Previously Owned Aircraft--Do you stalk them?

Kelvin

Kelvin

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Garner NC
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KTD
I feel this odd kinship with all of the aircraft I have owned.

I bought a 2005 172SP in Decemebr of 2006 with 8 hours in my log book. I got my PPC in this aircraft and sold it after flying it for 350 or so hours.

I bought an '07 182T brand new and sold it after flying to about 900 hours over 4 years.

The 172 is now in Australia where it was headed when I sold it. It just got a KILLER paint job and I think a new engine. It looks amazing!

The 182 was bought new....I sold it to Van Bortel, who resold it to a guy in the DC area who owned it for 11 years. Van Bortel bought back this year then resold it It is now in the Northeastern US. It still looks as good as it did the day I sold it.

Does anyone else stalk their prior aircraft? I sure do.
 

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All the time. Not just the airplane but also the owners. None of them have complained so far. My first plane (Quad City Challenger) didn't fly for two years after I sold it. The owner now finally got his solo endorsement and flew it last summer. I saw his flight on Youtube. My second plane (Rans S6) was sold to a person who completely redid the plane. Didn't fly for two years. The other day, I'm at the airport where I'm currently based out of and I saw the old Rans on the ramp. The owner decided to base the aircraft there as well now. Seems like no big deal, but considering that's a few thousand miles from where I lived before, the odds suddenly become much lower. Chatted with the new owner for a little bit and he had medical issues, now all resolved so he's flying the plane. The third plane (Ercoupe) was sold to a guy who was local. He ran into issues with his training and didn't fly the plane for two years. The other day, I went to my avionics guy for a x-ponder recert and see the Ercoupe's x-ponder on his desk. I asked what's up with the plane and he said the guy finally got his PPL and is putting the plane to an annual. Once the annual is complete, he is exporting the plane to France where the pilot is from. The fourth plane (Cessna 150) I sold to a 17 year old student pilot. He texted me last year telling me that he got his PPL in the plane. He still owns it and uses it to build hours. The fourth plane (Piper Cherokee) was sold to another student pilot. I haven't heard from him since I sold him the plane in May. I sure hope he's flying the plane and training in it. Nothing on FlightAware thus far though.

On the flip side, I also keep in touch with the people who sell me their planes, at least for the time I own the plane.
 
My old Tomahawk came to a bad end a few years after I sold it. Someone apparently ran it out of fuel, then stalled/spun in the aftermath. Two fatalities.

Pretty sobering.
 
I check flightaware for my former archer all the time. It certainly does fewer miles than I did bit it's still flown regularly. I believe they put a new engine in it too and an autopilot.
 
After tracking it down, became Facebook friends with the person who became the owner of the airplane I got my private in more than 20 years later.
 
I know where my old plane ended up.
As a parts donor for similar aircraft still flying….
 
I ended up just 2 rows away from SixPapaCharlie at Osh 2 years ago.
I heard her flying in somewhere around Arkansas and proceded to share the radio all the way in. Some young girl is flying the wings off that plane.

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This year as I was leaving Osh, I saw my Grumman taxiing down the taxiway. It lives in Minnesota now and I see it going on lots of adventures on instagram. Both planes have gone to very active pilots.

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Occasionally I check in on the Luscombe my Dad owned in the '50's. I exchanged letters and some old photos of the plane with the guy who did a beautiful restoration of it some years ago. It seemed to drop off the FAA registry for a few years, but is back now. Current owner didn't respond when I sent him photos, but at least the plane is still flying.
 
Oh, you betcha!

The first airplane in our family (1968-73) was a 1965 Cessna 150E. I got my commercial, instrument and CFI in it - and the toughest test of all, the first date with my wife of 50+ years. I knew the airplane had been exported to Canada decades ago, so when curiosity finally got the best of me, I traced it by serial number to Alberta, and wrote to the current registered owner. I asked him to indulge an old pilot's nostalgia, and he replied with current photos. It is upgraded with a 150 hp engine, and a spectacular new paint job. It is magnificent!

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I didn't have to stalk the Grumman-American Cheetah I owned 1999-2003. Its current owner is a tremendous ambassador for general aviation in the San Diego area, and has posted several excellent videos of the airplane.


In 2007 I bought a new CubCrafters Sport Cub, and picked the registration number N121PS (for Psalm 121) for it. I sold it in 2013, and didn't see it again until I happened to see it in recent YouTube videos of STOL competitions. It brought back wonderful memories, but I was never able to get that kind of performance out of it!

(start at 10:00 mark)

A while back I went through my logbook in one hand, and the NTSB and FAA registration databases in the other, to see what happened to airplanes I'd rented over the last half-century-plus, as well. It was a little disheartening. A surprising number of them had been in some kind of accident, some very serious or catastrophic. Many of the trainers, like N744JG the one I first soloed, had hard-landing accidents, some more than one. A lovely Piper Warrior that I had once enjoyed renting was destroyed years later in an apparent suicide crash, and a Navion Rangemaster I used to fly also went down under very suspicious circumstances. N744JG's stablemate, N733JG, failed to survive a student's venture into IMC near San Diego, though the student himself lived to tell the tale. Another from my pre-solo days, C-150F N8188S, was substantially damaged in a hard landing in 1967 (not by me!), only to be written off two years later after a fuel-less off-airport forced landing. A Cessna 152 fell victim to a mixture of alcohol and fog, and a Saratoga and its pilot were lost to an overabundance of air in the fuel tanks. A Mooney 201 hit a house when a go-around somehow went bad.
 
Also the former owner of my current plane checks in on me from time to time to ask how she's doing.
 
Yep, I keep getting FlightAware notices whenever my former Archer goes flying.

The first purchaser flew it around in Texas periodically, and lately it appears to have been sold to a flight school in Arizona because it's going on multiple local flights a day, tracing wacky patterns in the sky.

Kinda makes me sad thinking it's getting beat up in a flight school
 
bcool said:
Yep, I keep getting FlightAware notices whenever my former Archer goes flying.

The first purchaser flew it around in Texas periodically, and lately it appears to have been sold to a flight school in Arizona because it's going on multiple local flights a day, tracing wacky patterns in the sky.

Kinda makes me sad thinking it's getting beat up in a flight school
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Better than the alternative of it rotting away on some ramp.
 
Many years ago I took a guided tour at Udvar-Hazy, I highly recommend it. The guide was well informed and took us around explaining not just the airplane and significance, but when he had flown the type, he said something like “I’ve got 25 hours in this type” or “I have 50 hours in the C model of this airplane” and he talked about the handling characteristic. One of the last aircraft, he pointed to and said “I have 350 hours in THAT airplane and that’s my name on the side of it.

IMO, that is professional level stalking.
 
bflynn said:
Many years ago I took a guided tour at Udvar-Hazy, I highly recommend it. The guide was well informed and took us around explaining not just the airplane and significance, but when he had flown the type, he said something like “I’ve got 25 hours in this type” or “I have 50 hours in the C model of this airplane” and he talked about the handling characteristic. One of the last aircraft, he pointed to and said “I have 350 hours in THAT airplane and that’s my name on the side of it.

IMO, that is professional level stalking.
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Did he talk about the Swift....hanging from the ceiling? That's my hangar neighbor's old plane....he donated it. ;)
 
But of course,,nice to know aircraft you owned and maintained are still flying.
 
What's this selling aircraft concept? I don't seem to comprehend the idea at all. The only aircraft I ever sold I bought right back again.
 
I have sent some photos of the airplane to the previous owner, so I’ve done the reverse of you guys.
 
When I was selling my last plane...the Six....the previous owner contacted me and wanted to buy it for less than he sold it. That was quite the joke. :D
 
I do occasionally check on my former planes, my 310R was in South America, I saw my first 414A in Destin many years ago, it ended up being repossessed and ended up at a dealer in Atlanta.
 
I've got a good stalker story, this must've been 3 years ago. Took a long lunch and flew around for half an hour. Got a phone call on my way back to work but didn't recognize the number so I left it go to voicemail. One of the previous owners of my Swift from the early 60's had been on one of the flight tracking websites and was all excited to see the plane was still flying (it was in pieces for 30ish years). He waited until I landed and called the airport FBO. The guy working didn't have my phone number and I was shut down and out of the airport fast, but he knew my work number and gave him that, and a coworker gave him my cell number. Ended up talking to him for a good half hour after I listened to my voicemail and called him back, even got some pictures from back in the day!
 

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My first plane is in my hangar. So I don't need to stalk it.

I just looked up the first plane I had a formal lesson in, a CAP 172, N5132G. That number is now a balloon.

The plane I did my Private in is alive and well and flying regularly in NJ. I may have to track it down and go visit it. Grumman Tiger N28269
 
My first plane that I actually owned is now in England. I've lost track of it and the owner during the Covid mess. It was a 65Hp Champ.
 
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I found my STOL 1976 C-150. It has a normal paint job now, since the hideous baby **** brown factory color was changed immediately after I sold it. Cessna called it "Antigua Gold."

OK, how do I resize images in this new forum software?
 

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I've only owned one aircraft (and still own it), but I have a lot of time in a particular club plane. It was also the plane Margy learned to fly in. It was sold to Stan Fetter who does the DC traffic spotting flights. A couple of years ago I'm walking past the Continental booth at Oshkosh. No way! I say. What? Margy asks. Check the number on that plane. It had been restored and was on Display.
 
It’s kind of cathartic to search Flightaware and see my old plane still flying.

A good friend talks about visiting a museum to see the bird he solo’d in.
 
kyleb said:
My old Tomahawk came to a bad end a few years after I sold it. Someone apparently ran it out of fuel, then stalled/spun in the aftermath. Two fatalities.

Pretty sobering.
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Indeed that is.

The Tomahawk that I was entrusted to care for and feed for a few years ended up as a working girl at a flight school in Texas. I believe she retired to Südamerika where she is living her life at a little airport outside of Buenos Aries, Argentina - the last contact I had was in 2005....
 
I'm glad to see that airplane stalking is 'normal'. Dad sold the RV-7A (first plane we built) recently. I had to disable FlightAware notifications for it b/c it made me sick to see it flying knowing that it wasn't me or dad in it. Unfortunately, it remained local so I wouldn't be surprised to hear it on the radio or see it on the ramp somewhere around here.
 
I found the C-150 in which I did most of my PP training in Iowa. It also has a spiffy new paint job in the Flightaware photo, but the FAA registration page shows it expired.

I tried to post the photo, but I get an error every time I try. What's up with that, admins?
 
IK04 said:
I found the C-150 in which I did most of my PP training in Iowa. It also has a spiffy new paint job in the Flightaware photo, but the FAA registration page shows it expired.

I tried to post the photo, but I get an error every time I try. What's up with that, admins?
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Could be one of those weird new graphics file formats when you copy photos from the web...try saving as a jpg, then posting after that.
 
Piperonca said:
Could be one of those weird new graphics file formats when you copy photos from the web...try saving as a jpg, then posting after that.
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It's a resized 800X600 JPG file. I'll see if a different file loads OK, then give up ;)

Update: Nope. nothing works.
 
Link to the Flightaware photo? Curious now.
 
My Kid who lives in Alaska now and me in Texas saw our Warrior yesterday on the way to a Wedding in Washington State fifteen min from the venue. I sold it in Scottsdale six months ago…
I also cannot upload a photo…says it can’t be written to the server and the sight admin will need to address the issue…
 
IK04 said:
It's a resized 800X600 JPG file. I'll see if a different file loads OK, then give up ;)

Update: Nope. nothing works.
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Found your photos easily enough, but mystified how to load them. Been futzing with it a while.
 
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