Strange Phone Call

Chrisgoesflying

Chrisgoesflying

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Chrisgoesflying
I'll leave details out for privacy reasons. A few days ago, I get a phone call from an unknown number. I usually don't answer if I don't know the number unless I'm expecting a call. I quickly googled the number and found out it's an airport a few hundred miles away. I called them back. The manager told me that an airplane landed at his airport a few months ago and I am listed as the last registered owner of the plane. He gave me the tail number and sure enough, it's a plane I sold over two years ago. When I sold it, I unregistered it, which is something we can do here in Canada to avoid being held liable for things after a new owner takes possession, so as of right now (and for the last two years), the plane simply wasn't registered to anyone. Long story short, the manager told me that some guy (his description matches the person I sold the plane to), flew the plane in a while ago, paid for ramp parking for a week in advance and said he'd come back and pick up the plane "next week". Well, "next week" was months ago, the new owner's phone number doesn't connect anywhere and the airport manager doesn't know what to do with the plane, so he called me asking if I know anything or if I have a different number for the new owner. We compared numbers and we both had the same.

Long story short, the new owner did not register the plane for the past two years but still flew the plane several hundred miles. Maybe he had a ferry permit though but I don't know that. I know the plane just recently passed its annual because my mechanic (several hundred miles away from where the plane is now) told me about it.

This is just a strange story all around I guess.
 
Strange enough! I had an instructor years ago that sold a plane to a man that wrote him a check for the full amount. I was told that the check cleared the bank. Seems the buyer was never ever was heard from again.

Six months later the instructor sold the plane again. I asked what he would do if the first buyer came back for the plane or the money. He told me that the plane was gone and the money had went into a hole ... :dunno:
 
Sounds like the beginning of a story for missing persons or murder mystery.
 
The weirdest one I know of was the plane that landed, taxied in and parked by the fence in front of the flight school. A guy in a Land Rover pulled up and parked on the other side of the fence. They offloaded some stuff and the Land Rover departed. The guy hopped back in and went to start up. But, had some kind of electrical problem that resulted in sparks and smoke. He shut down and just left the plane there.

We thought he be coming back pretty quick. But, when he didn't, we attempted to track down the registered owner to see if we could move the aircraft to a transient spot. We were surprised to find out, that the aircraft belonged to someone we had heard of that had died in a crash in Alaska a couple of months before. Not knowing what was going on, we didn't want to mess with anything, so we left the aircraft alone. After a couple of hours, the guy comes back with the other guy in the Range Rover, and he starts the aircraft uhp and taxiis it over behind a row of old port hangars. We think he's got a friend with a hangar over there that might be letting him use it to work on his plane. But, in just a few minutes, he comes roaring back towards the runway, taxiing way too fast, without any radio calls or anything, he blasts onto the runway at the A3 taxiway, shoves the throttle in and takes off toward the south, apparently turning on course nearly as soon as he cleared the runway.

I happened to be standing out front in time to see the Land Rover speed off the we he had came also. Just weird!
 
How often does anyone check for valid registration? In all my years of flying, other than checkrides (and many times they just asked if I had checked), was one time I was ramp checked in my friends T-34 at an airshow.

But someone flies in, says they will be back in X time and doesn't, I wonder if they had an accident or health issue.
 
Chrisgoesflying said:
When I sold it, I unregistered it, which is something we can do here in Canada to avoid being held liable for things after a new owner takes possession,
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We can do that here too. Actually it's a requirement. The "non-transferable" registration is cancelled upon the transfer to a new owner and is to be returned to the FAA within 21 days. The information is on the back and even includes a place to put the new owner's name.
 
Pinecone said:
How often does anyone check for valid registration? In all my years of flying, other than checkrides (and many times they just asked if I had checked), was one time I was ramp checked in my friends T-34 at an airshow.

But someone flies in, says they will be back in X time and doesn't, I wonder if they had an accident or health issue.
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Here it was because of a specific concern, but I've been surprised. I've parked at an FBO with a rented/borrowed airplane and when I returned have been greeted as "Mr [Name of Owner].
 
Hmmm, these stories remind me of the CBP presentation at Oshkosh this year...

"If anyone owns a Cessna 206 and wants to turn it into a pile of cash, no questions asked, just advertise it and wait for the cartels to call."
 
Pinecone said:
How often does anyone check for valid registration?
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Almost every time I cross the border so at least 3-4 times a year.

midlifeflyer said:
We can do that here too. Actually it's a requirement. The "non-transferable" registration is cancelled upon the transfer to a new owner and is to be returned to the FAA within 21 days. The information is on the back and even includes a place to put the new owner's name.
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It used to be paper based but now it is electronically if you signed up for a Transport Canada account. It's pretty much instant now. You report the sale in your account and the plane is no longer associated with you literally within seconds.

Zeldman said:
I just got a spam call from area code 202.

Should I have answered it.??
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Depends, do you think you won the lottery lately or do you owe a pile of cash (payable in gift cards or crypto) to the IRS?
 
texasclouds said:
So, do you plan to re-register it?
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I wouldn't do it even if that opportunity arose. Moved on from that plane a long time ago and honestly, I wouldn't want to expose myself to an angry owner in case he came around claiming ownership down the road. Too much potential hassle for what it's worth.
 
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