Right Rudder ups the Ante
On July 16th, Right Rudder Aviation filed a lawsuit against Citrus County regarding the termination of their lease back in June. This has been on my radar for a couple of weeks. Either the county was going to file first for eviction or Right Rudder was going to file for breach of contract among other things. Let's take a look.
First, a brief history. Right Rudder came to the county in 2018. They were awarded the RFQ after another FBO failed and went out of business. Over the past 7 years, everyone agrees that the Inverness airport is the best it has ever been. So what is the issue?
Most of this started in mid 2023 when Right Rudder was looking to extend their lease. Their lease provides them 20 years total, but done in 5 year increments if both parties agree to extend. In 2023, the BOCC tried to only extend for a year or two. They didnt want to give the full 5 year renewal. They cited the ongoing airport study as the reason to not extend it long term as they wanted to re-vamp all the contracts and whatnot surrounding the airport and wanted to address Right Rudder's contract when the study was done.
Fast forward to mid 2024 and the BOCC decided they needed to hire an aviation attorney to handle the contracts, lease agreements for hangars, and other aviation related items. This included revamping the FBO contract for the next term. Since August 2024 when Chris Wilson was hired, the county has been looking for ways to get out of the Right Rudder contract and sent them letters of non-compliance to the contract. This resulted in a termination letter being sent to Right Rudder in May 2025 to cancel the lease.
All caught up? Good. Time for the lawsuit.
Right Rudder Aviation has filed a lawsuit against Citrus County, Florida, alleging multiple breaches of their lease agreement and related misconduct concerning their operation as the Fixed Base Operator (FBO) at the Inverness Airport.
The core of the complaint stems from a 2018 lease agreement granting Right Rudder Aviation rights to provide essential aviation services at the airport. According to Right Rudder, the lease included provisions to prevent Citrus County from competing with or offering more favorable terms to other aeronautical service providers. Despite these terms, the County allegedly violated the agreement by leasing hangars and land to third parties—including a 25-year lease with a local resident and a pending lease with Livewire Aviation—on more favorable terms than Right Rudder received.
Right Rudder also claims Citrus County attempted to wrongfully terminate their lease based on two disputed issues: failure to submit subleases for approval and failure to maintain a Part 141 flight school certificate. The company asserts that the lease never required ongoing Part 141 certification and that they operated a compliant flight school under Part 61. Furthermore, they argue that sublease approval was not historically required and that they ultimately complied with requests, yet never received feedback.
Additionally, Right Rudder accuses the County of breaching good faith by competing directly with their operations, neglecting infrastructure maintenance, and using the threat of lease termination to demand sensitive financial information—which the County later published, exposing the company to potential identity theft and a violation of Florida public records laws.
The suit includes claims for wrongful termination, breach of contract, breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing, public records law violations, and wrongful eviction through self-help actions like removing signage and placing competing fuel infrastructure on site.
Right Rudder seeks reinstatement of the lease, injunctive relief, and damages exceeding $50,000.
We will see how this plays out, but it will be costly to Citrus taxpayers if the County loses or attorney's fees aren't awarded if the county wins. As of June 30th, the county has spent $19,443 on attorney's fees related to Right Rudder since August 2024 when Mr Wilson's law firm was hired. We will see how much more expensive this will get.