Preventing Small Aircraft Theft

[dogboy]

Article suggests prop lock may be most effective.

http://www.slate.com/?id=2260000

[simon]

Less than 10 aircraft are stolen annually:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/homesec/RL33194.pdf (Page 11)

Prop locks are bulky. My preference would be a throttle lock. This one is used on the local G1000 182:

http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/pspages/throttlelock.php

[Thrashed]

I suspect avionics theft is much more common.  Fuel theft is probably the most common.

[simon]

Re parts, 65 incidents of theft a year. Also on the same page. Dunno about fuel.

The good thing is that aircraft and parts theft has been steadily decreasing since 1990, especially the latter (Down from 200 incidents).

With the general aviation fleet in the US at 250,000 aircraft, an owner has a 1 in 4,000 chance of having parts stolen and a 1 in 25,000 chance of having their plane stolen.

Now to be fair on the avionics side, we could probably reduce the fleet size by eliminating all the business / charter aircraft (About 50%) and the old planes that don't have anything worth stealing (Probably a good portion of them), but even if the chance was 1 in 500, I'd still feel pretty safe.

I did hear of one incident at out local airport where a couple of years ago a bunch of crooks ran around to all the planes ripping out Garmin GPS's but I can't substantiate it and it sounded like an isolated event.

[a2capt]

A lot of avionics thefts are really two thefts.

Say they've located a King stack they "like", they may look for another aircraft with the same stuff in it.

They get into one, take the radios, get into another and switch them.

Now, they have a set of radios that they can sell - that won't be on the hot sheet anywhere, and the ones that will be- are in someone else's airplane. Who may or may not even notice some presets that are wiped out, or different feeling knobs, or something.

[simon]

The trend towards integrated cockpits might slow them down. Pretty hard to steal an entire panel.

Of course, they could always take an LRU to replace their faulty unit. I wonder if Garmin is tracking serial numbers.

[a2capt]

I'd have to say that the logbooks have serial numbers, most avionics dealers note what they installed where, etc. Thats the thing, you get in your airplane and nothings different, especially if it's a leaseback, "funny" settings on the radios? What settings? Everyone that flies could change stuff. 

Then a few years down the road, you have an issue, the unit gets yanked for servicing and you get that phone call. But you also had one installed ..and have the logs for it. Well, yours is somewhere else, the one you have is reported stolen. Now what?


..if 10 aircraft were stolen in a year, that kid from Seattle area was responsible for 60% of them.

[Flying Pig]

A lot of avionics thefts are really two thefts.

Say they've located a King stack they "like", they may look for another aircraft with the same stuff in it.

They get into one, take the radios, get into another and switch them.

Now, they have a set of radios that they can sell - that won't be on the hot sheet anywhere, and the ones that will be- are in someone else's airplane. Who may or may not even notice some presets that are wiped out, or different feeling knobs, or something.

Have you actually heard of that happening or is this something you have planned? 

[a2capt]

Dang it! I've gone an attracted the fuzz!! 

Having been exposed to airport operations for a good part of 15 years, dealing with flying club administration, many leasebacks over the course of time, and lots of time spent hanging around the MX shop .. it wasn't an uncommon thing to hear of, if not see first hand. A local airport, when mentioned .. would be followed up with comments like "avionics pick-a-part" or such.. the comments seemed to have largely stopped in recent times though..

[simon]

..if 10 aircraft were stolen in a year, that kid from Seattle area was responsible for 60% of them.

The kid is Colton Harris-Moore, a.k.a. The Barefoot Bandit. Accused of around 50 burglaries, stealing 4 airplanes and credit cards.

Disappointing how the media thinks it is all fun and games and some people talk about him like a folk hero (http://www.coltonharrismoorefanclub.com/). I'd venture to say they would feel differently if it was their home that had been robbed or that they got a call from the police indicating that their hard earned Columbia had been ditched. It would have been better for just about everyone if the Bahamian police made him a martyr.