More fake tail numbers

JHW

JHW

En-Route
Joined
Feb 16, 2006
Messages
3,320
Location
Peoria, IL
Display Name
Display name:
Jeff Wright
Had a message on my phone this morning that I left on friday without paying for fuel in another state, and they want me to send it in. I think I'll hold off on other details until I figure out what's going on. Attached photo shows the current state of my plane. It's remarkably fuel efficient in its current mode of flight so I don't think it was really me.
 

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You must have gotten fuel, during a low pass then?
 
Now that's a pretty rude thing for the crook to have done. But, well, crooks is crooks.
 
Could be a legitimate transposition of a number, or not.:dunno: I'm trying to figure out how to get fuel without paying for it.;) I always have to give the N number at the desk, or the couple times I used SS, I had to swipe my credit card. Doesn't the lineperson usually record the N number on the ticket? I did get a flightaware alert for an IFR flightplan on my airplane, that made me a bit nervous, since I was playing golf and the plane was not where the flightplan was originating. :dunno:
 
N747JB said:
I did get a flightaware alert for an IFR flightplan on my airplane, that made me a bit nervous, since I was playing golf and the plane was not where the flightplan was originating. :dunno:
Click to expand...

You've just provided me with months of fun. :p
 
EdFred said:
You've just provided me with months of fun. :p
Click to expand...

You're pretty easily amused. And at the moment, thatll just be for the new owner of his old 421.
 
N747JB said:
Doesn't the lineperson usually record the N number on the ticket?
Click to expand...
He does, but he's not filling out the fuel order. The clerk at the counter does not even see your airplane most of the time.

More importantly though, people do fly with fake numbers, even in the era of pervasive digital media. One owner uploaded a video of his airplane with fake tail number himself, and then messaged me "well, I had to put something on that tail..." Admittedly it was a kind of aircraft that I would charitably characterize as ultralight.
 
FlightAware had a flight with my tail number as an Archer (it's a 172) on a day it wasn't flying. No bill, so I'm going to let it ride.
 
I predict with rising landing fees, handling fees, user fees and god forbid, the proposed, upcoming ATC fees , we will see ALOT more fake N numbers being used to try and beat the system and stick someone else with the bill...:(:mad:
 
The guy who painted my Cheetah a few years back told me that his dad, also an airplane painter, once accidentally transposed numbers on one side of a C-421. The airplane flew around for four months with different numbers on each side before somebody finally noticed.
 
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