REFLECTOR: A long sad story

[Donald Royer]

This is very difficult for me to write this post , because in the past he has been very helpful and I have considered him to be a friend, but I feel that I must tell the Velocity community about recent trouble with Steve Murphree. Those of you that know Steve know that he has a problem and is sometimes irresponsible, but in the past I have always found that, with a little patience, things would eventually get done. However, that seems to have changed, and I find his behavior for the last month to be completely unacceptable.

It all started when I lost my medical and decided to sell my Velocity. Steve knew that I wanted to sell and found a buyer and demonstrated the plane for him. The plane was sold and the understanding between Steve and the buyer was that Steve would deliver the plane, give him transition training in it, and possibly do some modification work on it. There were a couple of minor things that I wanted to fix on the plane before I let it go, and it was agreed that Steve and I would take care of these things the next working day and Steve would deliver the plane the day after that. That was a month ago and airplane has not been delivered and is still in my hangar.

The trouble started the day that we were to get the plane ready to deliver. That morning, I paid him a commission for his help in selling the plane and we went to work on the plane. That afternoon I had an appointment and left for a couple of hours and when I came back I found Steve drinking on the job. That is the first time that he ever did that with me.

Since that time it has been a continuous round of excuses and broken promises  as to why nothing has been done. He has promised at least six times that the plane would go the next day , the last time was five days ago, and every time he would come up some feeble excuse or simply disappear for a few days. Sometimes his excuse was that the weather was bad, but he is an ATP pilot and the plane is IFR equipped and certified, and in any event, there have been any number of VFR days. Recently he has apparently been telling people that it is because the plane in too heavy and the runway is too short. However, he loaded the plane himself, it is at the very least 150 pounds below gross, and the runway is 4800 feet long. He called me yesterday morning at eight thirty in the morning to tell me that he was sick and would not be going today. He sounded either drunk or sick. I don't know which. Incidentally, this is the third time that he has claimed to be sick. I have not heard from him today.

It has been apparent for some time that he has been telling me, the buyer, and even his dad completely different stories as to what is going on. The buyer has been remarkably patient, but he is getting very unhappy and I do not blame him. 

In retrospect, apparently Steve found a girl friend here and has had no intention of leaving until the money ran out. I know how much I paid him and I would have though that it  would gone by now.

Any suggestions as to how the buyer can get his plane ferried from Longmont CO to Plainview TX and get transition training would be appreciated.

Don Royer
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