Curious situation a friend is in

[rwreagan]

Well if I ask anymore question I may have to become a supporting member... but here it goes.

So an older friend of mine is a private pilot, he lives on the side of a private airfield, basically a grass airstrip surrounded by about 20 houses with hangers, the community was built for private general aviation pilots but now a days there is only about three or four pilots living in that community, everyone else are just normal people... or so you'd believe.

Well for the last year or so I've been doing various jobs for this pilot, we'll call him "Charlie" well for the last 16 months Charlie has been noticing many different aircraft landing at this strip. He's been keeping a detailed log of them, now Aircraft have "tail numbers" starting with "N" these are like license plate numbers on a car, unlike a car the registration is public domain, using a website called "landings.com" one can search the "N-number" on the aircraft and learn the owner of record. Charlie has showed me his log of these flights. a handful of them are registered to local people who he knows to be friends of local residents, but the vast majority of them are registered under various Business names, all the businesses are LLCs with no websites or reviews under a google search, most of them are based at the same three addresses in the city of Redmond, Washington, is a residentially zoned neighborhood, infact google street view shows these addresses are all regular two story houses with no business signs in front of them.

None of these aircraft ever stay for long, most land, go to the house of a certain resident on the far corner of the airfield, after staying for a total of one minute without ever shutting off the engine, they take off and are gone.

Now this certain resident, we'll call him "Tom" is an aircraft mechanic, and when Charlie confronted him, he stated these stops were for aircraft maintaince, now Tom has been known to be awarded insurance money to fix aircraft engines after a "light prop strike" (a common insurance scam technique according to charlie) last year an aircraft worked on by tom crashed after he "fixed it" Tom went to crash site and was seen altering the engine before the fire department arrived (this is just to show that Tom is not an honest individual, it's unrelated otherwise)

Anyway Charlie believes that Tom is recieving drugs or chemicals to make them from these flights. Charlie brought it up at the HOA meeting, he was later assaulted by another HOA member, and has been subject to threats by the HOA president. a handful of times while working his yard I have noticed these planes come in. Tom is also saying these flights are part of his mechanic business. (remember they never even shut off their motors and they stay there for only a minute)

keep in mind I have no real connection to this, but he usually hires me to do yard work for him while he's at work, so Ive noticed these planes and have been dutifully adding to his log and searching the N-numbers.

Anyway Charlie is wondering at what point, if any, he has enough evidence to go to the police, understandibly, if drugs are going on he doesn't want to risk reporting something only to have the drug runners find out.

an post script, one of the residents of this field was arrested and convicted of drug possession with intent to distribute and is serving hard time. guess who he always hung out with? tom the "mechanic"

Any thoughts of this? suspicious enough for the sheriff to take seriously?

[Joeyd6]

I am not sure where you friend is compared to where the plane is from. If it is the same state, I would recommend the State Police to start.

If not, I would make a phone call and ask the local FBI or field office to send somebody out to talk or go there. They will.

A common misconception and problem is the community at hand often see things that are are suspicious. While there are some folks that report every tlittle thing, most folks are not like that. Those that don't often say "well I wasn't sure" or "i didn't have any direct evidence." Problem is as a concerned citizen.....you don't need to be sure or have any direct evidence. Pass the info along to those of us who have other "means" and "sources" to investigate further. If something is there, it will be found. If not, that will be determined too. An exoneration is just as important as a conviction.

I never got upset a normal person called in something suspicious and let me investigate it. I have got upset when they waited to call and I lost a ton of infomration or evidnece while they played **** Tracy.

[marinepilot]

Well if I ask anymore question I may have to become a supporting member... but here it goes.

You could become a supporting member anyway, we wouldn't mind!

the community was built for private general aviation pilots but now a days there is only about three or four pilots living in that community, everyone else are just normal people... or so you'd believe.

Are pilots not normal people? Hmmm, don't know quite how to take that news then...

now Aircraft have "tail numbers" starting with "N" these are like license plate numbers on a car, unlike a car the registration is public domain, using a website called "landings.com" one can search the "N-number" on the aircraft and learn the owner of record.

Um, hate to break it to you, but car license plates are also public knowledge and domain.

As for the rest of your post, I agree with Joey. He's probably got quite enough info to take to a law enforcement agency. If not the FBI, then maybe try to contact the DEA with his concerns as this sounds as if it might be more in their realm. I wouldn't worry too much about the rumors that Tom was seen altering something at a crash site unless it was Charlie that actually witnessed it. Then, that might also mean the NTSB should get involved.

marinePILOT

[rwreagan]

Hey Marinepilot, no offense intended, most pilots I know (mostly GA types who fly out Cessnas and Pipers) are certainly their own characters, in a good sort of way. My friend has actually taken me up several times in a Cessna 175, even let me take the yoke we were out of controlled airspace. if only he were a flight instructor I could claim 20 some minutes of stick time

I think Charlie did witness Tom altering the engine at the crash site, no one was actually hurt so the fire department just checked out the pilot and left, the FAA never investigated.



Other then some cuts from those blackberries he was completely unharmed.
But Charlie told me the reason for that cowling being undone was when Tom took it off, he saws he actually saw Tom remove that engine cowling from the plane then fiddle with the motor.

[rwreagan]

I never got upset a normal person called in something suspicious and let me investigate it. I have got upset when they waited to call and I lost a ton of infomration or evidnece while they played **** Tracy.

your forum auto censors *richard* ?

Actually I think that's a better answer then phoning the Sheriff. Both this airstrip and the plane registrations are in the same state, but in different counties. So I think I'll go ahead and reccommend he talk with the Staters about it.