gas. At least it's not Snottsdale, where FS 100/LL is over $5.50/gallon. That must be some really good avgas.

Gateway does a much better job refueling. Two weeks ago, I had full service refueling at Chandler. I came back from a restroom break, signed the ppwk and headed back to IWA. Of course when I returned, people were standing there waiting for the a/c. After checking the tanks, they asked if I refueled. Huh? I just left Chandler. The dude didn't top off both tanks. Only the left one. Duh-huh. I should have checked at Chandler, but dang. If you fuel small GA planes for a living, woudln't you know that a Cherokee has a tank in each wing?