Questions from the Cockpit: Fill ‘er up

Rod, a private pilot from Oklahoma, writes: I’ve been flying for a long, long time. Back in the day, it seemed there was always someone on the Unicom to tell you the wind, and an airport “geezer” to fuel your plane — even at the smallest of airports. Yesterday, after listening to the weather robot, and landing at an unmanned airport and parking by the self-serve fuel pump, it occurred to me how much our world has changed, and I got to wondering… When did all this start? Where was the first self-serve airport, and when did it open for business? 

I, too, have been flying for a long, long time and I, too, remember the friendly human voice with the weather and the colorful, crusty geezers who dispensed the fuel. And like you, I lived through the transition from geezer to swipe-your-card-on-the-apron — but for the life of me, I can’t remember the first time I had to operate a self-serve pump at an airport. But I’m sure of one thing: It was a long, long time after the last automotive service station attendant was given his pink slip.

Aviation evolves slowly.

But, still, it was only a matter of time before pilots, who gassed up their own cars to get to the airport, would want to start gassing up their own planes once they got there.

And speaking of gassing up cars, the history of the self-serve gas station is worth reviewing, as it serves as the foundation for the self-serve fuel pump at the airport.

In 1947, the same year my family’s plane rolled off the assembly line, the first-ever self-serve gas station for cars opened in Los Angeles, California. Customers pumped their own gas, and girls on roller skates zoomed around to collect the money and reset the pumps. I’m not sure which shocked the public more.

Anyway, it didn’t catch on in a big way, and for the next two decades American drivers pulled into service stations, driving over rubber hoses that rang a bell to alert the attendant of a customer’s arrival. “Fill ‘er up, ma’am?”

Then, in 1964, “remote access” technology debuted in Westminster, Colorado. This tech allowed a single attendant to do the work of a squad of roller derby gals: The pumps could be reset by flipping switches inside the station.

It was actually the convenience store business that pioneered and adopted this model. It took a good decade for it to catch on, but ultimately it led to gas-selling convenience stores almost completely replacing the traditional service stations. Then, in 1973, pay at the pump was launched in Texas, and nothing was ever the same again.

Except at the airport. Where nothing has changed since pavement was introduced.

It would be nearly a decade and a half after pay at the pump debuted for cars before the first 24-hour self-serve pump showed up at an airport, and most sources agree that the honor for that innovation goes to Oshkosh Aero, then an FBO at Wittman Regional Airport.

The story goes that the owner, a pilot and homebuilder named Michael Webb, designed and launched the first aviation self-serve fuel system in 1987. Not long after that, he sold the FBO to Basler and launched U-Fuel, one of the early airport fuel system companies. (The self-serve pump maker OTpod also claims to have been first to the airport market sometime in the 1980s, but I couldn’t find any specifics.)

Still, it was more than a decade before the tech — and the business model —became widely accepted in the flying world. In the archives of Pilot magazine from 1997 I found an article titled, “Pumping your own fuel might save you a buck or two.” It introduced this novel thing that most pilots might not have heard of yet — self-serve avgas.

The article reported that the option was available at 417 airports nationwide, and it also included a how-to primer on self-fueling.

By 2010, Airport Improvement magazine was reporting that, “it took 15 years for self-serve to come into its own in the aviation industry,” and they thought the big growth was still ahead. They also offered the opinion that most pilots were now “familiar” with the systems.

By 2012, Aviation Pros pointed out that while nearly all of the country’s gas stations offered 24/7 credit card self-serve, only a third of airports did.

At about the same time, AVweb published an article on how dangerous self-fueling was, including data on the auto-ignition temperatures of different fuels, and how fast the “flame front” moves. Apparently for 100LL it’s 80 miles per hour. The author asked, “What kind of shape are you in?” suggesting you couldn’t out-run the fire you’d surely set by being so foolish as to gas up your own plane.

But now, more than three decades after the first plane pulled up to the first self-serve pump, any airport that has fuel has self-serve.

And while I miss the geezers, I confess that I like self serve. I can fuel up any day of the week, at any time of the day. I don’t have to worry about an inexperienced line person damaging my ride. It’s cost effective, if such a thing can be said about avgas.

And self-serve is fast. I don’t have to cool my heals on the hot asphalt waiting forever to buy five gallons of gas while the FBO fuels the Lear and the two twins in line ahead of me — although about half the time, if it doesn’t look too busy, I actually will buy from the truck just to do my part to support the folks bold enough to try to run airport businesses. 

But the real beauty of self-serve, to me, is that it lets me visit airports in small towns that couldn’t possibly justify selling fuel without self-serve. Airports like, say, Muleshoe Municipal Airport (2T1) in Texas (population 5,158), where I landed for fuel just the other day.

William E. Dubois is a commercial pilot and ground instructor who needs a new retirement plan now that airport geezers are extinct.