Not one to let such a great thread die. Heres an email that I received and am passing it on..... This is a rumor network so Take it as a rumor. If you wish to verify some of it, go to
www.google.com or
www.copernic.com and download their search engine.
This may upset a few but it should be considered consistent with what has happened in the past...
"Southwest Florda Avaition is owned by Jamie R. Hill and Ronald R. Hill is also somehow involved. SWFA brought a bunch of UH-1Bs into the country from Singapore, rebuilt them to some degree, registered them as Restricted category machines. Several of them crashed due to airframe failures due to corrosion. Caused enough problems to generate an FAA action that forbids previously foreign operated aircraft from being registered here in the USA. He also did a Mod wherin he whacked off two feet from an H Model Blade, moved the trim tabs...but it did not work out well,..lots of cracking problems.
That aircraft in question was registered as N37BA (
http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?e...12X21080&key=1 ) and was duly exported to SA and de-registered with the FAA. Question remains how he did that export...it requires US Department of State Approval.
The aircraft was manufactured in 1964.
The Charlotte County Sheriffs Department is supposed to have investigated SWFA for having possession of up to 23 helicopter airframes that had been obtained by the Sheriffs office under the Federal Government Excess Personal Property program. (
http://www.sun-herald.com/NewsArchiv...01/tp2ch19.htm ) (
http://www.sun-herald.com/Newsheadli...=1789&banner=1 )(
http://www.sun-herald.com/NewsArchiv...ry=tp2ch16.htm)
Shady operator at best.... at least one $200,000 lein oustanding in the State of Florida on him and a second lien on what appears to be his wife in the amount of $80,000. both liens filed under the Company name and each of them."
Heres another little tidbit for the smell test on "Business Ethics" (
http://www.njb.uscourts.gov/chambers...erregional.pdf )
So the rest is not necesary..... It explains to me one thing in that the blades used are not as I expected . Also it does not say that the Aircraft in the Cape is one of the above....just implies that based on past practice , chances are good. So much for pretty paint jobs.
I do hope someone from SWFA will post here, using their name of course and tell us all its not true.