Talking on another topic about my partnership planes years ago that we bought brings up an interesting idea for a new topic/thread. Here we go.....

Our first plane we bought was a 172 from a local area farmer who had taken a couple lessons, knew he like it so he bought a 172 and completed his lessons to solo, and then got busy farmin' and flyin' and never managed to schedule another lesson. He put in a farm strip on his place, built a hangar and moseyed on through the years with an occasional annual here and there, and pretty much never left the Columbia Basin. It sounded like he mostly flew by himself, but sometimes took friends or family with him. He tired of flying after quite a few years and sold the plane to us. It was a 'good deal' since it was out of compliance in many ways. We bought it, annualed it with no major issues and flew it for three or so years.

Then we heard about a local 182 for sale that was pretty much the same deal, but this guy had done everything but the PPL test and he flew it to a lot less local areas for a lot longer time with family aboard. He was 80+ years old and felt it was time to 'hang it up'. This guy was pretty upset to sell his beloved bird, but he listened to his family and better judgment and sold. I felt very sorry for him. Again we paid the asking price since that was what it was for sale for-and it was a good deal. The biggest item on annual was the replacement of a fuel bladder as mentioned on another thread.

For a short time we were the owners of both birds. We put the now legal 172 up for sale at a fair mkt price and flew them on a few flyouts together to Moose Creek and such. We were getting serious pressure to 'sell the 172' from our wives as we had promised, so we found a buyer (in what us fellas thought was a reasonable time) and sold it.

Both of the planes were delivered on purchase to the local airport for us since we were not used to the short farm strips or the airplanes. Both were dry country birds with no corrosion. We had a 'pre-buy-very-lite' done on both planes at the farm strips, and didn't get 'burned' on anything major. Yes, we were pretty lucky! Both times we basically bought 'a pig in a poke' and came out alright.

Neither guy had pilot's license, medical, annual, or ADs complied with. They didn't say, but odds are they used mostly 'tractor' gas with no auto fuel paperwork. They were farmers so they changed the oil.....Added gas and flew.

lc

Many years ago, I was an instructor at Sandpoint, ID. I remember very clearly one day when this guy flew into the airport in his plane. Found out I was an instructor and started chatting me up. Eventually, he asked, "So what's it take to get a pilot's license, anyway?". I went over the requirements and tried to encourage him to get a license. In the end, he jumped in his plane and flew away. Cracked me up and still does to this day. In Idaho, people don't need no stinking federal government to tell them what they can and can't do.

c180pilot wrote: In Idaho, people don't need no stinking federal government to tell them what they can and can't do.

I say who gives a rip, except for...

Safety issues that arrise when someone is not trained in common operational procedures, where you have to rely on the other guy to know what he's doing. Even some instrument-rated pilots can't seem to value pattern manners, so I guess that doesn't help much.

Liability. If he's not certificated, then he's not insured, and if he's not wealthy, then any damage he causes isn't covered.

Other than those things, if he's not operating in the system, and not jeopardizing others' safety, who cares?

My step father was one of those guys and I can tell you he flew a broad path around everything with pavement or airways. Still holds disdain for everything about the "System" and would let everything about annuals go, ran farm fuel and fixed it himself when possible, even to the point of stitching part of a bed sheet over a hole in the fabric after a storm to finish spraying, for which he had no license. Oh, and the license he did not have was the PPL. That old pa-18 has been flown by a rancher out west for many years now and is a good plane.