In May 0f Rick Stitt convinced me, by phone, that he had seven (7) flying turbine powered Mini-500 prototypes with "thousands" of hours on them. He said he'd have my ship picked up and taken to his factory in Missouri as soon as I sent a check for the conversion for twenty thousand dollars ($20,000.00), which I did. He said the ship would be ready for flight testing when I arrived to pick it up on June 28.
When I arrived in Missouri, Rick Stitt convinced me to give him two more thousand for expenses. Then he showed me my aircraft. It was in a pile of parts mixed with those from other aircraft. Nothing was assembled, in fact, my aircraft was detroyed. Rather than kill him, I decided to get as much of my stuff together as possible and leave. The turbine engine did not run, the drive system was a poor copy of a real one designed by Stitt's former employer. I even saw the "RINKE AEROSPACE" designations on Rick's blueprints, which he later altered.
The story gets much more detailed, but every single part of it only reveals more of the disgusting nature of Rick Stitt. I caught him in so many lies that I feel foolish for not doing the world a big favor. I even came to realize that he was selling off other customers aircraft parts. I personally witnessed other confrontations with Rick Stitt from other customers, from parts suppliers, and even his landlord. Rick Stitt is at least non-discriminatory; he manipulates and screws everybody. He had talked a really nice guy named Bob Robertson to leave his good job as a transmission specialist that was providing his wife and two wheel-chair bound sons with good medical benefits. Bob was told he'd become the chief mechanic for the firm, and would get all the benefits that he was leaving behind. Bob worked there for over two months and never even got a single dime. Now THAT'S cold.
Rick Stitt, aka Stitt Industries, owes me, by notarized documents, twenty five thousand dollars ($25,000.00), but has never attempted to repay a dime.
Once, when at my home in California, Rick tried to steal helicopter parts from me and leave town. I looked eveywhere for him, but returned home to tell my wife about it. She took off in her truck and saw a round ball of red shirt hiding in the bushes next to the freeway onramp. She skidded up to him, pulled him out of the bushes, retrieved my parts, and then left him with the two guys that had stopped to see if she needed help. She didn't. Sharon is 130 pounds, while Rick is about 350 pounds. We haven't seen Rick or our money since.
I tried my best to reengineer the faulty parts the Stitt supplied, but after six months of 18 hour seven day weeks, I could not. At best, after much modification, I was able to fly for about 15 minutes.
Fortunately, the man that originally designed the mini-500 turbine conversion, Joe Rinke, came to my rescue. My dream was finally realized, but only because of the generous efforts of Joe. Joe spent his own money and time to install a turbine conversion into my bird. It takes a special person to do such a grand thing for someone. Stitt had stolen my dream money, and hence, my dream. Joe gave it back to me just to see me smile.
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