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The Purchase Story: At times you wish that 40842 recorded all its adventures for the new
owner to listen to. Instead, we carefully reviewed its logs, contracted a
pre-purchase inspection and after what seemed like months of negotiating,
settled on a date to complete the transaction with 40842's Austrian owner. My wife and I flew commercial to Ft. Lauderdale Florida for a bit of a
vacation and to complete the transaction. While driving to
La Belle
Municipal Airport the beauty of the
Everglades
was all around us. We arrived at the airfield to meet the owner and look over
40842. Did I mention that I have a wonderful and supporting wife and let me
assure you that none of this would be possible without her help and guidance. The plane behaved OK during my test flight. My usual regiment of leaning
while taxing and leaning once in cruise upset the owner who never leaned. My
eyebrow did go up a bit, but OK. I also decided to do a power off landing
which made the owner a bit shaken up. The plane behaved fine and landing was
smooth. We decided to go ahead and finalize the transfer at a small local
bank branch that could notarize the transaction and issue an official check. I was starting to worry a bit about how late it was getting, but figured
that we could get everything done in the next hour and I would have plenty of
daytime to fly to
North
Perry Airport, Hollywood Florida. How wrong I was. We met the owner and his South African wife at the bank and noticed that
there was some tension between the two. As the bank manager was drawing up
the check, the wife loudly proclaimed that they wanted cash instead. You read
in the Bible, how a glance back at destruction turned one to a salt statue?
Well the three statues, bank manager, my wife and I, looked at each other and
finally the manager broke the long silence with "excuse me?". I noticed that my wife was restraining herself from laughing out loud
(LOL) and I just chalked this up to a continuation of this crazy process that
begun months ago. The wife and obvious top dog in this relationship stated
clearly that they wanted cash or the sale would not proceed. The manager went
to check their holdings and came back with the news that they did not have
that much in cash on hand and that we would have to go to a larger branch in
Fort Myers. When comparing new and used plane prices, this was not an
expensive purchase, but getting the couple to agree to a partial cash and
bank check transaction was a no go. The manager, being a wonderful
administrator, informed the central branch of our predicament and provide
driving directions. Since daytime was running out, I tried to keep the mood
easy and relaxed, especially with my wife getting angry and in no mood to
dick around with these people. Did I mention what a wonderful wife I have? We made it to the Fort Myers branch just prior to closing time. Finalized
the transaction and we became the new owners of 40842. The old owners went
off with their bundle of money. Now for the fun part and also, DON'T DO THIS.
As darkness approached, I rechecked the plane and my wife gave me one of
those I hope to see you again hugs and kisses. I carefully prepared to fly
over the everglades at night while my wife drove back to our hotel at Ft.
Lauderdale. I packed in all my items, got all the flashlights and night flying tools
set up and started up the plane. I did a number of circles around La Belle at
different settings and with the plane working fine, set course for Hollywood,
Florida that is. In my mind, there was this reoccurring cartoon image of a
helpless idiot falling into the open jaws of a large alligator. It's funny
how every noise becomes amplified when you are alone over a large swamp at
night. While focusing on tasks at hand, a corner of the pilot mind kept
running scenarios of; is it easier to ditch in the ocean or swamp and the
ocean kept winning. The saint of all pilots must have been in a good mood and
I made it to North Perry from which the rest of the journey to RDU would
begin, after a bit of sleep. Once we had our breakfast and lots of fun conversation, my wife drove me
back to Perry. I checked the plane, added gas and set out for
Sanford KTTA,
the temporary home of 40842. The Garmin GPS was programmed with stops and I
was in a good mood as all new owners are. I enjoy flying and its my only
hobby and this was great, until the cloud ceiling kept getting lower and
lower as I approached the Jacksonville area. If there is one major item that
I remember from my flight training with the
Wings of
Carolina club, "Never be in a Hurry" came into
to play as I diverted to
St
Augustine Airport to wait out the weather which was getting
worse by the minute.
The Old
City is worth visiting and I decided to overnight. The FBO
was great in arranging transportation and favorable rates at a nearby hotel.
The morning review of weather showed a large band of clouds across the top of
Florida, but clearing in Georgia. I requested for VFR on top and had a very
smooth flight into
Marlboro
County Jetport - H.E. Avent Field Bennettsville, South
Carolina. After filling up and a nice stretch I flew direct to Sanford where
the next phase of 40842's refurbishment journey would begin. |
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