Mike Williamms biplane builder, wildcat aviation, mike's hangar liar, aviation, scam artist, aircraft, mechanic Hartsville Indiana

Mike Williams offered a Piper Tripacer for sale on Barnstormers.com. The ad stated that it had 5 hours on a completely rebuilt engine and that it had no outstanding airworthyness directives (ADs). I discussed the aricraft with Mike and he told me that it had spent it's entire life hangared just 20 miles from his shop. This made it appear to be an attractive buy and I purchased the aircraft

When I received the aircraft I reviewed the log books and discovered that he had lied about the aircraft being local to him. It had actually spent much of it's life owned by a club in another staate. Then when it came time for the first annual it turns out that he had lied about the engine being rebuilt and the ADs. He had installed a used cylinder on the engine that had a severe score and two cylinders failed a compression test. I had to remove the wings from the airplane to transport it home and then spend a lot of money fixing the engine. That annual cost me between $5000-$10,000 by the time everything was done.

Mike signed off an un-airworthy aircraft as airworthy, putting people at risk. When I asked him about one of the ADs he swore repeatedly (I still have the emails) that it was taken care of when it actually was not. Do not trust this man. I waited a couple years after buying the airplane before filing this report to make sure that I did not write one that he did not deserve. As the saying goes, if his lips are moving he's lying. Let the buyer beware.