The worst people in aviation...

[Mtns2Skies]

I just got done dealing with them all... Every last one of the *******s in aviation ended up on my doorstep. This past April a dingus in the hangar behind me left his door open and unattended during a windy evening and it blew out the shared wall onto my plane. The damage could have been a LOT worse but the people I dealt with all were.

The guy behind me, who I'm currently choosing to leave his name and address out of this for I'm not sure what reason exactly, left his hangar unattended in a windstorm, with a motorcycle laying on the plane and did not report it to anyone for 36 hours. The hangar owners insurance then contacted me to inform me that they are sure they are not liable and I'm on my own. So then I had to contact my insurance which also was not particularly helpful. They forced me to get a quote from some shady mechanics on the field who waaay underbid the job to get it when they were NOT going to fix the plane adequately.They also took a month to get the quote. I then had to battle insurance to NOT go with these crap mechanics.

This entire time I'm in a friend's hangar who was very supportive, but at the same time very eager for me to be out of it, which only added to the stress... which quite frankly was at a breaking point.

I finally got insurance settled and the repair approved by my mechanic who came over and re-riveted my elevator back on so I could do the ferry flight over to his shop. Things went relatively smoothly except for his hangar getting flooded which happens seasonally.

I try to do everything I can to keep this girl safe and sound, it takes care of me so I ought to do everything I can to take care of it. So this event completely crushed me... glad to have it behind me now and be flying again, albeit with a darker view of aviation. 98% of the people I dealt with were total pieces of **** and wanted nothing but to see me burn and rot. Lawyers wouldn't talk to me, I felt completely defeated, punished, and like I was at fault for an accident I had nothing to do with. It gave me an unquenchable anger any time I thought about aviation and it quite frankly wasn't healthy. Looking back at it I'm still angry and likely will be for a very long time.

I got my plane back, but it's just not the same vigor and joy I used to have in aviation. It's largely been replaced with fear, guarding and mistrust.

**Note - a significant amount of other stressors and problems were not included in this telling, because it doesn't seem like a good idea for them to all be public**

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[PeterNSteinmetz]

Sorry to hear.

It’s supposed to be fun. If it’s not, either quit, or take a long break, or take a deep breath and realize our plane problems (mine included) are utter BS compared to the rest of the world’s problems.

Exactly this. I was dealing with some unpleasantness with getting a cracked spinner repaired and painted. But I realized, here I am driving in a fun car to the airport to deal with my plane so I can fly.

Many others are dealing with not having a job or having their business destroyed due to Covid 19. I am definitely in a fortunate situation given everything that is going on in the world.

 

[PeterNSteinmetz]

$12k may be a bit much for small claims court - depends on jurisdiction.

I would definitely sue over that kind of money. If in small claims, you could probably run the case yourself. If you do that, you will also learn a lot about the legal system.

And often, an offer to settle will be forthcoming the day before trial.