Cautionary tale. Good choices. No telling where that was going

Good video, and great lesson to share. My general philosphy these days, in all things, is never to do anything with people who haven't got their S-H-one-T together. Jobs, activities, trips, whatever it may be, if people are late or vague or disorganised, if I see other red flags, I seriously evaluate bailing out. One red flag is OK, random events can always mess things up, but as soon they start accumulating then you're running out of options and I'm kind of done putting up with avoidable drama. I heard a saying a while ago that the most important piece of safety equipment you can carry is a good credit card. If you can afford to sit in a hotel rather than risk the weather, or call an Uber rather than succumb to get-there-itis, then you'll live to fly another day. It's all about having something to fall back on - time, fuel, money, an alternate, etc - and these kind of people tend to be running on the edge of disaster. All it takes is one more screw-up or unanticipated event and they're stuck. Case in point: your fellah found himself stranded at an airfield with an unserviceable aircraft he wasn't qualified to fly, and no way home, because he hadn't got his sh1t together.

That’s a great story, thank you so much for sharing! Definitely a lot of lessons here, that guy was sketchy af.

What a nightmare, but it makes a great story. Super glad you broke the accident chain after the mag check!

What I don't get is... Let's Assume that this is the student pilots first AC how he ends up owing so much money for a hanger ??? Great story glad it was you and not me haha

I was uncomfortable just listening about those guys, great video! Keep up the awesome work!

My man ! You have a talent to storytelling, you could talk about anything and it will keep my attention, which is really hard . Great work Sr.

Never forget there's crazies everywhere. Glad you made it out of the situation safely! Love the story video format, and would love to see more in the future! Your videos keep getting better and better man!

@AverageAviator

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the support man!

Thanks for sharing, this can keep someone else from getting into a bad situation simply due to being nice and trying to help out.

Thanks for shearing! Sometimes the love to be in the air blinds us to trust shady situations. Good you were able to pick up on all the red flags!

lol this story is great! I can imagine how you were feeling at the different junctions as the story unraveled and became more bizarre by the minute!

Oh boy, what a disaster. At least you can laugh about it now. I really had to laugh when you got to the part about Jerry calling the police to try and stop Phil and ask him to turn around. 😂😂😂

This was a great story, glad you documented it!

Great story! Thanks for sharing!

Totally stumbled across this video and found this very entertaining. Apologize for laughing at your calamity, but what an experience! I will definitely be checking out some of your other videos. Happy flying.

@wkboggs5

6 ай бұрын

As have I. Glad we’ve found him.

Awesome story. Really enjoyed listening to this!

LOL this is great story. These guys just called my company. Sadly, I told him I could not do the work. Poor JERRY

👍☑️Never a dull monent but you learned from it and (the best part) got a great story to share with us. Tks man.

@AverageAviator

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the continued support!

This was absolutely hilarious!

WOW!😂 Lucky you got way from that. Love the videos!

Great video. Subscribed and liked. Apart from flying go-no go I see other go - no-go inflection points. A plan was set out or arranged to meet. The minute he was late I would have called it off. If he doesn't care enough to get there on time, he really doesn't care about the plane.

Hay Travis nice video, you ferried my colt to NH Thanks Again!!!

Wow you just can’t make this stuff up!! Great story and thank you for sharing. You definitely made the right choice by not going and I could only imagine what else could have gone wrong of you did leave. Do you think he really was a student pilot?

@AverageAviator

2 жыл бұрын

Anyone can be a student pilot so I think he was, but I don't think it will ever progress beyond that in my opinion.

I am 61 now but remember in my early 20’s with a new flight instructor certificate and getting in situations that I should have said no. No one hurt, nothing illegal but an older person pushing my limits of better judgement. I am guessing that now way was that plane within annual. If you didn’t realize it, you were attempting doing him a favor at your peril. And your doing your fellow young aviators a big learning experience by posting this.

@embededfabrication4482

Жыл бұрын

Tell that to the Wright brothers, always be looking for a place to land. These guys can't log ferry hours unless they're commercial either, I got burned on it before, didn't know

I love stories like this. Oddly they are very common in our area. I kept thinking yep , typical, ok, yep, i can see that happening. Too bad you didn’t stay longer. Your night was just getting started. I feel like you bailed on a really good time.

Great 'lesson learned' video!

Don't know if you aspire to be a pro pilot but there are often times you must shut the whole thing down when things don't smell right. Good for you!

Always trust your gut feeling. Giving someone the benefit of the doubt when it comes to aviation safety is a ticket to disaster. You were given clues right away, Mental Health facility waypoint, driver who could not figure out where to go even though you gave him easy instructions, given an unusable HEADSET, etc. BTW any practical owner would want to check you out versus asking you out right to shuttle the plane. YOU LUCKED OUT ON THE GROUND RUN, .... thank the Angels above for showing you the last warning sign.

Great presentation sir... Looks like there wasn't enough aggressive observation beforehand... Things that make you go Hmmmm. Stranger Danger and basically willingly hijacked. In for a penny, in for a pound! With ferry flights always do your groundwork homework first. Perfect illustration of when to say no to a flight however driving/flying and surveying/assessing the aircraft then setting up the flight, is the horse in front of the carriage. Inconvenience of willing to find/correct problems, campout/walk/crawl all the way home would have been my go-to before accepting a departure mission when the aircraft proved it wasn't up to the mission either as a PIC or passenger. It always takes time to prepare and verify an aircraft is prepared for flight. Doesn't matter if it's new, used or antique. Other arrangements can always be made to return home safely. A PIC always protects the ship, living souls and cargo first... Despite perceived inconveniences to other participants and so-called owners. Aviating is 99.9% preparation for each and every flight. Since allowed possession is 9/10ths of the law, you took ownership not to participate as a passenger or PIC. The aircraft wasn't prepared at that time for departing. You were prepared to say no for now, till things are corrected. That's a no-brainer... That's why we perform walk around inspections and runups before each and every departure! Sounds like these characters had you setup for fun and games and you passed the test. Since you operated the camera, it was more than candid. Take time to learn the questions and know the correct answers beforehand.

@AverageAviator

2 жыл бұрын

I have learned and have since earned my commercial certificate and am now conducting actual commercial ferry operations. Thankfully this experience has taught me what to look out for!

@willhibbardii2450

2 жыл бұрын

Congratulations and welcome to commercial certification FAA compliance. I think you will find that you can't buy for any amount of labor, trade, gold, silver, bitcoins or federal reserve notes ultimate aviation experience. Aviators are always flying even when they aren't in the aircraft. Uneventful flights are produced by 99% home and groundwork 1% actual airborne experience. Keep in mind that commercial aviation is a team operation. The numbers jive when we account for all the man hours necessary to prepare for each and every flight. Knowing when to say; "No Can Do!" to a request! Is only facilitated by experience. You just communicated your first aviation related "No Can Do!" Successfully for compounding reasons, to a request before you got airborne... There will be others both on the ground and while you're airborne. Experience

Lol - thank you for sharing this story - I would have backed out after picking up some random guy at the “mental health facility” - just found your channel, I’m an aviation enthusiast and flight simmer expecting to get my pilots license some day

wow...... just wow.... haha. good decisions! hope to see ya in a few weeks!

Great story 😮

Great story!

Wow!, just wow

If you going to any more ferry flight I suggest you reach out to Kerry Mccauley or some one similar - great lesson by the way and well done for documenting it and sharing

Great story. You made the right choice. A comedy of errors

Run your own race, hike your own hike, fly your own flight, etc,etc.

Good lesson

OMG…. Great story

G,day Travis from Sydney Australia. It's been awhile since seeing your channel. What a story; Putting aside the lack of logistics, no POH and logs in seat pockets and a plane not airworthy, did you check the tail number on the FAA registration database? 🌏🇦🇺

You made my day🤣🤣🤣

I kept waiting for you to say that Jerry said Phil was hungry, you got knocked out, and woke up in an old house that smelled exceedingly bad.

I’m going to go out on a limb with a few assumptions: 1. Phil does not work at the clinic 2. Jerry isn’t going to see this video because he doesn’t use Al Gore’s interweb 3. Jerry isn’t a current student pilot (you should check on the FAA page) 4. Jerry and Phil are brothers but Phil doesn’t remember. 5. Where’s Phil

I really hate people that goes into activities and haven't the funds to do so. If you can't maintain your aircraft properly don't own one. Same goes for boating / sailings etc. These kind of activities request that you have plenty of cash that you HAVE to be able to spend in order to maintain these things. If you can just afford to buy it and not to maintain it, and by maintaining I mean more than just the bare minimum inevitable inspections, some broken parts that you will have to replace etc. You have to be able to put money aside for the oncoming big expenses that will inevitably happen. And you have to realise an airplane or a boat are "lost investments" by nature, i.e. you will never be able to recover the invested cost at resale value, no way. But you can just be proud to have it and to maintain it as it should.

@embededfabrication4482

Жыл бұрын

Nonsense, everything I own looks like it's a piece of junk, it ain't pretty but it works

But what happened to Jerry and Phil? Did Phil get pulled over, did Jerry make it home? The suspense is killing me!

@AverageAviator

2 жыл бұрын

I honestly have no idea. I don't particularly like that I had to leave Jerry there to his own devices but I think he definitely got himself into it and it wasn't my job to get him out. That airplane could still be sitting there for all I know.

@dougstates

2 жыл бұрын

@@AverageAviator it was such a good story…. It needs a conclusion though! Maybe you should just give him a call. After an hour long drive, you are probably best buds.

Wise decision

You've call it right; an ordeal! very dangerous situation. Unfortunately private aviation if frequently full of this kind of scenario. Rule number one is, is never to do anything with people who haven't got their S-H-one-T together, as Chris Gray said below.

Shoot you don't even know if that was his airplane! Once I saw that headset, I probably would have stopped there. Him giving that headset to you shows his idea of okay and if that's how he takes care of his airplane, I don't wanna fly it for free.

When he gave the story about being hated at another facility I would have outwitted him and just disappeared

7 mins into this story and I am going to miss the start of a World Cup match on TV because I need to find out what happens here...

Reminds me of a classic swiss cheese model

You can't log hours or receive any compensation for a ferry flight unless you are commercial pilot

So many red flags, i really don't understand why you didn't bail after the "mental health institution", because i most certainly would! As someone already said in the comments, I'm done with other people's shit and i would have just said "hey, i'm sorry but this is not going to happen" and just walk away, and probably call the cops on this guy. And probably the FAA as well.

You could have taken the car keys and brought them back to Phil.

I’ll extend much more leeway to a person standing on solid ground. Not a bit otherwise.

if you was to do anther ferry move... i would ask to see all the paper work.... and look at the Vehicle first before agreeing to any thing...

@AverageAviator

2 жыл бұрын

I have an actual commercial ferry coming up and I have done just that. I learned a lesson!

This whole thing was close to comedic.

Dodged a bullet

LOL

I think I understand. I’m no expert. But this responsible man kept a real airplane from falling on somebody’s head. Now, what keeps a not so responsible man from having a large drone falling on somebody’s head? Does the FAA know about these types of people?

The Biden Harris poster on the visor should have set off tons of alarms.

Dude,... you should have bailed at the first chance ...just sayin :)

Spoilers are not necessary.

What's the rest of the story? What happened with Jerry and Phil? Did you find out what was up with the mag and brakes? Did he relocate the plane? Did it get repoed? Was it in annual? Did Jerry also owe money to that airport and thus the reason for the ferry flight? Did the police find Phil? Did Phil make it back to the asylum? : )

In the end you made good ADM but I want to add if your picking up an unknown person at a mental institution it is ok to judge them until some question are answered to your satisfaction but until then DONT get in a car with them. Your spidey sense was talking to you and you weren’t listening. You seem like a nice guy, learn to be an asshole sometimes it’s necessary.

If you had taken the time to think about PIC requirements and Insurance liabilities…you should have initially said …no thank you,

Perfect video for me I am totally addicted to those kind of videos thumbs up. This content desperately needs Promo'SM.

Get your money first......

THE BIDEN HARRIS SIGN ON THE SUN VISOR SHOULD HAVE BEEN YOUR FIRST SIGN

Sounds strange until you see the Biden Harris sign on the inside roof of the car. That explains a lot.

Wow!!! That Guy was definately crooked and shady as it gets. I'm glad you pulled the plug on this one. It's really sad when you try to give people the benefit of the doubt but then they turn out to be shady dishonest people.

Couldn’t help notice a Biden Harris crumpled up sign🫤🤣