Walked through the boneyard in Mojave and saw 40+ planes with parts I'd kill for just rotting in the sun
I was out in Mojave last month for a road trip and stopped at the aircraft boneyard, and I couldn't believe how many airframes were just sitting there with serviceable components still bolted on. The whole place looked like a mechanics dream and nightmare at the same time, all those engines and avionics exposed to desert dust and UV with nobody touching them. What's the deal with these storage yards, are those parts actually being tracked and sold or is it just a graveyard where good hardware goes to die?
Went through a similar yard in Tucson and had the same thought, like man I can't afford a plane but I could probably afford a used pitot tube if they'd let me raid the place. From what I've read, outfits like AMARG do keep inventory on a lot of those airframes and pull parts as needed, it's not just stuff sitting there forgotten. Some of it does rot anyway though, especially older birds that nobody flies anymore so there's no demand. Kinda funny that I know more about plane part storage than I do about my own car maintenance.