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Thread: Airplane Reposession Story, Valid?

  1. #1

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    Airplane Reposession Story, Valid?

    I was watching one of the episodes where reposession agents sneak into hangars and make off with airplanes. This one was he was airborne in a Piper Cub, with another tailwheel airplane flying alongside. The tv view switches between showing the pilot and looking forward out the front window as the pilot would see it. They are flying over farm type country in good weather, when the pilot claims he is losing the engine, running out of gas. He finds what looks like a dirt road of even sort of a runway and lands, the prop turns the whole time, cant tell if it is making power. But you can clearly see the fuel indicator which is wire sticking out of the fuel filler cap right in front of the window. If he was out of gas the float on end of the wire would be down and and the wire at the bottom, not the case here it looks like the wire is moslty up, probably half fuel still left. Ive heard this program is staged,not quiet as shown. After both planes land easily on the road or whatever it is they transfer fuel from the larger plane into the Cub and take off. It caught my eye because I own a J3 and have flown looking right at that wire often.

  2. #2

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    The thin pilot with the mustache is named Ken - met and chatted with him a couple times at AirVenture both last and this year. Very amiable sort.

    If memory serves they run a disclaimer during the show that states some events are re-enacted? The out-of-fuel thing was probably one of those "staged' re-enactments?

  3. #3

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    It reminds me a bit of a famous author in Sport Aviaition who wrote about his VFR arrival into Oskosh, just like most members, that is if you dont count the ifr flight plan, the irf clearance and the ifr approach.

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    Quote Originally Posted by CHICAGORANDY View Post
    If memory serves they run a disclaimer during the show that states some events are re-enacted? The out-of-fuel thing was probably one of those "staged' re-enactments?
    Reenactments are fine as long as they're rooted in truthfulness and are "representations" of real events.

    But that's not the case with this show and another GA show about ferrying aircraft and the pilots who do it as these are rooted in bulls**t. They are SCRIPTED. That makes them FICTIONAL DRAMA like most other so-called reality shows. More bad crap happens to these guys and these planes in one half-hour episode than has ever happened to me in 44 years of flying. It's ludicrous and farcical.

    These shows are an embarrassment and a gross insult to GA. The public gets the too easy impression that small airplanes are garbage and their pilots are unskilled, unsafe and incompetent.

  5. #5
    DaleB's Avatar
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    Amen. One of the dumbest collections of outright BS I have ever seen. I watched a couple of episodes just for the supposed aviation content, and I feel dumber for having done so.
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  6. #6
    FlyingRon's Avatar
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    The later version of Airplane Repo was a bunch of bullpoop. Reality TV isn't,

    If you caught the earlier incarnation (there were only four episodes generated), they actually had real repos by an actual company (Sage-Popovich). It was more documentary.

  7. #7

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    Quote Originally Posted by Bill Greenwood View Post
    ...you can clearly see the fuel indicator which is wire sticking out of the fuel filler cap right in front of the window. If he was out of gas the float on end of the wire would be down and and the wire at the bottom...
    Or, as has happened at least once, perhaps the slightly crudded up wire got stuck in the slightly crudded up tube on the gas cap because of the tremendous blast of slipstream pressing it ever so slightly against the tube wall, preventing the float from dropping with the fuel level. I didn't see the episode and most likely never will, but is it just possible the preflight was a little rushed on an aircraft which had been out of service for a bit? That the intrepid aviator didn't dipstick the tank, didn't even open the tank to ensure the float wire was free to move?

    Don't bother to ask how I learned these things whether they are or they aren't written up in any aviation safety database. Your mileage may vary.
    Last edited by Mike M; 09-16-2017 at 04:19 PM.

  8. #8
    Rod Schneider's Avatar
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    They filmed a portion of one episode a couple of years ago at my local airport (KCNI) in North Georgia. They used our hangar and our T-6 for some of the background. The entire episode was a "Re-creation", and even the airports shown on TV were not the actual ones. I got the impression from Mike Kennedy (the Repo Guy for that episode) that the whole crew was extremely aware that there was a lot of "artistic license" in the show. It was kind of fun watching them film, and I was able to chat for a bit with Mike Kennedy, who seems like a nice fellow.
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    I'm sure Mike Kennedy is a "nice fellow" but he's also a PAID ACTOR.

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    Rod Schneider's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Floatsflyer View Post
    I'm sure Mike Kennedy is a "nice fellow" but he's also a PAID ACTOR.
    Paid Actors can be nice people, too....
    Rod Schneider
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