I Wanna Be a Billionaire

 “I wanna be a billionaire, so fricking bad
buy all of the things I never had
Uh, I wanna be on the cover of Forbes magazine
smiling next to Oprah and the Queen”

-Travie McCoy

This week I had a business trip in the A36 to Tallahassee. On the way up, I flew though a thin line of weather, created by a cold front moving through Florida. According to my XM weather, convective activity was to the east, and there were no sparks on the Stormscope. Once north of the line, the weather cleared nicely. From there, it was easy sailing into Tallahassee, albeit with a 35 knot headwind component.

Right-click to view larger images:

Avidyne MFD with XM Radar

 

Penetrating a thin line of weather, on climb-out of KLEE

The Tallahassee Airport was not busy. I “called” the airport 15 miles out and tower immediately cleared me to land. There were few private aircraft on the ramp, surprising because the State Legislature is in session.  

If you are landing at KTLH, there is only one FBO serving GA, Million Air Tallahassee. Million Air is the former Flightline Group FBO.

After seeing my fuel bill, I decided that they should change their name from Million Air to Billion Air, because you have to be one in order to afford the aviation fuel there. At $7.309 per gallon, TLH has the most expensive 100LL within a 55 mile radius. In a single engine aircraft like the Bonanza, you must either upload 30 gallons of very expensive fuel, or pay a $35 facility fee. According to AIRNAV, the average price of fuel in the area is $5.39 per gallon.

The Million Air facility is nice, but it is not on the scale of grandeur that justifies what they charge for avgas and jet fuel. This is Tallahassee, Florida, not Boca Raton, DeKalb-Peachtree or Teterboro for goodness sakes!

The one redeeming thing about Million Air Tallahassee is the individual flat screen TVs over each urinal in the Men’s Room. For a moment, you can catch up on baseball scores or CNBC, and forget about your fuel bill.