
The Learjet repo man - TriinT
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/06/06/lear_jet_repo_man/index.html
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jhaski
As a pilot, I know that many of the airplanes are not locked when they are
sitting on the tarmac. The keys are usually generic, so you can probably use a
key to a similar aircraft to start the engines.

I never really thought about it before, but stealing a jet would probably be
easier than stealing a car (minus, of course, the crazy militia who might kill
you for repossessing the airplane).

~~~
mrduncan
While taking control of the aircraft might be easier, I'd imagine that you'd
be a lot easier to track via radar. That's not to mention that the Air Force
is probably going to assume you're a terrorist and I doubt you're going to
outrun any fighter jets.

Edit: I was referring to outright theft above, not repoing.

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sokoloff
Nonsense. Squawk 1200, and once airborne, you're free to use the radios. The
point about not using the radio on the ground was to ensure that you could
actually get the craft off the ground without the current owners or FBO
knowing what you were up to.

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joshwa
a) that's assuming the a/c you're stealing isn't in class B airspace

b) atc will probably notice when your 1200 blip is doing 250kts and climbing
at 2000'/min.

c) this also assumes you can figure out how to turn off xponder mode S
(transmitting your 24-bit ICAO address) back to mode C or mode A

~~~
sokoloff
The entire article appeared to be presuming that ATC was only concerned with
"safe, orderly and expeditious" flow of air traffic and not with murky
ownership of the aircraft. In my (non-repo man) experience, that is all that
ATC cares about.

ATC won't care about #3 ever. If you're not in class B, ATC won't care about
#2. Jets are allowed to fly VFR, too; they just don't very often. In class B,
you can get your clearance by cell phone, and start using the radios once you
get to the movement area (or at a non-primary class B airport, when taking the
active).

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mrduncan
_Popovich's first rule of firearms is pretty simple: The man who tells you
he's going to shoot you will not shoot you._

Definitely not a job for the faint of heart.

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DanielBMarkham
An interesting point not emphasized in the article: each plane can require a
significant amount of training time to be able to fly safely.

Getting behind the controls of a $10 Million plane that you've never flown
before and having to take it somewhere has got to have a higher pucker factor
than the guys with guns, if you ask me.

~~~
blhack
I used to think the same thing.

My Brother in Law is a _very_ seasoned pilot, so is my dad.

I asked them about this one day. Like "guys, how do you go from flying around
in little Citation 5s to flying around in massive jumbo jets?"

They were confused about my question.

Why?

Because flying isn't flying, it's systems. You learn the GPS, you learn the
autopilot, you learn the radio, and after that, you follow the checklist.

You're just there to press the buttons, the rest of it is planned.

They always joke that, "if you're flying IFR (instrument flight rating,
meaning that every single one of your movements in controlled by the tower),
you have to get clearance from control before you can scratch your balls".

I still don't believe them, but just thought I'd chime in.

~~~
DanielBMarkham
As a couple of counter-stories, an instructor I once had asked another
instructor how long he'd last in a high-performance twin that he hadn't
checked out in.

"About two minutes" was the answer

Another _very_ seasoned instructor I know confided in me that he was concerned
that a private student with a very expensive airplane wanted highly-technical
training and he didn't feel like he was up for it. Now this is coming from a
guy who is in the top ten or twenty instructors worldwide.

I get the gist of what they're saying -- but I think there's a bit of malarky
in there somewhere. Airlines pay big bucks to get pilots current on gear just
a little different than what they've already flown. There's good reasons for
this.

Flying your seventh type of airplane is sorta the same, but it's nowhere near
like using your seventh version of a word processor.

~~~
ajross
The distinction there is an issue of risk analysis. Airlines pay big bucks
because every minor goof is a potential disaster. There are huge stakes, both
personal and financial resting on every decision in the cockpit. As a result,
a "culture of safety" exists in pretty much all of aviation. This is a good
thing. A community of pilots trained to cross all their t's and dot all their
i's as a matter of instinct is better for everyone.

But that doesn't mean that taking off solo in a plane you know only from
manuals is _always_ going to result in an accident, either. Even DUI drivers
"usually" get where they're going without incident.

Reading the article (yeah, with a little salt applied), this is a guy who
faces down armed resistance. So the appropriate question of risk isn't "is an
accident possible?", it's "Is an accident more likely than the other risks
assumed?". There, I think he's on much firmer ground.

~~~
DanielBMarkham
He may also be bringing in crews that have checked-out in the equipment. The
article kind of implies that as part of one of the stories.

Risk analysis covers a lot of ground. John Denver lost his life because of a
fuel valve that was in an awkward spot. People have flown perfectly good jet
airplanes into the sides of mountains on bright, sunny, clear days while
screwing around with the flight computer. More people than you can shake a
stick at have gotten killed by simply running out of gas.

Not a lot of guys want to go to jail over an airplane, but people dent up
airframes every day. Aviation is a great sport, hobby, and profession, but it
is also very unforgiving. If I had to pick one, I'd take the angry guys over
unfamiliar complex systems, especially in hard weather.

You could argue the point either way, but since he's still alive he's
obviously played the odds well. I wonder, however, if all super-repo men are
of the same caliber.

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jtuyen
Someone should make a movie script about this guy!

~~~
derefr
As low-brow (or pop-cultural) as this comment might be, I can't help but make
the analogy: repo men are the modern day ninja. Being a ninja was never about
martial arts; it was about subterfuge, and about protecting the assets of your
lord by any means necessary. In the modern age, the lords are the banks.

~~~
sketerpot
From what I recall, being a ninja was about being sneaky and undignified
enough to succeed. Being a ninja was about dressing up as a gardener so nobody
would suspect that you were about to shiv them with an abnormally pointy
trowel. Being a ninja was about setting off firecrackers as a distraction --
people assume that explosions are important, and ninjas knew this. Being a
ninja was about hiding in an outhouse so you could assassinate some dude from
inside of his toilet (holy shit!). Ninjas were clever bastards, not
necessarily badasses.

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staunch
Getting the plane doesn't seem like the scary part. You know you're safe once
you're flying away. The scary part is knowing that you just made enemies with
someone who owned a $100 million toy. If just one of them is the vengeful type
they might have your entire family killed.

Talking about it publicly seems about the dumbest possible thing to do.

~~~
jrockway
_someone who owned a $100 million toy_

No, someone who missed several payments on a leased $100 million toy. The
ultra rich-and-powerful don't miss the payments.

Also, if the repo man dies shortly after repossessing your property, you are
probably going to be at the top of the list of suspects... so killing the
guy's whole family is probably not a good idea.

~~~
asciilifeform
Anyone who can buy a jet plane, can buy a judge.

~~~
Luc
Like Martin 'Baby Branson' Halstead:
[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/hampshire/4413370...](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/hampshire/4413370.stm)

He's got the mob name already!

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jrockway
It seems like a failure of the legal system that something like this is
necessary. I guess there is no law-enforcement agency that can move fast
enough to prevent a jet from leaving its jurisdiction.

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randallsquared
Since you can get a warrant in mere hours in some cases, and it takes hours
for this guy to even arrive, I don't think that's true.

There is _some_ reason that they can't or won't just ask the police to secure
the plane, though, and my guess is that the reason is more that it's legally
unclear whose plane it is. That is, in some cases, this is legally just theft
that's papered over later.

~~~
TallGuyShort
Repossession occurs when a person hasn't made payments. In other words, a bank
or other institution is actually the organization that legally owns the
property. They authorize a repo agency to recover the property that they
legally own, which means that the repo agency is allowed to do all sorts of
things because for all intents and purposes they are recovering stolen
property.

It is a sticky spot legally, and there are rules they have to follow. But this
man has experience doing high-risk repos that public law enforcement doesn't
have. It's the difference between regular infantry and mercenaries.

~~~
yhnbgty
Depending on the local law the bank might not own it anymore. If the plane
owes landing/storage fees the local law might give the airport a lien on the
plane. If it has been used in a crime it might now belong to the local police.
So legally the repo man might be stealing the plane form the local government.

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blasdel
It reads like a Stephen Glass article -- though it's not clear what the
balance is between sycophant writer and tale-telling subject.

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chrisbolt
_Popovich is a super repo man, one of a handful of specialists who get the
call when a bank wants back its Gulfstream II jet from, say, a small army of
neo-Nazi freaks._

Anyone wonder why the bank is lending money for private jets to neo-Nazis?

~~~
e4m
The banks are not aware of the underlying organizations. Even if they were,
they probably would not care. They only see the lawyer in the suit at the loan
office signing paperwork on behalf of XYZ, LLC.

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tptacek
His firm earns in the "low-to-mid seven figures".

Call me crazy, but I think starting a tech consulting firm might be a happier
way to get at that kind of money than facing down shotgun-wielding militiamen
and flying off in a strange jet.

The numbers in this post kind of don't add up:

* His first repo gig got him $145k.

* Recovering a string of badly-maintained helicopters got him a "tidy six figures".

* A good year is 10 planes.

* He employs 65 "super repos" --- if these people, who actually fly dangerous aircraft out of dangerous situations --- take a desk worker's salary and have so much as high-deductable health insurance, the company's payroll overhead alone is high 7 figures.

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blhack
>He employs 65 "super repos"

I doubt that he employs 65 full time pilots. It sounds like more him, his
wife, and his two sons.

The other people are probably just brutes that he calls up every once in a
while for doing large things like taking a fleet of helicopters.

Also, I suspect that that "tidy six figures" is a net after he has paid his
employees. (I'm going to assume that they get paid per job, not per year).

~~~
tptacek
They used the word "fee" in the article. That isn't ambiguous. A six-figure
fee is a gross amount.

I'm leaning towards calling shenanigans on this.

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keltecp11
I want the the movie rights.

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boundlessdreamz
It is a nice read but not appropriate HN at all.

~~~
ramchip
Sneaking around, bypassing security, fixing airplanes and flying them in nasty
conditions?

I'd call it hacking.

~~~
blhack
/me checks notes...

I'll allow it.

