He wasn’t wasting my time after all.

On Saturday, I showed my helicopter to someone who’d flown up from Mesa to see it. He spent 90 minutes looking at it, taking pictures of it, and asking me questions about it. Then he said he wasn’t sure if buying a helicopter with only five years left on the main rotor blades was a good idea. And he left.

I thought he’d just wasted 90 minutes of my day.

But on Monday morning, he called. He made me a low offer, which I turned down. I told him what I’d take and he said okay. So I guess it wasn’t a waste of time after all.

I asked him for a $2,000 earnest deposit and he said he’d take care of it on Wednesday. He was going to Vegas on Tuesday. I worried that he’d gamble away the money he had for the helicopter. We settled on a closing date on or before November 8.

On Wednesday, he called again. He wanted to know what else had to be done for the sale to be finished. I told him I thought the escrow agent had everything he needed. He said, “Then why don’t I just send you all the money? It saves me $20 on wire transfer fees.”

Well, that’s one way of looking at it.

So he sent all the money yesterday and I FedExed my official, signed bill of sale to the escrow agent. Today, Thursday, the money should be transferred to my lender to pay off my loan and to my bank account, where it’ll sit for five to six weeks, waiting for more money to join it. I just hope that other money shows up.

I’ll deliver Three-Niner-Lima to its new owner sometime soon — probably this coming weekend.

I’m sad. I’ll miss Three-Niner-Lima. We had some great times together. But I keep reminding myself that a better ship is on its way. And we’ll be good friends, too.