Does your aircraft have a story?

arnoha

arnoha

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arnoha
Well, I bought a plane. (I've had a couple other threads where I plumbed the collective minds of PoA doing so, so you guys probably already know that.) It's a 172SP, possibly the most boring plane ever invented, but it's going on leaseback. This is not a personal plane, but a business. Very possibly a money losing business at the rate things are going, but we'll see...

That said, even as a business, my plane has a story. I realized that as I was flying it from Tampa to San Jose on its journey home. This may be a boring aircraft on its own, but the things I do with it aren't. Even how the business turns out may or may not be boring. (I'm kinda hoping for boring...)

So, I started a record in the form of a blog. (Gah, I hate the word "blog". But a log of stories published on the web is quite literally what I'm looking for. Blog it is!) https://n194sp.wordpress.com/ for now, but looking to register n194sp.aero when SITA approves me.

Anyone else do the same? Keep a notebook, blog, or just have a few stories you pull out of memory when asked about your aircraft?
 
Purchased from John Travolta's next door neighbor.
That is probably the only talking point so far.
 
It has a pretty hideous pain job. Not much else. It's a plane, it flies. What other stories are there about a plane? It's the pilot that does everything.
 
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The previous owner (4-way partnership) crashed mine before I bought it. They were even nice enough to provide pictures for keepsake. I lost those pictures, but kept the repair receipts. I plan on flying it to Puerto Rico and back in the next couple years. I'll definitively keep those pictures. :D
 
EdFred said:
It hag a pretty hideous pain job. Not much else. It's a plane, it flies. What other stories are there about a plane? It's the pilot that does everything.
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You give yourself too much credit.
 
EdFred said:
It hag a pretty hideous pain job. Not much else. It's a plane, it flies. What other stories are there about a plane? It's the pilot that does everything.
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Well, that was kinda the point. The "thing" is never the story. It's the focal point that tells the story about the people around it. If you start with a plane, you get stories about pilots, about owners, about mechanics, and about everyone else involved.

Now the question is, are the stories interesting? I guess I'll find out.
 
Our Sundowner's original owner purchased the plane so he could finish his golden retrievers on the show circuit. After digging a little deeper we found out he supplied the original 'Duke' for the Busch beans commercials.

I guess the plane kept its dog theme going since we fly with our American Mastiff and do dog rescue flights for the Mid Atlamtic English Springer Spaniel Rescue.
 
arnoha said:
Well, that was kinda the point. The "thing" is never the story. It's the focal point that tells the story about the people around it. If you start with a plane, you get stories about pilots, about owners, about mechanics, and about everyone else involved.

Now the question is, are the stories interesting? I guess I'll find out.
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What I'm saying if it wasn't this plane, it would be a different plane. And if not that one, another one.

Although, for ****s and giggles, I looked up a few serial numbers on either side of mine, and it turns out, that someone at my airport has a serial number only 2 off from mine. 57 years after rolling off the assembly line on probably the same day, they currently sit only a couple hundred feet apart.
 
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One time I sat in the pilot seat of a DC-6 that was once owned and flown by Howard Hughes.
 
My 150 was in a hail storm big enough to warrant it's own wiki page.

Same 150's previous owner bought it because his previous plane, which he had exactly 1.0 hours in, was hit by a deer just before takeoff. In other words, brand new pilot bought himself a new-to-him plane.... still with his CFI during checkout, and it's totaled by a deer. So he bought what I eventually bought from him.

My 172 had a raven/hawk/something go through the windshield, causing injury to the occupants. AFAIK, this was on the ground, too.
 
Some minor history on mine. Early documents signed by Olive Beach. Purchased for resell by Rosco Turner:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roscoe_Turner

From there it was the corporate transport for a refrigeration company for about 20 years. Mostly used for personal trips since then accept for a time in the 90s it was used to transport medical items. (Not sure if it was drugs or human parts... )


Just wish they took the flare optional equipment- that would have been really cool..
 
My old 441 was owned by Charlie Hillard until his death at Sun N Fun. His widow wanted his N number back, N55CH, which was fine with me, I was changing it anyway. :D Last I looked it was available if anybody wants it. :dunno:
When I bought the last liquid cooled 414A from RAM we were trying to decide on a paint scheme and ended up copying Patrick Swayze's. The day I picked it up his was at their shop and I took a picture of both of them together. He was on the phone with Jim Almon from RAM and I ended up speaking to him for 5 minutes or so, nice guy just told me not to fly my plane to the west coast! :lol:
 
I've got an engine that has a story....the O-300 in my 170 was once used as a movie prop in one of the Terminator movies.
 
My 172N was my dad's for 20 years until his death in 2008. After my mother died in 1995, the airplane was his life. He doted on it, and added a number of nice upgrades. When he died, I couldn't bear to sell it; I wound up selling my other airplane instead.

I think of him every time I fly it.
 
Interesting. Folks have all taken what I wrote to mean something slightly different than I had intended. Now that I re-read my title, it makes sense since I didn't write my title too well.

I was really trying to ask if you had recorded the stories associated with your aircraft. But that's not what my thread title says. Feel free the answer either question. (Also suggests that folks tend to only read thread titles before answering...)

As far as I know, my particular aircraft itself has no identifiable story to it yet. It's just a generic 172. But let's see what color I end up adding to it.
 
arnoha said:
Interesting. Folks have all taken what I wrote to mean something slightly different than I had intended. Now that I re-read my title, it makes sense since I didn't write my title too well.

I was really trying to ask if you had recorded the stories associated with your aircraft. But that's not what my thread title says. Feel free the answer either question. (Also suggests that folks tend to only read thread titles before answering...)

As far as I know, my particular aircraft itself has no identifiable story to it yet. It's just a generic 172. But let's see what color I end up adding to it.
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Speaking of color, who in their right mind made white the primary color on most aircraft? It's such a pain in the ass to try to see in the sky when looking for traffic!
 
Someone replaced the entire exhaust system including muffler AND one magneto. Hmm, wonder what happened? I know. A prize for anyone that guesses it right.
 
mkosmo said:
Speaking of color, who in their right mind made white the primary color on most aircraft? It's such a pain in the ass to try to see in the sky when looking for traffic!
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I'm guessing it has to do with temperature. Lacking A/C, white will make an aircraft most bearable in heat. It's also a neutral color to paint things when you probably want to repaint them later.

coloradobluesky said:
Someone replaced the entire exhaust system including muffler AND one magneto. Hmm, wonder what happened? I know. A prize for anyone that guesses it right.
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Uh, gear up landing?
 
My Matrix has a story for sure.

As it was told to me...

SERIAL#1
First factory WAAS Piper.

N
350 350 horsepower
M M Class
X born with an experimental airworthiness certificate.

Google Piper Matrix N350MX and you get pix of N350MX without a final paint...
 
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My airplane's story.

I took care of my Malibu for about 15 years before I bought it from the first owner. For a number years I noticed that the paint and cabin windows on the left side of the fuselage were chipped but I never asked what had happened. My wife and I met up with him at a Malibu convention one year and she had to ask him what happened.

He tells us that a good friend had died and was cremated. The old owner wanted to spread his friend's ashes in the air from his Malibu. He came up with a elaboate,chute arrangement the extended out through the open pilot storm window. He had everything well planned except he didn't know that the remains consisted of more than just ashes like teeth and bone parts. The friend left a lasting impression down the side of the Malibu. My wife laughed hysterically as he told this story.

I polished the nicks out the glass and left the paint alone. I always thought about this when I waxed it.
 
Mine has a hook that was used to tow targets at a British Naval Air station. Strange they used a French plane for the job…. ;)

Never used for gliders, as far as I know (at least, that's the story I'm sticking to!)

I asked the prior owner for his stories (he's actually a professional historian) and he gave me good material on the plane.
 
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Mine has a million, but they're all personal flights with great memories.:yes:
 
My Lance had a special airworthiness certificate for a while in the early 80s for internal (in the cabin) fuel cells. It flew in two transatlantic air races from Canada to Paris. Who in their right mind would want to fly to Paris at 150 knots?


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Gene Hackman purchased my 1979 A36TC new. Lots of paperwork with his name and address.
 
sealsjc said:
My Lance had a special airworthiness certificate for a while in the early 80s for internal (in the cabin) fuel cells. It flew in two transatlantic air races from Canada to Paris. Who in their right mind would want to fly to Paris at 150 knots?


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Charles Lindbergh may have liked that speed....
 
Our plane was used as one of the piper brochure aircraft.

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It's a '75 arrow. I think we have a a copy of the brochure in the hangar or something.

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