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24 GROUND SUPPORT WORLDWIDE APRIL 2016 FBO FOCUS HII HYD-3865.3 HYDRAULICS INTERNATIONAL, INC. 9201 Independence Ave., Chatsworth, CA 91311 USA (Phone) 818.407.3400 | (Fax) 818.407.3428 www.hiigroup.com Hydraulics International, Inc. Primary use for flling or topping off... Even if your source gas pressure drops below 300-PSI OXYGEN & NITROGEN BOOSTERS Onboard Oxygen Bottles • Struts • Escape Chute High Altitude Low Opening (HALO) • Life Rafts • Tires 2G SERIES Electric Driven • 5000-PSIG rated • 15 SCFM discharge rate • Quiet, only 60 dba • No belts or pulleys • 2-Stage and double acting confgurations INCREASE PROFITS Gas Boosters provide up to 40% MORE FILLS 5G SERIES Air Driven • 5000-PSIG rated • 36 SCFM discharge rate • Portable • Single acting, double acting and 2-stage confgurations • Two (2) bottle hand truck • Fits bottles 9.3" in diameter and 51" in height • Accommodates single / double acting and 2-stage confgurations • Automatic shutoff safety valves HIHPG1 SERIES Air Driven Made in the U.S.A. AviationPros.com/10017435 transitional surface. Hence, to build a hangar with a 28-foot door for example, this may mean that building is set back some 200 feet. It is therefore the transitional surface that creates non-buildable areas of lease- holds and for FBOs, effectively dictates the size and layout of their ramp. Whether a function of a leasehold for- mula for non-buildable areas or Part 77, the seemingly ubiquitous asphalt known as the ramp can create unusual angst between an FBO, its customers, and sometimes, the air- port itself. Why? With very rare exceptions, FBOs at pub- lic use airports in the United States pay monthly leasehold fees to their landlord; be it the city, county, municipality or operator of the airport itself. That leasehold fee is usually straight-forward: the total amount of square footage for a given parcel, mul- tiplied by a formula price per square foot. Taxes and other fees often accompany the monthly rent, so to speak. Returning to the primer on buildable versus non-buildable areas of a leasehold, a signifcant portion of an FBO's leasehold may be unbuildable. Thus, those unbuildable portions become ramp space, and are only able to be used for parking of aircraft, and providing FBO line services, such as fuel. If that ramp area is asphalt or similar, an FBO must main- tain that surface at great expense. Over the lifetime of a leasehold, an FBO may need to resurface or replace the ramp several times. Minor surface repairs such as crack sealing may take place annually, while seal coatings occur perhaps every three to fve years depending on the airport's geography. For an FBO then, a great portion of their monthly rent to their airport is for an area of the leasehold they cannot build upon but must maintain it at great expense. Recovering Costs So how can they recover those costs? Handling fees, parking fees, or ideally, both. And that, as they say, is the rub. For some customers of an FBO, no pricing mechanism yet invented seems as unsavory as paying to park on the FBO's ramp for a few minutes. "But we're just dropping off our passengers" is the well-intentioned yet all too familiar refrain from the fight crew. Likewise, a daily or overnight parking fee charged by an FBO seems like high- way robbery, or does it? Here's an experi- ment: Fly into an airport near a major city FAR Part 77 defnes the usage of various surfaces throughout an airport, including "imaginary" and "transitional" surfaces.