What do you do when you leave your plane on the ramp?

[Will.iam]

Had my neighbor come out to his mooney after an overnight in AL and found his garmin 430 missing. 4 other airplanes parked on that ramp had their avionics taken too. He had a cover over the cabin but door was unlocked. I thought that strange but he said with only the 430 missing he could fly vfr home. Had he locked the door and tgey had busted a window or damaged the door breaking in he would have been AOG. 
what do you guys do when parking overnight to mitigate vandalism?

he has a wifi battery operated camera he was thinking of setting up in his plane in the future if he parks close enough to an FBO that would have a signal to have some documentation or with a camera blinking might be enough of a deterrent to the thief in the first place.   

[tim417]

It makes me sick just to read that story. I despise thieves. Society views property crimes as minor, bur these are among the lowest forms of life on the planet. I dont have much experience leaving my plane anywhere but its hangar but I would strongly prefer to land at an airport with a semi secure AOA or pay extra at an FBO to hangar it, if that is even an option. 

[tony]

what airport in Alabama?

[A64Pilot]

I don’t think there is anything you can do. I have never had any problem until I moved to Albany Ga., after the second theft I asked the cop if installing lighting would help, his answer is they like that, then they can see what they are stealing.

I believe we are so soft on property crime that thieves don’t care if they are photographed or whatever anymore, they know they won’t likely be caught and even if they are not much will happen.

I learned years ago to not lock a convertible, you’ll still get your radio stolen, just you will get a slit top too.

Locally the new trend is rolling under cars with a saws-all and sawing out the Catalytic convertor, everyday the news shows security video of these thefts, between the hoodies and the covid masks you can’t identify them

Edited April 4, 2022 by A64Pilot

[Hank]

Unfortunately there are crack heads and degenerates everywhere. 

I first heard of overnight catalytic converter theft almost 20 years ago, seems to spike every economic downturn . . . .

If judges don't punish them, it will not improve.

[cbarry]

I’ll typically ask the FBO if they have a single space hangar for overnights.    Then I fret about nose gear damage more than thievery!  To mitigate this concern, I have called ahead to arrange for such and arrived early to hangar the aircraft myself. It’s not a bad idea to have fresh pictures from several vantage points (nose gear truss, panel,)  in case damage or theft occurs. 
 

A locked door just helps deter the half honest thieves,  but I still secure the aircraft.  I  don’t want to learn of  an insurance claim being denied because the aircraft wasn’t secured.  IMO, a thief is a thief whether a door is locked or not.  

[201er]

Pretty soon it will be like the 80s and you’ll just take your 430 with you.

[LANCECASPER]

1 hour ago, 201er said:

Pretty soon it will be like the 80s and you’ll just take your 430 with you.

Sadly he must have still been sporting that hair style in the 90's since the Miata didn't arrive in the U. S. til 1990.

[N9405V]

Airports that has air carrier service tend to have slightly better security. I try and cover my plane or at least put the window shades in place. Other than that, all door locks do is keep an honest man honest. If someone is intent on stealing about the only thing that will stop them is another person there to physically keep them from doing it.


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[steingar]

I try hard to to leave my aircraft anywhere that hasn't a robust security fence.  If I got into a situation where security was lax I'd ask to have it hangared.

[StevenL757]

8 hours ago, Will.iam said:

Had my neighbor come out to his mooney after an overnight in AL and found his garmin 430 missing. 4 other airplanes parked on that ramp had their avionics taken too. He had a cover over the cabin but door was unlocked. I thought that strange but he said with only the 430 missing he could fly vfr home. Had he locked the door and tgey had busted a window or damaged the door breaking in he would have been AOG. 
what do you guys do when parking overnight to mitigate vandalism?

he has a wifi battery operated camera he was thinking of setting up in his plane in the future if he parks close enough to an FBO that would have a signal to have some documentation or with a camera blinking might be enough of a deterrent to the thief in the first place.   

This is indeed sickening to hear...that there are likely "aviation people" involved in this sort of thing.  I hope I'm wrong, because I like think I can trust until I have a reason not to.

Not sure to what degree you're involved in helping your neighbor (and maybe he already thought of these things). but a couple of things could help him going forward would be to get ahold of Garmin ASAP and report the serial and model of your unit.  That way, it has a chance of being flagged if someone tries to engage Garmin at a later date.  Second, they should probably consider Medeco high-security locks.  I'm sure this has been shared on this forum previously, but I purchased two sets for as many airplanes here:

https://aircraftsecurity.com/collections/mooney

To @cbarry's point, this isn't a full deterrent to someone hell-bent on swiping your stuff, but a heck of a lot better than nothing.

To @Will.iam, I can only hope your neighbor is eventually made whole.

[Will.iam]

I’ll ask which airport when i see him next. I have medeco locks and what a pain to get duplicates (i wound up getting a MSC to get another set when the airplane was in annual) but hopefully that shows how good they are. He did report it to the police and filed an insurance claim. There were cameras at the field and the police are looking at them for any footage but he got the impression thief like this is hard to catch. Ironically the insurance “said” they will not raise his rate for the claim since it was under $10k total. I thought that was interesting. He also said he thinks it was a thief in aviation as they knew how to remove the Garmin without damaging the rack or instrument dash. Also said they had an ipad between the seats and they didn’t take that or anything else. Like the bose headsets. Very focused hit. He is looking into now upgrading to a better garmin with some infused personal funds. 

[thinwing]

I agree locking your door will result in more expensive damage.....I thought most of our geamin/avidyne can be password protected once they are unplugged making them unsalable

[A64Pilot]

7 hours ago, LANCECASPER said:

Sadly he must have still been sporting that hair style in the 90's since the Miata didn't arrive in the U. S. til 1990.

Close, we got ours in Summer of 89, it was however a 90 model. First Miata in Tx. Actually number three, the first two were bought by Californian’s and driven home

We were a lot younger then

 

[DXB]

Sickening. I wonder where and how the navigators find value on the black market.  I think having the serial number flagged as stolen with Garmin prevents database updates??|

Edited April 4, 2022 by DXB

[guyjill]

I normally just use a canopy cover anytime I overnight and lock the door... But then again, the factory locks are so crappy, you can most likely open with any common screwdriver...

[201Steve]

The CAP airplane we fly has a ridiculous contraption that jams between yokes and blocks the radio stack. It’s a major pain in the ass to fool with

[carusoam]

Lock the doors, cover on the plane…

And under extreme conditions… put a lock around the prop…

The harder it is to break into… the more damage will be generated…

 

Make it more challenging to rob your plane, than one next to you…

 

Keep everything under cover, so the bad guy can’t tell what you have… without him showing what he is committing to…

 

After that… the insurance has been updated to cover the goods…

 

Park next to the fancy Brand Ci planes… 
 

Best regards,

-a-

[MikeOH]

Very sorry to hear this.

I've been in the lock and cover camp, but I may not have learned my lesson about locking....many years ago (1988) we had a convertible RX-7 and ALWAYS locked it...we woke up one morning to a slit top and missing radio.  The radio was cheap compared to the cost of replacing that top!!

[ArtVandelay]

But that 430 is useless because you can’t update the databases…unless you find a idiot who buys stuff on the internet without verifying it’s not stolen.

[A64Pilot]

10 hours ago, MikeOH said:

Very sorry to hear this.

I've been in the lock and cover camp, but I may not have learned my lesson about locking....many years ago (1988) we had a convertible RX-7 and ALWAYS locked it...we woke up one morning to a slit top and missing radio.  The radio was cheap compared to the cost of replacing that top!!

Don’t feel bad, thieves often don’t even check to see if it’s locked, they slit the top anyway out of habit I guess.

It should however be child’s play to install an alarm in an airplane, don’t know if it would help. Simple switch on the door connected to a hidden switch and a siren.

I believe even a Medeco lock is easily defeated, not the lock, but the aircraft part. I bet jam a screwdriver into it and the with pliers twist the screwdriver.

 

Edited April 5, 2022 by A64Pilot

[hubcap]

We always try to hanger when we travel. Only rarely is it not possible. Hanger is cheap compared to losing your avionics

[A64Pilot]

What do you guys pay for transient hangars?

I only did it once, ground crew had a tug with a way of picking up the wheel and apparently some kind of strap, long story short they must have put this strap over the fuselage as the cracked the paint on the fabric. Since then I don’t hangar because it means they may be moving your airplane

[Austintatious]

Dang that sucks... I wonder if insurance would cover it?  Certainly theft is covered in our policies. 

A car alarm could certainly be installed in an aircraft, that is if the FAA would allow it.  The problem would be the small but constant drain on the batteries.

I suspect that unit will end up on Ebay.  Where else would someone sell it?  TBH, stealing a garmin 430 is akin to stealing an 8track tape player... they are quite long in the tooth!

[RobertGary1]

I believe the old 430's may be popular because they don't have any database lock. So you could buy updates for them. The newer Garmin equipment is encoded only for your serial number unit (which presumably Garmin would refuse to do for a stolen unit)