Quickheads

Kirk to Enterprise - Beam me up!

After failing to find a Kirk Enterprises Inc. anywhere near the address I had.  I did a reverse address look up on whitepages.com using the address given on the registration cerificate.  Amazingly, two names popped up, both with the last name Kirk. 

I was able to locate one of them in the general area, and cross referenced that information with switchboard.com.  When I dialed the number, it ended up being the father, of the guy who had once owned the plane, that is now in my garage.  He was on another long distance call but quickly gave me his son's cell phone number so that I could talk to him directly.

I called that number but it went to his voicemail.  I left a message explaining who I was and what I was trying to do.  Earlier this evening I got a call back from the man himself!

I spoke with him for a little while and he confirmed a few details for me, including the fact that he never got an "Bill of Sale" for it.  He also gave me some more information about the history of the plane which I found interesting.

Apparently, Marcus Cooper had flown off all of the test hours required by the FAA inspector.  I confirmed this by checking the registration.  Sure enough there was no expiration date listed.  Instead the expiration date simply said IND for indefinite.  This means that the plane had completed its testing period and was able to fly freely, with no radius limitation.

In addition the previous owner, said that Marcus loved flying the plane and that it had never been "crashed."  Apparently, it had been dismantled because it was damaged in a wind storm at an airport in AZ.  It sat around for quite a while before this owner decided to take it on as a project.  Of course life interviened, like we hear so often about homebuilt kits, and he ended up just giving the shell away for free.

Come to find out, he was the "firefighter from Miami" and the person he gave it to was in fact Mark Gardener.  He seemed a little miffed that I had paid good money for something that he just gave away.  At any rate, he seems like a nice enough guy, and seems like he'd be willing to cooperate with me to help me get the ownership transferred into my name.  He told me to contact the FAA to see what else was required.  I'll do that first thing in the morning.

That shortens the list of owners a bit by removing the possibility of further owners between "Kirk Enterprises" and Mark Gardener.  So now the "chain of ownership" looks something like this:

Me (Dan Yager)
Thomas Caya
Bob Moelhencamp
(Perhaps a few more Owners)
Mark Gardener
Kirk Enterprises Inc., Miami, FL
Marcus F. Cooper III (The Manufacturer)