Starman Bros. Auctions

We had one nearby over the weekend so I went. Wentworth and Preferred were
there with big fancy rigs. Wentworth buyers were hauling the booty to the
trailer with a golf cart pulling another cart behind. They were stacking it
high --- horizontals and rudders, flaps and ailerons, landing gear and
struts. Long range tanks and doors and stingers and props and wheel pants
and wingtips and fairings and jackscrews and what have you from Pipers,
Cessnas, Grummans, and Beechcrafts. Steve Starman is a Pavarotti of an
auctioneer. Voice rises and falls sonorously, like an aria. Parts at
bargain prices. They're not making them any more and the buyers knew that.
One of the auctioneers, possibly a Nebraskan, smirked, "More fun than
stealin' but still legal." For example, engine mounts got knocked down for
20 to 30 dollars apiece. Four cherry Baron mounts went for $10 apiece. I
saw all kinds of parts for L-2's. They were being snatched up by a Florida
buyer.

An entire shed 30 feet wide and 200 feet long was full of seats. The
entire fairground was covered with aircraft parts.

The next day two women (one bidding and one boxing) were buying up the
engine parts --- Marvel Schebler carburetors for $100 apiece. While a few
men looked on with a mix of mystification and maybe a little anger. One of
the mean wearing a baseball cap with an aviation maintenance school's name
on it shook his head and exclaimed, "That's too high!" I wanted to buy a
couple of Dukes boost pumps and maybe a couple of cowl flap actuators. The
women scooped up the Dukes pumps --- at $100 a pop. Then the Weldons, then
the Facets. Do you know how much those damn things cost? By the time the
auction had gotten to the mags, it was like a feeding frenzy.

Finally the cigarette smoke and a sore throat were too much for me, so I
left and dodged the snow and Xmas parades for home. I guess I'll have to
work the cowl flaps with elbow grease and buy a boost pump from a race-car
engine supplier.

If I had it to do all over again ... Nawp, ain't a gonna go there.