Meaning of airport tick marks on sectional charts

Recently I discovered that for a long time, I have been mis-interpreting
one aspect of reading sectional charts.

A few weeks ago, I was preparing for a flight to Shelter Cove on the
coast of Northern California. My planned fuel stop was the Little
River airport in Mendicino (O48 on the San Francisco sectional). I
noticed, however, that the airport symbol for Little River had no tick
marks. Thinking this was an error, I sent an email to NACO suggesting
the correction.

A few days later, I received a nice reply stating that the meaning
of tick marks is not just that the airport has fuel available. It
must have fuel AND be attended at least Monday through Friday, 10am
to 4pm local. Since Little River is not attended on Tuesdays and
Wednesdays, it doesn't get tick marks.

I suppose in days before the proliferation of self-serve fuel pumps,
the attendence requirement made sense. In order to get the fuel, you
had to have someone pump it for you, and more importantly, collect
the $$$. But now, I suspect many possible fuel stops might be missed
by only a casual survey of the chart for airports with tick marks,
especially if certain airports decide to forgo some weekday coverage in
order to cover the busier weekends.

Little River is the only airport I've found like this so far. Are
there many others? Would it be more beneficial to remove the attendence
requirement for tick marks?


Happy landings,
Ross Oliver

The airport in my hometown (Lincoln, IL) AAA has a self serve pump with
credit card reader, so it's a good fuel stop. and you are right, no ticks
because it is attended on irregular hours.

If you want all of those details, look to the current A/FD.


"Ross Oliver" wrote in message
...

Recently I discovered that for a long time, I have been mis-interpreting
one aspect of reading sectional charts.

A few weeks ago, I was preparing for a flight to Shelter Cove on the
coast of Northern California. My planned fuel stop was the Little
River airport in Mendicino (O48 on the San Francisco sectional). I
noticed, however, that the airport symbol for Little River had no tick
marks. Thinking this was an error, I sent an email to NACO suggesting
the correction.

A few days later, I received a nice reply stating that the meaning
of tick marks is not just that the airport has fuel available. It
must have fuel AND be attended at least Monday through Friday, 10am
to 4pm local. Since Little River is not attended on Tuesdays and
Wednesdays, it doesn't get tick marks.

I suppose in days before the proliferation of self-serve fuel pumps,
the attendence requirement made sense. In order to get the fuel, you
had to have someone pump it for you, and more importantly, collect
the $$$. But now, I suspect many possible fuel stops might be missed
by only a casual survey of the chart for airports with tick marks,
especially if certain airports decide to forgo some weekday coverage in
order to cover the busier weekends.

Little River is the only airport I've found like this so far. Are
there many others? Would it be more beneficial to remove the attendence
requirement for tick marks?


Happy landings,
Ross Oliver

I was taught (in ground school) that tickmarks meant "services". To me
that means more than self-serve fuel. It implies at least some sort of
maintanance facility, and to my knowledge, there are no self-service
aircraft maintanance shops around.

Jose
--
Nothing is more powerful than a commercial interest.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

Very interesting.
On my first trip there I planned a fuel stop at Ukiah since Little River
wasn't appropriately ticked.
Now I see that SS fuel is available.


In Ross Oliver wrote:

Recently I discovered that for a long time, I have been mis-
interpreting one aspect of reading sectional charts.

A few weeks ago, I was preparing for a flight to Shelter Cove on the
coast of Northern California. My planned fuel stop was the Little
River airport in Mendicino (O48 on the San Francisco sectional). I
noticed, however, that the airport symbol for Little River had no tick
marks. Thinking this was an error, I sent an email to NACO suggesting
the correction.

A few days later, I received a nice reply stating that the meaning
of tick marks is not just that the airport has fuel available. It
must have fuel AND be attended at least Monday through Friday, 10am
to 4pm local. Since Little River is not attended on Tuesdays and
Wednesdays, it doesn't get tick marks.

I suppose in days before the proliferation of self-serve fuel pumps,
the attendence requirement made sense. In order to get the fuel, you
had to have someone pump it for you, and more importantly, collect
the $$$. But now, I suspect many possible fuel stops might be missed
by only a casual survey of the chart for airports with tick marks,
especially if certain airports decide to forgo some weekday coverage
in order to cover the busier weekends.

Little River is the only airport I've found like this so far. Are
there many others? Would it be more beneficial to remove the
attendence requirement for tick marks?


Happy landings,
Ross Oliver

Mike W. wrote:
You have to get out the A/FD to see what they offer. And if it is
critical for you to get fuel at a certain airport, call them before
you go
to make sure. Even airports that sell fuel sometimes run out of the
stuff.

Good advice. I once stopped at a strange airport for fuel because it
had
the tickmarks on the sectional symbol. I found a closed-up FBO and no
services whatsoever. Fortunately, there was another airport with fuel
not far away.

David Johnson

The legend on the chart says: "Services - fuel available and field tended
during normal working hours..." No mention of maintenance facilities.
For example, the Byron airport (C83) according to the AOPA airport directory
has fuel but no maintenance, and that airport is depicted with tick marks.



On Tue, 01 Mar 2005 20:40:13 GMT, Jose wrote:
I was taught (in ground school) that tickmarks meant "services". To me
that means more than self-serve fuel. It implies at least some sort of
maintanance facility, and to my knowledge, there are no self-service
aircraft maintanance shops around.

The legend on the chart says: "Services - fuel available and field tended
during normal working hours..." No mention of maintenance facilities.

I take "fuel available" is just one of the services, not the definition
of "services".

For example, the Byron airport (C83) according to the AOPA airport directory
has fuel but no maintenance, and that airport is depicted with tick marks.

I'll keep this in mind. This is the first time I've been wrong.

Since the last time.

Jose
--
Nothing is more powerful than a commercial interest.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

(Ross Oliver) writes:

The legend on the chart says: "Services - fuel available and field tended
during normal working hours..." No mention of maintenance facilities. For
example, the Byron airport (C83) according to the AOPA airport directory has
fuel but no maintenance, and that airport is depicted with tick marks.

The NACO Aeronautical Chart User's Guide
(http://www.naco.faa.gov/index.asp?xml=naco/catalog/charts/supplementary/aero_guide)
is kind of vague, but seems to say ticks indicate "Refueling and repair
facilities for normal traffic."

Dan.