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Once again with the FAA...

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PTAirco

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 20, 2003
Messages
4,006
Location
Corona CA
I once tried selling an aircraft I got from the wife of the deceased builder. I should have been prepared for the FAA nonsense I would have to deal with but I was stupid...It ended up a 4 month ordeal. I had a bill of sale from the wife who was the executor of the estate and had a copy of the will, notarized. A copy of the will is not enough for the FAA! I had to fill out and get an "heir at law" form and get that notarized. With the wife living in Sweden... Long story short, it took forever and I got conflicting information from our federal friends until the thing finally resolved itself.

Now about 5 months ago I sent the same kind of information to the FAA wanting to register my Aeronca L3B which is close to flying again after the original owner died, many years ago. Having gone through this before, I had all my ducks in a row with the forms asked for previously, all notarized etc. Of course - no good.... The "Heir at law" form, an affidavit that states that they are the legal executors of the estate is apparently not good enough any more, even though it's what they asked for. Now they want a copy of the "letters of administration or testament" - which states the exact same thing and wasn't acceptable in my previous case. But whereas a notarized statement was good enough then, now it has to be certified as true by an officer of the court. I am sure this is completely against their previously policy but do I have time to lawyer back and forth with them..? No.

Also on the bill of sale they want me to put the name of the deceased as the seller ! Well, duh, I didn't think of that. With the owner being dead etc I didn't think he was in a position to sell anything and I'd be making a false statement on a federal form. I was surprised they didn't want the dead man's signature, but no - the executor has to sign against the dead man's name in the box that clearly says "signature of seller". To me that is a legally false statement but, it's what our federal friends want to see. And no, the entry on my bill of sale that said" trustees of the Living trust of Frank L .. XXXXX isn't good enough either, it has to say Executors of the trust of blablabla...

It's mindless bureaucracy at it's finest. I hate bothering the family yet again about this, it took me long enough to track them down. Now they have to go dig up documents, go down to the townhall or somewhere, fill in mindless forms, stand in line etc.

Maybe I should have just given them a 27B-6.... (points if you get that reference!)

At some point I'm sure I will become one of those FAA outlaws as described in a Richard Bach story...
 
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