Did anyone watch Airplane Repo on Discovery last night? COWBOYS springs to mind!!
One of the repo guys manages to find the Cessna 414 (I think) he’s after, however has no radios or GPS, so speaks to the maintenance guy, manages to piss him off in about 10 seconds, who in turn reports him to airport security, who in turn, switch off the runway lights after the guy has lined up (almost pitch black by this time), and takes off (having not been able to find any fuel – and both tanks nearly on empty). To top it all, repo man then pulls out a Tomtom, car type sat nav to find the nearest airport which he thinks is about 30 miles away!! Incredible!
Later on in the programme, another repo guy is chasing a $300k fee for bringing back a Citation. He narrowly misses out on the repo because the owner turns up, nabs the log book out of the repo guys’s car. Repo man then chase after the owner to his home address a few miles away (thinking they’ve out-smarted him) only to find out the owner went in a circle, went back to the airport and took off in the jet! The closing sequence of the programme is the same repo guy still chasing this Citation, he’s now chased this aircraft across 15 states, thinks he’s going to catch the owner as soon as he lands, so has clearly spoken to airport security, who take out 2 or 3 security trucks, lights flashing, repo guy and his side-kick all standing just a few metres off the runway (in full view of the owner who is landing). So, what does the owner do? SImply does a touch and go and buggers off!! Repo guy left scratching his head again!!
I think its on again this evening. Second in the series so far. Its worth watching for pure comedy.
http://www.discoveryuk.com/tv-guide/?type=series&channel_code=DCUK-ENG&series_id=210500
I saw the first one last week, and I’d probably describe them as chancers rather than cowboys. Not sure where the line is drawn between those two though. Last week one of them managed to get into a hanger seeming undistrurbed for hours on end, and even had time to call a local friendly mechanic to give a Citatiion a once over. Maybe it’s just a culture thing in the US with Dog and the Bounty Hunter and co, but I can’t imagine European banks employing these methods to recover moneys owed. Or am I naive and wrong? I thought it was all polite letters, court orders and the bailiffs. Maybe these repo people are just the same as bailiffs – I’m not sure.
Talking of Cowboys, that I would reserve for some of the stars of the ‘Ferry Pilots’ program last year. Then again, maybe that’s just the real world and not every job is as comfortable and legitimate as an office worker.
Easy credit drives the repo business, and easy credit has been driving the US consumer economy for a very long time. Makes for good ‘reality’ TV I guess, but the real reality doubtless involves as little drama to retrieve the goods as possible.
That aside, real cowboys are actually pretty high on the scale in terms of ethics, polite thoughtful behavior and and trustworthiness. I assume the use of the term as a European pejorative derives from watching old movies, coupled with inexperience!
Similar to not understanding that the term ‘spam can’ was invented as a pejorative to describe NEW aircraft, not old ones 
Language is a funny thing.
It is an entertaining series. But let’s face it the people involved haven’t paid for their planes….
