Yesterday, 08:28 PM
![[Image: arrival.jpg]](https://rotorwayforums.com/flywithorv/www.flywithorv.com/images/For%20web/arrival.jpg)
In 1996 we had a huge medical debt as a result of my wife having a cardiac arrest, ambulance ride to the local hospital, the helicopter air evac to Stanford Medical Center followed by numerous surgeries and two weeks in the hospital at Stanford. As a result we had to come up with a large amount of money by selling off assets including our Rotorway Helicopter. The buyer gave a small deposit and would send us the remainder in a timely manner, so he said and we shook hands on the deal.
When the payments did not arrive we found that the employer information as well as addresses that the buyer provided were fictional. He had taken the helicopter and just disappeared and we were unable to trace where he had taken our helicopter. I am a trusting person and to me a verbal agreement and handshake mean a lot. I am finding out that some people are just not trustworthy.
For the next six years I continued my search for the helicopter with no luck. I knew that the thief wanted to get his helicopter rating so I periodically checked the FAA Airman's registry to see if his name came up and after 6 years it finally did. It gave his location and with the help of some great friends we were able to get his phone #. I called him and he told me that it was just a misunderstanding, he never intended to defraud me. I informed him that since he had taken the helicopter across state lines the federal government would be notified of the circumstances.
Upon hearing that I was going to go forward with prosecution he told me that the helicopter was in a storage facility in Denver, gave me the code to get in and the combination to the pad lock on the storage locker. I immediately hooked my trailer up to my pickup and headed out for Denver with no verification that the helicopter was actually there, but he gave me his word on that.
It was a 17 hour drive and I drove straight through trying to figure out how I was going to get the helicopter onto the auto trailer by myself if it was actually there. Just after sunrise I was about 90 miles east of Denver when I saw a pickup with trailer and another pickup on the trailer parked on the side of the interstate. A man stood on the side of the road waving his hat trying to flag down passing motorists and so I slowed down and parked in front of his truck. He told me that he had broken down the evening before and that it was a dead zone for his cell phone. No one would stop for him. His brother had broken down in the pickup on the trailer so this fellow drove out from Denver with his trailer to rescue his brother.
Climbing that last hill the transmission had gone out of the towing pickup and they were stranded in the middle of nowhere. He said that he had tried to wave down several highway patrol officers but they just went on by. It turns out that I was the only person to pull over for him in over 13 hours. He asked if I could give him a ride into Denver to get his big truck and long trailer, I was happy to help him
During the ride in to Denver on I-70 he asked me what I was doing and I told him about the helicopter and where it was supposed to be. He replied tht that particular storage facility was just around the corner from his home. He told me not to worry about getting it loaded, he would handle that. By then he had cell service so he made some phone calls in Spanish as we approached Denver. He directed me to the storage yard and at the front gate were 10 very husky family members who hopped on the trailer as I attempted to use the code that I had been given, it worked.
I pulled into the yard and located the storage locker and yet again to my surprise, the padlock combination worked. As I slid open the locker door there sat my little Rotorway 152. The main rotor blades were hung on the side wall of the locker and appeared to still be in good shape. The family crew literally picked the helicopter up by the skids and carried it onto the trailer for me. They strapped it down with my straps and supported the tail boom as I directed, they would not let me lift a finger.
Once the helicopter was loaded the my previously stranded new friend told me to follow him. He drove me to a great restaurant, bought me a fantastic breakfast, then led me through town and onto the east bound freeway ramp toward home. He told me that he had prayed for someone to stop on the side of the interstate and I was the one who stopped, "you are my angel". I told him that I am no angle but was happy that I could help him out and that I was so blessed with how they all helped me load the helicopter and head for home.
The photo above was taken when I arrived home with the Exec 152 on the trailer.
