"BTIZ" wrote in message
news:Pvmdc.364$Va4.47@fed1read01...
He can check the
aircraft for the required anti-drug exterior data plate.


The reason for the data plate is much the same as the VIN on your car, with
the additional purpose of ensuring that someone just doesn't go building a
Cessna 172 out of spare parts. Drugs has nothing to do with it.

A friend of mine just bought a Beaver in Canada. The plane had a long
history in both the US and Canada, having been owned at various times by
different owners on both sides of the border. Anyway, when he went to
register the plane he found that it was listed as destroyed. The data plate
was an illegal duplicate. There were actually two Beavers flying around with
the same data plate for awhile. My friend wanted to use the Beaver for
charter, but now the FAA says that because of the incomplete records and
questionable past the plane can never be certified as anything but
experimental. Apparently several former owners on both sides of the border
knew all this and just turned a blind eye toward it; now they are all
pointing fingers at each other. Dehavilland is threatening to get into the
act, tracking down and suing whoever built an illegal copy of its plane. It
is a huge mess and everyone is starting to file lawsuits against everybody
else. Nevertheless, there are apparently a lot of Beavers out there that
have the same problem.

Air America ran into some of the same problem. A lot of those Pilatus
Porters came back badly shot up and Air America started cobbling together
whole new planes out of salvaged parts. They eventually went to
manufacturing planes from spare parts, including special modifications that
little resembled the original Porters. They made up new data plates and even
had multiple airplanes flying around with the same tail numbers and
duplicate data plates. Pilatus eventually sued for infringement, and won.
The illegal aircraft were ordered destroyed. It was a factor in Congress'
decision to shut Air America down (one of many, including complaints from
other airlines that the government should not be competing directly with
them, the discovery that some pilots were conducting illegal activities, the
airline's cover had been completely blown, and -- most importantly -- the
CIA's determination that they no longer needed the airline).