DO NOT TREAD ON ME!

I had a funny thing happen to me at Scottsdale Airport (SDL) self fuel at Ross Aviation. Ross had problems with their self fuel hose where it would kink up when rewound, and the next user could not get the hose out. It would take two linemen to pull the hose out to untangle it. Last 2 times when I could not untangle the hose I called Ross for help and no one ever came out. I taxied to my hangar and requested fuel out of the truck. Ross never showed on either occasion, and I had to go back the next day twice to refuel the plane out of the truck. This is not very good customer service.

Since I timed out when I turned on the hose and could not pull it out,  I was charged anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2  gallon for fuel I never pumped into my airplane. I called Ross, and they said this is a charge to pressurize the system. That did not sound right to me. If you go to a gas station and pump fuel you are not charged until the fuel starts going into your car. I contacted the GM again with no results. I then contacted the corporate office and was blown off again. The next time I used their self fuel, I noticed when I turned on the pump I was charged before putting any fuel into the airplane.

I wrote an email to the owner of Ross and never received an answer. I have used self fuel over the entire Western US and never was charged for fuel until it was pumped into the airplane. I called a couple of other self fuel operations,  and they all said the same thing that you should not be charged until fuel nozzle is turned on and fuel is flowing into the airplane.

I then went to the Aviation Commission meeting and explained my problem. They have put it on the agenda for next meeting for discussion.

In the interim I called ADOT weights and measures and explained my situation. They came out to SDL about a week latter and saw my problems and closed down the Ross Aviation self fuel at SDL. As of this writing it is still closed and red tagged by ADOT.

I emailed Ross and told them I could do this the simple way and asked for a small fuel credit, or the hard way and file a class action suit. The GM could not make a decision and passed it onto their legal department. I received an email a few days later giving me the credit I asked for.

When something like this occurs I wish to give the FBO the benefit of the doubt and would hope they would fix it. After numerous calls and emails, Ross did nothing to rectify the situation until they were closed down by ADOT for illegal operations. So instead of taking care of the problem they are now probably going to have to pay a fine to ADOT and appear before the Commission explaining why they did what they did and why their service is so bad on the field.

I dislike having to go to the effort to rectify the situation, but could not let Ross Aviation get away with what I consider criminal activity and lousy service.