Mixed up Cirri

Flying_Nun

Flying_Nun

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Flying_Nun
From the Twitters.... https://twitter.com/_lrhughes/status/999709494719471617

Hope it wasn't a POAer.

Lucas Hughes‏ @_lrhughes

This just happened today. A tale of unintentional $800,000 airplane theft. Imagine someone flying your plane that was too dumb to know they were flying your plane. I give you the story of Cirrus Pilot A and Cirrus Pilot B. #AvGeek #Cirrus #Pilot


Cirrus Pilot A flies his plane in on Monday. The plane breaks down and needs maintenance. We put it in the hangar. He leaves it and drives home. Maintenance comes, leaves keys on the dash as they were found before. * 3 days pass *


Cirrus Pilot B flies his [new as well] plane in on Thursday. He’s training. It’s his second flight with his instructor. Parks on the tie-downs...Leaves. His. Keys. on. The. Dash. Gets a ride to go eat.


Cirrus Pilot A comes to get his plane because it’s fixed. I tell him the keys are on the dash (that’s how it was left, right!?!?) without knowing the situation of Cirrus Pilot B. Cirrus Pilot A gets in Cirrus Pilot B’s plane and flies HALFWAY home before realizing his mistake.


Meanwhile, Cirrus Pilot B comes back from eating and pays his service fee. He’s standing in front of me when he hears HIS tail number come over the unicom on final approach… “...that’s my tail number...” * looks toward tiedowns *


“MY PLANE IS GONE!?!? That guy stole my plane!!! Tell him to bring it back!!” Cirrus Pilot A calls final approach again. I get on the unicom, “Cirrus N****, what are your intentions with the airplane?” Cirrus Pilot A: “I picked up the wrong **** airplane!”


Cirrus Pilot B in the background: “Tell him to taxi it up here right NOW!” Cirrus Pilot A taxi’s the plane in, the two guys exchange semi-heated words. Fault was admitted quickly, and tempers didn’t flare. Thank goodness.


Cirrus Pilot A offered to pay for the Hobbs time and any fuel consumed. Numbers were exchanged. Cirrus Pilot A came in to me and said the keys were indeed on the dash, but readily admitted he “picked up” the wrong airplane and just took off.


He thought we had pulled it out of the hangar already, and I said “No sir, we weren’t told to pull it out.” Most pilots do pre-flight in the hangar to escape the heat. This guy just hopped in and went!

Moral of the story folks, don’t leave the keys on the dash of your airplane. This ended extremely well given the circumstances, but could have been tragic. #endofstory #lockyourplanes #hideyoplaneshideyokeys
 
alternate moral: Cirrus Pilot A is an idiot.

edit: actually both are idiots, nobody leaves keys on the dash at a strange FBO but A is the bigger idiot.
 
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Could have been real interesting if the maintenance hadn't been completed....
 
Reminds me of the old story where a helicopter pilot has to relieve himself, so he lands and heads off into the bushes. Second helicopter pilot sees the helicopter on the ground and lands to see if he needs help. Heads off into the bushes to find the first pilot. First pilot comes back and jumps into the wrong copter and heads back to base. I don’t remember where I heard it from.
 
That is hilarious. This story almost needs photos to see how similar the two aircraft were painted, tail number, etc.
 
So they spend all that money,and aren’t familiar with their own airplane. I guess they missed the pre flight.
 
I once saw a guy get in a Ferrari and try to start it, but the key would not work.

So he got out of the car, got into the next Ferrari, put his key in, and this one started.....

I just hate it when people park their identical Ferraris next to each other.
 
....demographics


And they later both sped off in their electric cars cursing as they sipped their extra soy lattes with their pinky fingers sticking out.

Not exactly a problem with the supercub/skywagon/DHC crowds lol
 
Why do relatively cheap planes have keys for the ignition, and everything from a million up does not???
 
That's pretty embarrassing. I do still (very occasionally) use my old tail number despite closing in on 1000 hours in my current airplane but flying off in the wrong plane seems over the top. If nothing else, where you leave headsets and random stuff you have in there (not to mention the tail number sticker in front of you) should provide a hint...

I hope they were identical paint and interior schemes at least!

Shaking my head...
 
Reminds me of something that happened to a good friend's brother.

His fiance was in town for the weekend, but he had to work on Friday, so she dropped him at work and kept his car to run around during the day. Mid-afternoon, she met friends at a fancy bar for drinks. The bar had a valet service and she parked the car with them. Hours later, she leaves the bar (a bit tipsy), gets the grey Accord from the valet, and proceeds to go pick up her husband to be.

She gets confused in the pending darkness and turns down a set of railroad tracks, high centering the car and stranding it. This was in pre-cell phone days, so she walks to a nearby restaurant to call the authorities. Unfortunately, this is a busy set of tracks and a train came through and made a mess of things. Being tipsy (or beyond tipsy), she got arrested.

The beau was puzzled when she never showed up to get him, but managed to get a ride home from a friend. His answering machine was blinking when he got there. The message said "Hi, this is the valet service at ____. We gave you the wrong grey Accord, and need you to come back to swap cars."

About then, the phone rang. It was the fiance. "Honey, I'm in jail for DUI. Also, I stranded your car on the railroad tracks and it got destroyed."

His response "Actually, you didn't destroy *my* car..."

The end of the story was that the RR and the destroyed car's owner sued everyone. The bar, the valet service, the DUI fiance, and the groom to be.

For those of you who live in Atlanta, this happened in downtown Vinings, at the crossing beside New York Pizza Exchange.
 
frfly172 said:
So they spend all that money,and aren’t familiar with their own airplane. I guess they missed the pre flight.
Click to expand...

All those plastic planes look the same.
If the keys are on the glareshield and there's a red handle in the headliner, must be mine...
 
I guess Cirri pilots are a different breed if they just yell at each other for such a banality.
Pay for the gas or whatever and make sure not to leave keys for others to fly your airplane next time.
Or just be happy there are other pilots out there, talk to them, fly with them, make a new friend.
Aviation is a small world, no need to make enemies that quickly.
Again, not sure about Cirri pilots, Br-Y-an would know better. Maybe they all drink 100LL from a Gats jar? :D
 
Mom had a '76 Ford Granada...4 door, white with blue interior. I took it on some errands one day and parked at the mall. Came out an hour or so later and hoped in and took off....or so I thought.... Was a couple of blocks away when I realized it wasn't Mom's.... Got back to the mall and sure enough her's was still there and some people were standing around looking in the trunk and back seat. Was pretty funny when I stopped and got out of the one I was driving....4 door, white with a blue interior. We all got a great laugh about it, as somehow we had managed to park two absolutely identical Granadas within 30 feet of each other, and both cars had the same key sets for the doors and ignitions.
 
kyleb said:
For those of you who live in Atlanta, this happened in downtown Vinings, at the crossing beside New York Pizza Exchange.
Click to expand...

Dave Theisen said:
I used to live right there.
Click to expand...

I live there now, and for the past 19+ years. I walk and run over those tracks regularly. She turned onto them? :eek: o_O She had to be more than "a little" tipsy. That would be the only way to get stuck there.
 
DaleB said:
Wow, for a minute there I thought that would head off in a WHOLE different direction.
:smilewinkgrin:
Click to expand...

Haha. Yeah I’ve heard that type of story too!

Including one person who 100% seriously used it as an excuse for cheating, and his girlfriend somehow bought it (or pretended to) and took him back.
 
Instead of flying the pattern and landing, it would have been faster for pilot A it fly plane B over owner B and pull the handle, no?
 
Pilot B should’ve gotten in Pilot A’s plane and taxied past, waving, as pilot A taxied back in...
 
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